The Ferrari F355 bridges the gap between old and modern Ferrari; between charming, classic, tiny V8s and the contemporary 200 mph V8 supercars. It was advertised as "Ferrari's £84,000 bargain" on the cover of the July 1994 edition of Performance Car magazine, the forerunner of evo. It is the final hand-built Ferrari, but it also represents the introduction of true contemporary technology.

Despite the fact that the F355 was far from uncommon (more than 11,000 specimens were made), its prices have increased recently and undoubtedly will do so again. Few Ferraris currently elicit as much yearning as an F355 did in 1994.

Every bar-room specialist can tell the history of the F355 and how it came to be. According to folklore, the 348 was a dud. Now, we're not arguing that the early 348 TBs weren't bad, but like most of the history of performance cars, perceived facts are reduced to a brief story that is all too simple to repeat. A late 348 GTB is by no means a terrible car, but in comparison to Honda's flashy NSX, a vehicle that revolutionized the idea of a practical supercar, the early 348 appeared uninspired and even complacent. The 348 was simply too ugly to drive swiftly and wasn't practical enough to utilize.

The F355 was only offered with a six-speed manual transmission and in Berlinetta (coupe) or GTS (targa roof) configuration when it was first at the Geneva auto show in 1994. A complete convertible (the Spider) model didn't come out until the following year. The F1 gearbox, Ferrari's initial effort at a single-clutch automatic transmission and the result of its groundbreaking work in F1 during the 1989 season, was the devil's work/shiny bright future (choose as appropriate) that came in 1997. Any Grand Prix team worth its grid position had a semi-automatic gearbox by the time the F355 debuted.