New Ferrari F355! '90s Icon Perfected? | 4K

0:00 This is the 355 by Evoluto, a 420 horsepower Ferrari 355 Restood that's

0:08 been totally restyled and re-engineered to improve everything

0:12 about the car that Clarkson back in 1996 called the nicest car I've ever driven.

0:19 Oh, and it sounds like this.

0:33 More of that in a bit when we're going to be hooning around North Wales.

0:37 But first, you probably noticed that car over there.

0:40 That is an original unfettered Ferrari 355.

0:44 Look at it.

0:45 It's gorgeous, isn't it?

0:46 And the reason it's here is because we're going to be comparing all the details

0:50 between new and old and detailing all

0:52 the changes that they've made to this thing, of which there are a lot.

0:58 Ultimately, we're here to find out whether

1:00 90 supercar perfection can really be improved upon.

1:04 The question is, should you spend £100,000 on a good

1:08 used one of these and then probably the same again making

1:10 it factory fresh or £595,000 plus VAT plus a donor car

1:17 plus options on the Evoluto of which they're only building 55.

1:23 And yes, that adds up to the scary side of £800,000.

1:29 But before we answer that, we need to get those 90s vibes going.

1:34 Actually, hang on a minute.

1:39 Not bad.

1:40 Not bad, but needs needs a little bit more um smoke.

1:47 Perfect.

1:48 Um lights.

1:51 Yes, that's excellent.

1:52 Um filter.

1:56 Job done.

2:01 The 355 represents a crucial chapter in the Ferrari story.

2:06 When Luca Deonteo returned to Marinella in 1991,

2:09 he admitted that the cars weren't good enough.

2:12 But it was the F355,

2:14 replacing the unloved 348 that signaled Ferrari was back to its best.

2:19 Pin and Firina's redesign was masterful,

2:22 softening the 1980s edgginess and reintroducing curves.

2:26 Although this one has the open gate manual gearbox,

2:29 the 355 was the first production car to feature a paddle shift gearbox,

2:35 but it wasn't particularly good,

2:36 which is why the manual commands a considerable premium.

2:41 Okay, so let's start with the beating heart of any Ferrari, the engine.

2:46 So over here in the OG corner,

2:48 we have the 3.5 L flat plane crank V8 spinning to 8 12,000 RPM.

2:58 So back in the day, this was a big

3:01 upgrade over the 348 which had about 312 horsepower.

3:05 This 375 horsepower or so Ferrari claimed.

3:10 There are whispers that they left the factory

3:12 with a a few less horses than that.

3:15 Ferrari fudging power figures.

3:18 Who would have thought it?

3:19 But back in the day, this was a proper serious piece of kit.

3:24 Um, the highest specific output per liter

3:27 of any naturally aspirated engine at the time, including the McLaren F1.

3:34 Criticisms, not that musical either until you were over about 5,000 RPM.

3:42 But don't get me wrong, this is a seinal high- revving Ferrari V8 engine

3:47 and one that you can use all the performance.

3:50 You can keep your foot in without necessarily losing your license straight away.

3:56 Let's see what they've done over here.

3:58 A lot of carbon fiber, an incredibly clean and shiny engine bay,

4:03 but still a 3.5 L V8.

4:05 Still revving to 8 12,000 RPM.

4:09 still naturally aspirated, of course,

4:11 but there's been a whole lot of work done internally

4:14 to this engine to make it more responsive and to unlock more power.

4:18 So, 420 horsepower now compared to 375 on the original.

4:23 About 400 new meters of torque compared to 365 to 370 Newton me on the original.

4:31 Internally, you've now got ported cylinder heads.

4:34 You've got bespoke cam shafts.

4:36 We've got equal headers on this bespoke stainless steel exhaust system,

4:42 which I'm very much looking forward to listening to later.

4:45 Around 200 components are new in this engine.

4:49 But if that's not enough,

4:51 you can order your 355 by Evoluto with a 3.7 L engine upgrade.

4:57 So, that one gets 480 horsepower, revs to 9,000 RPM,

5:02 and has 450 Newton meters of torque.

5:05 So, loads more work done to the engine.

5:07 You got higher lift cams,

5:08 you got titanium conrods, you've got a titanium exhaust.

5:14 Um, confusingly, you'll be able to tell who's

5:17 ordered the optional 3.7 by the engine covers.

