Every now and again, you see a car pop up for sale that seems like a potential deal in the making. Certainly, you can’t base a car’s sale price on where it stands a day before closing, but sometimes, the price is so low that you have to pay attention. This 1999 Ferrari F355 cabriolet is currently sitting at $27,199 here on eBay with less than a day left. And to some extent, you could believe the low bid price due to the fact that it is equipped with the F1 transmission, a Formula 1-style gearbox operated via paddle shifters. Though not nearly as popular as the gated manual shifter cars, an F1 Cabriolet like this one could represent a bit of a bargain.
Over the years, the F1 transmission has been a point of contention among Ferrari enthusiasts. Despite the fact that it is actual racing technology distilled just enough for consumers – and that the shift action is actually quite a bit faster than what most of us could pull off with the conventional manual – the Ferraris with the classic gated manual shifter still command a massive premium over the F1 cars. In general, automatic transmission Ferraris are a ridiculous bargain right now, with the front-engine 456GT a car that keeps me up at night knowing some high-mileage models are selling for safely under $50,000.
Still, the current bid price isn’t likely to hold; after all, even F1-equipped F355s with low miles are reliably selling for $70,000 or better. The bigger question is whether the seller’s claims that he has “….records to go along with it,” which is a big deal when it comes to the final sale price. The F355 is one of those Ferrari models that needs an engine-out servicing on a regular basis to address belts and other service items. The seller doesn’t go into detail but it seems likely anyone talking about records would be inferring at least one belt service. The interior is in good shape overall, but it could stand to be detailed to present a bit fresher in photos.
The color – “Giallo Modena” – is a fancy way of saying Speed Yellow. This is one of the best colors to order a Ferrari in, and there’s no shame in being the second or third caretaker of a car in this paint scheme. The bodywork appears to be sound, with the black soft top in excellent shape overall, clean glass, and blemish-free alloy wheels. As far as the low bid price at the moment, the other contributing factor may be the high number of owners over the years, with 9 caretakers on the Autocheck report – and that always works against collector vehicles. Still, if you can own one of these for less than $50,000, do it!
Lavery … this appears to be a 3 pedal.
Came here to say that.
Clever of ol’ Enzo to disguise those paddle shifters as a stick rising from a gate with a nice silver ball on top, innit?
Wow, the ownership history is a little different, but maybe exotic cars get passed around more than others. A good friend has a 1995 F355 Targa top in yellow and I can hear him a block away when he’s heading over. I haven’t driven it, it’s all I can do to sink and/or slink down into the passenger seat, which feels like I’m sitting on the pavement. He did a full belt service himself in a one-car unheated garage by dropping both gas tanks rather than removing the engine, so it’s possible to work on these things yourself. At $28,199, this one is maybe 1/3 of the reserve so it won’t be selling here.
A 25 year old car with 27K miles on it speaks volumes.
Nope. All Ferrari’s have similar milage. No one actually drives them, except to cars and coffee. If you own a Ferrari, you have another car that’s your “daily.” A 40k mile Ferrari is a high-milage car. (Not being critical … I’ve owned two).
It says in the listing it is a manual, you can see 3 pedals and no paddles. Auction ended today, 62 bids, went to $45,100 and reserve not met. Sellers feedback (0).
Is this an early April Fool’s article? That’s definitely a gated manual.
Now that’s how to present a barn find….clean the chicken poop and straw bales off of it, vacuum it out before you take the pictures. It would have been great to see some ‘before’ pictures too.
So – no seller feedback. Plate shows built in January 1997 so not a 1999. I am guessing this is what kept buyers away? It would look great next to my wife’s yellow SAAB 900 in the garage though.
Seems like an awful lot of time spent describing an automatic when this car is clearly a manual. The price as of now is a steal, but I doubt the seller is going to accept anything close to it. I would buy it in a heartbeat for 27K, even if if it does need service.
Obvious scam. Calling it an F1 when it’s a manual? I normally love these, but the color … sorry, have to go vomit.
Located in: Lowville, New York
Back when this was brand new, I worked for a small company where the owner had one of these in red (of course) with the F1 and also a BMW Z8, both brand new.
I recall that the F1 transmission back then was a huge deal – Formula 1 technology for the road.
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the F1 transmission an automatic, and this car has a manual gearbox? If I’m correct, then relevance does your comment have to this car? Just curious.
oldrodder, if that comment is to me, I am responding to the headline of this article “F1 Cabriolet: 1999 Ferrari F355”
The EBay seller listed it as an F1 when obviously it isn’t.
PRA4SNW: Fair enough. Please know that it was not my intention to be “snarky”, I just found the comment to be curious as there had been numerous comments regarding this particular car, and its transmission. Please accept my apologies if I came across otherwise.
oldrodder: No problem on this end. I can understand the confusion.
What got me about this article, besides the transmission confusion, was that Jeff had mentioned that the F1 transmission is now a big negative on these cars, but from what I recall when our company owner bought a Ferrari with F1 back then, it was a huge deal for a Ferrari owner to have a car with Formula 1 race technology.
$45100……reserve not met as of today Nov 26
I think starting the bid so low hurt the sell. I understand why but to be realistic why not start at say 40k which is still pretty low for this car. It allows the buyers to have a more realistic view of what you’re asking minimum may be. If you can follow my logic.
Bidding ended on Mon, Nov 25 at 10:13 AM.
US $45,100.00
62 bids
Reserve not met