The 90s icon is celebrating his 30th birthday!

It’s always heartening to think that 90s cars are celebrating their 30th anniversary in that decade. It hasn’t gotten any younger, that’s for sure, but it still allows us to reflect back on the beginnings of certain projects that marked entire generations, in their time. This is the case of the Ferrari F355, a sports car that was one of the icons of the 90s.

There are birthdays that are more memorable than others. 30 years is a milestone! A milestone that the Ferrari F355 reaches, a true and often underappreciated monument to the brand’s history of racing horses. Indeed, it arrived on the market when Maranello was producing a series of exclusive productions. From the 1980s, Ferrari began to build monuments: 288 GTO, F40, Testarossa, F50… The end of the millennium saw the birth of legends, which sometimes partially overshadowed other examples that were nevertheless worthy of interest.

This is especially the case of the F355 Berlinetta, launched in 1994. At that time, the 348 was at the end of its life, the Testarossa had been around for 10 years and was behind for another 2 years, the F40 was still there. Everyone’s mind with the F50 is in the decisions. So the ground is weakened for the F355, even if it must be explained that it does not play in the same category as high-performance high-performance cars. Which did not stop it from selling more than 11,200 copies, against all expectations, including the Berlinetta and Targa versions.

Maranello’s busiest era?

Aesthetically, the F355 Berlinetta takes the recipe of the 348 that it replaces. He takes the same lines, softening them enough. The side lines of the 80s models give way to more open ventilation, while the black strip disappears from the back, for 2 lights on both sides. Finally, you can almost consider the updated F355B Berlinetta 348.

Under the hood, in the middle position of the back, the Italian hides a 3.5 V8 with 380 horses and 360 Nm of torque. It has a 6-speed manual gearbox, responsible for sending power to the rear wheels. An interesting recipe, which also boasts of interesting performances: 0 to 100 km/h is achieved in 4.7 seconds, while the top speed reaches 295 km/h. An F1 automatic transmission was also available, as an option, for the first time in the brand’s history.

In 1995, a year after the launch of the model, Ferrari presented a convertible version of the Spider. A Challenge Edition also followed, using the same block, but with a revised chassis, stripped passenger compartment to save weight and a more aggressive body kit.

In 1999, Ferrari retired the F355 after 5 years of good and faithful service. The brand plans to enter the new millennium with the latest model, in step with the times: 360 ​​Modena. This marks a break in style and a further gain in performance. Today, the F355 Berlinetta costs more or less 130,000 euros, depending on condition, mileage and configuration.