5:22 They should be red on the 3.7.

5:24 This is a 3.5 and that comes with black engine covers,

5:27 but just to confuse everyone, they've put red engine covers on this one.

5:32 So, the question is, do you need the extra power and the extra torque?

5:36 Do you need the 3.7 liter upgrade?

5:38 Apparently, most customers have gone for it already,

5:41 but um let's go and find out for ourselves.

5:47 Okay, confession time.

5:48 I've been a fan of the 355 for forever,

5:52 but I've never driven one until yesterday when

5:55 Jason Barlow gave me a go in his car.

5:58 And honestly, I loved it.

6:01 I loved the way you had to work the engine.

6:04 I love the no frrills interior, the unique driving position,

6:09 but it did feel a bit older than I thought it would.

6:13 Uh, a proper time warp driving experience back to a time

6:17 when supercars were visceral but quite a bit crudder.

6:24 So, how does this Evoluto compare?

6:25 Well, straight away you can feel the DNA in the seating position.

6:30 You sit low, you sit reclined.

6:32 The pedals down there are offset to the left.

6:35 The steering wheel, it doesn't adjust for reach, only for rake,

6:40 but that's less of an issue here because you

6:42 got this gorgeous thin rim steering wheel that's deep dish.

6:46 So, the rim kind of reaches out to meet you.

6:50 You don't care about that, do you?

6:52 Nah.

6:53 Care about this.

7:05 Oh my word.

7:07 That is simply one of the best sounding the roarest engines I've ever driven.

7:15 It's really interesting.

7:16 There's this slight kind of pause almost like a flat

7:18 spot in the power delivery just before 4,000 RPM, but I don't mind that.

7:23 It's like the engine's taking a breath and then above 4,000 RPM,

7:27 it just unleashes pure savagery all the way to the 8 half,000 RPM red line.

7:34 I know spine tingling is the most horrible cliche,

7:39 but my spine is it is literally tingling.

7:44 What I love here is that when you

7:46 compare it to something like the Ferrari 12cylinder, yes,

7:49 you've got that incredible naturally aspirated V12 and you

7:53 know the top end is going to be spectacular, but by the time you get there,

7:58 you're going so quickly that you've lost

8:00 your license or you've run over a sheet.

8:03 But here, the stakes are so much lower.

8:07 You can work the engine.

8:08 You've got time to rev it out and enjoy it and experience it.

8:12 And when you do, you're not doing triple figure speeds.

8:19 Okay, so the gearbox, we have the same ratios as you got in the original 355.

8:24 They replace first and second gears because

8:26 those are the ones that take an absolute beating.

8:29 And surprise, surprise, it is glorious.

8:33 However, you have to be very deliberate with your shifts.

8:38 You don't flick this around.

8:40 You force it.

8:42 You place it in the slot that you want, fourth to third gear.

8:47 It's not as oily as a manual gearbox you get in something,

8:51 say like the R8 manual, but it is so much fun trying to get everything right.

8:57 You've got to time your clutch inputs, selection of the gear,

9:02 blips of the throttle, and when you get it right, it's just so satisfying.

9:15 When I first saw this gear knob here, I didn't actually like it that much.

9:20 The the ball, the metal ball you get on top of the lever

9:24 in the 355 is just so iconic and just so right.

9:28 And why change it?

9:30 But to be honest, it's really lovely to use.

9:32 And because it's got this loop design,

9:34 there's somewhere to just rest your thumb on the side of it.

9:38 like that.

9:41 Yeah, I might be getting a bit giddy and carried away,

9:44 but this is how I always imagined the 355 would drive,

9:49 how I built it up in my head.

9:52 So, in many ways, this is the supercar I've been dreaming about.

9:56 The noise, the tactility, the size,

10:00 the fact that it has just the right amount of performance.

10:04 Which brings me to the question of whether you need that 3.7 L engine upgrade.

10:10 And the answer is no, you don't need it.

10:13 But um if you're going to be spending such an enormous amount of money,

10:18 an extra 60 horsepower is always nice.

10:24 Okay, so let's look at the styling differences first, shall we?

10:28 And we'll start with the fundamental change here which

10:32 sort of snowballs into everything else that has happened.

10:34 And that is the width.

10:36 So 77 mm wider at the front, 66 mm wider at the rear.

10:41 And they've done it the hard way by moving

10:44 the hard points rather than just adding spacers in there.

