Ferrari 360 (1999 - 2006)
BY ANDY ENRIGHT
The Ferrari 360 had one of the toughest tasks in motoring history. Competing with ever more accomplished supercar rivals was one thing, but replacing the acclaimed F355 series was quite another. Could it live up to the standards of a car that many felt nuzzled close to perfection? The 360 series didnt rely on the almost delicate tactile pleasures of its predecessor, instead opting for a high-tech, high drama approach. A taut thriller with a twist in the tail and an Oscar-winning soundtrack, the 360 series wasnt so much an F355 sequel as a new production from the ground up.
With used examples now beginning to appear, can a low-mileage 360 really be recommended?
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The early promotional videos showed Eddie Irvine casually tossing a bag of golf clubs into one, and Ferrari were at pains to demonstrate the wider opening doors and narrower sills. Driver and passenger airbags and a swooping, soft dash remove a little of the stark, supercar drama of years gone by, but the smell of hot oil and the impatient whine of that glazed-in V8 that permeates the cabin lets you know that the boys in the engine department have adopted the practicality drive with something less than work-to-rule willingness.
Official right hand drive prices for the Ferrari 360 Modena start at around £60,000 for a 1999 T-registered manual cars with a 2000 X-plater reaching £66,000. Although the F1 gearchange retails at around £7,000 extra when new, the relative unpopularity of this system has made manual cars more saleable. An equivalent 2000X Modena F1 will retail at around £69,000, demand for the car as a whole meaning that manual buyers will often opt for a decent F1 car if the colour, condition and specification is right. Modenas and Spiders from 2002 onwards are still commanding a premium over the new list price, despite Ferraris almost paranoid attempts to deter speculators.
Those are just the laws of supply and demand at work
The clutch mechanisms in the F1 models have been known to give up the ghost within 5,000 miles of hard use. If the car is left in full automatic mode, where the transmission changes gear for you, clutch life is reduced significantly if exposed to city driving. Low speed manoeuvring is always slightly jerky in this mode, but if you detect clutch slip, that will require work. Service intervals should be rigidly adhered to so check the history to ensure that work has been carried out punctually.
Every three years, regardless of mileage covered, the 360 will need its cam belt replaced. This is an engine out job and so watch out for cars approaching this big money milestone. The only other notable fault that the 360 suffered from is an occasionally leaky cam cover. Make sure the cover is clean before any test drive and inspect afterwards for signs of oil.
The engine gets covered in grime after a thousand miles or so, your glazed-in masterpiece resembling something thats been in a loft since the seventies, so make sure everything is as clean as a whistle and amenable to inspection. Given that most of the 360s on sale at present will have covered less than 10,000 miles, place emphasis on trying to gauge how hard the cars been used. Look for evidence of scoring of the brake discs and stone chipping and inspect the bodywork carefully. Many of the exterior panels are load bearing, which may assist in the quest for reduced weight, but can also make a minor indiscretion a crushingly expensive experience.
(approx based on a 2000 360 Modena coupe) Ferrari spares arent inexpensive, but nor are they the horrendous expense that many would believe. A pair of front brake pads for the 360 retail at just under £200, with rear pads costing a similar amount. A new clutch assembly is around £340. Expect to pay around £340 for a new alternator whilst a starter motor retails at around £260.
Big figures start to appear if you need a new headlamp (£1170 colour coded) or an exhaust system (£2900 including catalysts but excluding manifolds).
Given that the admittedly delightful F355 was a thorough reworking of the unloved 348, the fact that the 360 was new from the ground up gave cause for optimism. Whereas the F355 was nervous as you approached the limits of its handling, feeling as if it was about to dance on tiptoes backwards off the stage, the 360 feels resolute and planted. The hysterical renting wail of the engine encourages manic progress, tempered only by the notion that destroying a 360 Modena in a moment of misplaced machismo is somehow about as bad as it gets. With 400 prancing horses six inches from your left ear it can be taken as read that the 360s performance box is unquestioningly ticked.
Reaching sixty mph in 4.5 seconds on the way to 186mph are the purely academic benchmarks which those wholl never drive the car may judge it by, but the experience of exploding a 360 through a series of tight curves, fingers flapping at the F1 paddles like a Torinese traffic policeman, the engine barking and screaming, the anti-lock brakes performing a staccato dance under your left foot is what makes the 360 such a memorable drive. Switching the ASR traction control to Sport setting firms up the dampers and allows you a devilish margin of slip and slide before order is restored, the stiffness of the chassis and implacability of the suspension setting occasionally giving a degree of buck and skip over rough surfaces. For typically scabrous British roads, the Sport setting may well remain redundant, best being employed for the times youll treat the 360 to a track outing.
This is really quite straightforward. If you have £100,000 to spend on a sports car and you find the Porsche 911 turbo anaesthetic, the Lamborghini Diablo affected and the Aston Martin DB7 Vantage overstuffed, you know what to do. For the rest of us, its comforting to know that only mere details of cash flow stand between us and the most charismatic sports car in the world.
