If the F355's styling doesn't steal your heart, I'm sure the engine will. At the heart of the seriously sexy F355 lies a 3.5 litre 40 valve V8 engine producing 286kW@8250 (108 bhp/litre!!!) and 363Nm@6000rpm. As with any Ferrari, the F355 looks as fast as it goes, and boy does it go!! It sprints from 0-100km/h in under 5 seconds and flies past the 400m mark in around 13 seconds, well into supercar territory (not surprising of course). With the knowledge that all 8 cylinders are willing to rev way past 8000rpm, you can rest assured that the F355 makes a sound "no one could ever get sick of" as any motoring journalist will be willing to point out.

It's also not surprising that the F355 is virtually glued to the road whether it's traveling at its 295km/h top speed or just speeding through corners at impossible speeds. Such is the raw appeal of the 355 that the Ferrari factory is working full time to produce enough units to meet demand! And we're talking about a $300,000 supercar here!! No wonder Ferrari is in no hurry to launch the 355 replacement which is rumored to be bigger, lighter and more powerful - with a scintillating 300kW from the same 3.5 litres!!!

Ferrari has also released the F1 inspired paddle-shift gear change system for the F355 and it works just like the SMG system on the M3, except gear changes can be achieved a fraction quicker at 0.15s (150 milliseconds). It also differs from SMG because it uses paddles at the back of the steering wheel to achieve clutchless gear changes (just like driving an F1 car) whereas with BMW's SMG, you use the conventional gear lever. So far, up to 70% of all F355's sold have been equiped with the paddle-shift system. So for the next generation F355, the paddle-shift could become standard and the traditional gated manual an option!!

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1