10:47 And if you look at the front of that original 355,

10:50 you can see how narrow the front looks and how much space

10:54 there still is in that front wheel arch compared to this one.

10:57 They've essentially squared it off.

11:00 And it's that width that gives this car,

11:02 it looks almost shorter when you're looking at it in profile,

11:06 but that's because it's lower, 25 mm lower than stock,

11:10 but you do get a hydraulic nose lift system, uh, which is handy.

11:15 And because it's wider, the body panels you start,

11:18 you find yourself flicking between the two.

11:20 But I'm assured, none of these body panels,

11:23 it's all carbon fiber, are the same as this car over here.

11:27 It's a proper job.

11:28 They've gone through everything.

11:30 So, let's start at the front and we

11:32 can point out the similarities and the differences.

11:35 Great story down here with the front grill.

11:38 So, this grill, if you look at that one over there,

11:40 is carried straight over from the donor car.

11:43 That is why you will find the Ferrari Cavalino on the front there.

11:47 If it's a carryover part, you can still use the logo.

11:51 There's no badge on the bonnet here as there is over there.

11:54 Um, other places you'll find the prancing horse on the glass,

11:58 the side glass because that's carried over on the uh

12:02 the open gate uh on the manual shifter because

12:05 that's carried over as well and on the engine

12:08 covers which we'll have a look at in a bit.

12:10 But around that grill, you've got this carbon fiber insert.

12:14 You got a carbon fiber splitter along the bottom here.

12:18 Of course, the star of the show,

12:21 the pop-up headlights, albeit with modern LED lights in them.

12:25 Now, and then there are these little embellishments dotted around the car.

12:30 So, an extra intake in the front flank here.

12:34 These louvers behind the pop-up lights.

12:37 You won't find those on the original car over there.

12:40 And if we come down the side, get a look at these wheels.

12:45 Gold wheels.

12:46 Bit controversial.

12:47 I think they look pretty good if I'm honest.

12:50 These are the special ones, the option wheels.

12:52 Forged magnesium.

12:54 4 kg lighter per corner.

12:56 Um, and that's unsprung mass.

12:58 So that is significant weight saving.

13:01 They're 19 in.

13:03 the originals over there at 18 in um Brembo cast iron brakes.

13:10 They are working on a carbon ceramic option for some for some customers as well.

13:15 Tires, they're wider, of course.

13:17 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, so tires that you can get anywhere around the world.

13:24 Um let's come down the side of the car.

13:26 This is all new.

13:27 This is all wider.

13:29 These intakes here, the signature move on the 355 design,

13:34 they're bigger, they're deeper, more air being fed into the engine through here,

13:39 more cooling for the rear brakes through this one.

13:42 And because they needed this to be so much bigger and deeper,

13:46 they had to completely re redesign the door mechanism.

13:50 You'll notice the handle on the original one is under there,

13:53 and you and you pull a lever from under there.

13:55 here.

13:56 They've had to move it up here.

13:57 And it's a a push button to open the door there.

14:02 Right.

14:02 Keep coming around the back.

14:04 Couple more things to show you.

14:06 Some more louvers here behind the rear wheel

14:10 arch that you don't get on the original one.

14:13 The engine cover here.

14:14 It's clear polycarbonate.

14:16 This has been designed specifically for this car.

14:19 So, it doesn't um doesn't go opaque.

14:22 It doesn't go milky like you get with the older materials.

14:27 Of course, the four circular lights,

14:30 but here in this mesh that runs the full width

14:32 of the car and the four exhausts on the stainless steel exhaust system.

14:41 It's a big question whether this looks better than the original car.

14:45 It actually pains me to even think about something looking better than that car.

14:50 For so long, that has been my dream car.

14:53 The perfect small, compact,

14:56 delicate supercar shape, the quintessential '90s supercar.

15:00 So, is this better than that?

15:02 No.

15:03 Because it's not the original.

15:04 And I know there are some haters out there that will be saying,

15:07 "Oh, you're messing with perfection." But do you know what?

15:12 They've done it sympathetically.

15:14 It's wider.

15:15 It's more aggressive.

15:17 It's lower.

15:19 It's more modern.

15:22 I think it looks fantastic.

15:25 Right, let's take a look at the interior where the differences are even starker.

15:29 Welcome to the interior of Jason Barlow's F355,

15:33 which can only be described as period correct.

