Ten years ago, we drove a Ferrari F355 more than 5,000 miles across the country, from California to Newfoundland, Canada. In a word, sensational. Despite flaws so expensive and complicated that owners advise everyone to stay away from them, the F355 casts such a lusty spell between service visits that owners' warnings go unheeded. UK company Evoluto Automobili has turned its attention to not only rectifying those flaws, it's given the F355 more modern outerwear with the help of Ian Callum's design consultancy.
Evoluto put major work into the F355's problematic heart, the 3.5-liter five-valve V8; common problems, especially on early cars, were soft valve guides, failing exhaust manifolds, and cracked quill shafts that connect the engine and transmission. Beyond that, due to the car's age today, corrosion in the subframes and at the buttresses are known points to check.
Because customers need to supply a donor car, the full range of known issues might be a problem, so Evoluto has a plan. The donor car gets stripped back to the chassis and cleaned. Additional spot welds and carbon bracing for the subframe are said to make the chassis 23% stiffer.
The engine's torn down, its heads CNC ported, the cylinder inlet ports made slightly larger. A larger inlet camshaft goes in, said to deliver greater stability at high revs — a specialty for a car that redlines at 8,500 rpm. Opposing that shaft are new solid lifters. New equal-length exhaust headers feed into a full titanium exhaust that's promised to provide an "emotional" sound; Evoluto would not want to change the hair-raising howl of the original. The new ECU and wiring lead the symphony with more precise ignition timing, the sum of the parts boosting output from 380 horsepower to 420 horses and vastly improving reliability.
Ferrari mechanics have said there was too much clearance around the stock quill shaft. Evoluto mills a new, stronger unit with proper clearances, cutting down on vibration and power loss.
A new suspension widens the track a bit, although final damper spec is still being decided. Bolted to the end of the links are Brembo slotted discs with six-piston calipers in front, four in back, hidden behind forged 19-inch wheels. The company says it chose Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires instead of the stickier new Pilot 5 rubber to keep the back end playful.
Dressing all this up is a new bundle of all-carbon-fiber body panels penned by Callum emphasizing the F355's natural curves. The front fascia features a larger intake underlined by a prominent carbon splitter, LED pop-up headlights, and LED DRLs and marker lights. Fenders swell out a touch wider thanks to the expanded track, Callum reprofiled the intakes in the doors, added flush handles, and tweaked the side mirror supports. Further back, a trio of vents clear air from the engine bay, just ahead of a mesh grille on the rear fascia sprouting four LED taillights.
The carbon panels help reduce weight from 3,135 pounds to 2,756 pounds in stock spec, before customer options. Amjad Ali, who spent seven years at Gunther Werks before joining Evoluto, said they'll take the F355 up to 3.9 liters and 500 horsepower, but don't want to go higher than that. The point is to maintain the character of the original, keeping it lively and accessible on public roads at legal speeds. "This thing is never going to out-handle a Ferrari 458. It’s not designed to do that," he told Top Gear. "In my past life [at Gunther Werks in California] we were trying to emulate the newer cars and be quicker than them. This is taking you back to basics."
The interior of this demo car goes heavy on the blue Alcantara. Combined with the mood lighting, its hard to get a gauge on just how disco the cockpit is, but, of course, customers will choose their own materials and colors.
We're told Evoluto plans to offer 55 of these at £690,000 ($887,333 U.S.) apiece. With half the allotment already spoken for, the full debut comes during Monterey Car Week next month.