15:36 And the first thing I'll mention is

15:38 he has the highly desirable carbon shell seats.

15:42 These are worth an absolute fortune, as are the magnesium alloy wheels,

15:46 which he tells me are worth over two grand a corner.

15:50 I mean, he could break this thing into parts and make a tidy profit.

15:54 Um, the other thing we've got in here is that annoying' 900s Ferrari thing

16:00 where the plastics eventually just give up all hope and turn into sticky mush.

16:05 Jason told me not to touch them.

16:06 I didn't listen to him and now I've got black stuff all over my fingers.

16:10 But the fundamentals in here are just so good.

16:14 I'm not a very big person,

16:16 so the manually adjustable seat is as far forward as possible,

16:19 and that is about the right driving position for me.

16:23 You can adjust the wheel up and down, but not towards and away from you.

16:28 Um, the wheel is tilted away in that lovely old-fashioned way.

16:33 You've got this gorgeous open gate manual with this metal wand here.

16:39 I mean, this really is all you need.

16:44 Oh, and of course, a face off tape

16:47 deck complete with highly tasteful tape collection down here.

16:52 It doesn't feel particularly premium in here, but it is very special.

16:58 That badge in front of you, the seating position,

17:01 the general ambiance of this car is just wonderful.

17:05 So have a good look, hold that thought, and we'll head over to the Evoluto.

17:10 Right.

17:10 So inside the Evoluto now, and the first thing is it doesn't smell like the '9s.

17:15 It smells like very expensive leather.

17:18 And Evoluto, where it pains to tell me

17:21 that every single surface is either carbon fiber,

17:25 it's either leather, it's either billet metal,

17:29 or you got plenty of carpets down here and an Alcantara headline.

17:33 So, it looks and smells and feels expensive.

17:38 Everywhere in this interior, they have cut no corners,

17:42 but it is essentially an entirely new interior design

17:45 done by their in-house team led by Wayne Burgess.

17:49 Um, the dials straight in front of me, those are original dials.

17:53 They've just been refurbished with this new carbon fiber binnacle around them.

17:59 There's new air vents.

18:00 They are in the same place, but they're a new design for the air air vents.

18:04 You've got these three circular dials in the middle

18:08 like you get on the original bit here.

18:10 They're sort of floating in midair with your nose lift

18:14 button and your hazards and your window switches down here.

18:18 Now, this whole center console again is

18:20 brand new and the whole thing feels amazing.

18:24 It's beautifully machined out of metal.

18:27 Has that really expensive feel.

18:29 And here's a nice little story.

18:30 You see these switches down here?

18:32 They're engraved with their function and then have

18:35 what appears to be orange paint in them.

18:38 But no, that is luminescent paint.

18:40 And back here, we have four UV lights set into the roof behind us.

18:45 And when that shines, they appear to glow.

18:48 It's a better and more longerlasting solution than

18:50 trying to backlight all these buttons down here.

18:54 We've got two cup holders, which is always nice.

18:56 And this open gate is the original one from the car.

19:00 They've clearly polished it up.

19:01 We've got this stick here with this kind of carbon fiber loop on top.

19:05 It feels slightly higher than the stick that you get in the original,

19:10 but it's in that perfect place just next to your left knee right there.

19:14 And then in front of me, of course, this steering wheel.

19:18 Um, fantastic.

19:20 Really thin on the rim,

19:21 which gives you that little bit of extra feel through it.

19:24 I think there's a bit of an epidemic at the moment with modern

19:27 car manu manufacturers making these fat

19:29 chunky steering wheels which we absolutely hate.

19:33 Oh, in terms of screens and infotainment, well, there isn't any.

19:37 This is supposed to be peak analog this car,

19:41 but you can option a phone holder down

19:44 here which can connect to the car via Bluetooth.

19:47 You do have speakers and you can use your own nav,

19:50 although there isn't a USB socket in here.

19:53 So, make sure you bring along a power bank if you're

19:56 on a long journey and you're going to need your satnav.

19:59 Is it a step on from the original?

20:02 Yes, massively.

20:04 Does it feel like a million bucks?

20:06 Well, does any car feel like a million bucks?

20:09 It does feel expensive.

20:11 It feels like attention to detail and no expense has been spared.

20:16 But the real test with this car,

20:18 the thing that will make this feel like it's worth all those hundreds

20:22 of thousands of pounds that they're charging

20:24 for it is what's happened under the skin.

20:27 How does it drive?

20:29 Does it bring those old school' 90s analog vibes

20:33 and just turn them up to 11 with modern supercar dynamics?

20:39 Let's find out.

20:41 Right, time to detail the chassis changes.

20:44 First of all, the steering, which is still hydraulic,

20:46 but the ratio has been reduced from 3.25 turns lock to lock to two.

20:52 There's an entirely new rear subframe that can unplug and drop down,

20:56 making what was previously major engine out

20:59 maintenance a whole lot quicker and easier.

21:02 Bits of carbon strengthening in the chassis

21:04 and the carbon body up stiffness by 23%.

21:07 And fully re-engineered suspension includes new mounting points,

21:11 upper and lower arms, uprightes, and three-way adjustable dampers.

21:16 And thanks to all that carbon,

21:17 the Evoluto has a dry weight of,250 kg, 100 kg less than the original.

21:25 Okay, back to Wales.

21:28 Okay, let's start with the steering because

21:30 that much quicker ratio makes all the difference here.

21:34 It's two turns lock to lock now.

21:36 pretty much the same as you get in a 296 GTB,

21:39 but it doesn't feel overly light and hyperactive

21:43 like the steering tends to do in modern Ferraris.

21:46 There's just a lovely clarity to the feedback.

21:50 It feels crisp and it feels direct.

21:56 Okay, so you could take this car on track,

21:58 but it is a car that's been designed primarily for the road.

22:01 You could feel that straight away with the way it rides so beautifully.

22:06 It's something I noticed when I drove the original 355 actually,

22:09 just how compliant it was.

22:11 And I was worried they were going to just

22:13 shove stiff springs and dampers in this thing.

22:18 Yeah, it would have been flat and fast around the corners,

22:20 but it would have felt wooden.

22:22 But no, straight away you can feel the structure is so much stiffer.

22:28 Everything feels tighter.

22:30 And when you got that stiffer platform,

22:32 the suspension's got something to work off.

22:35 So, it can be that much more supple.

22:39 And when you got that supple suspension,

22:41 you can get into this beautiful flow down the road.

22:46 So, the car just breathes with all these humps and hollows and cambers.

22:52 And you don't need to be stretching the engine out too much.

22:54 I'm just cruising here in third gear, fourth gear,

23:00 and then when you get your shot and the road straightens up a bit,

23:08 you can absolutely nail it.

23:11 Oh, what a car.

23:17 And there's grip too, but not through big downforce numbers,

23:22 wings and skirts and spoilers.

23:25 Now, this is good old-fashioned mechanical grip,

23:29 properly sorted suspension geometry, which means you can keep those fatter tires

23:36 in contact with the road more of the time.

23:40 So, this isn't a car that's been designed for lap times,

23:44 naugh to 60s, top speed, or big downforce numbers.

23:48 It's all about the interactivity.

23:51 It's about the analog thrills and a little bit of theater.

23:55 It does feel like a very exciting modern supercar,

24:00 albeit seen through a '90s lens.

24:05 It's a car that joins a long list of recent

24:08 blockbuster restood projects like the Chimera Evo 37 and Evo 38,

24:14 the Singer DLS, and the Eccentrica Diablo

24:17 that take the genre to a whole new level.

24:20 These cars are no longer extensions of the tuning community,

24:24 fitting highquality components and hoping for the best.

24:28 They're properly engineered cars conceived

24:30 from the ground up to produce the sharpest

24:33 and most characterful driving experience possible

24:36 while preserving the essence of the original.

24:40 And that's precisely what's happened here.

24:42 Look, I know there are going to be purists

24:45 that are going to hate this car on principle.

24:47 They're going to say it's a bastardization of the 355

24:51 and that it costs a colossal amount of money, which it does.

24:55 But look, I'm the biggest original 355 fan on the planet, and it's won me over.

25:02 It's more fun than hypercars that have four times as much power.

25:06 It sounds pretty much better than anything.

25:09 It's essentially the car that Ferrari probably like to build itself,

25:13 but they can't because they're being forced towards turbos and heavy,

25:17 complicated hybrid systems.

25:20 Look, the poster on my bedroom wall, it's always going to be the original 355.

25:26 But when I close my eyes,

25:28 the car that I'm going to dream about driving, it's this one.