Opinion: why the Ferrari 360 - perhaps a scruffy, well used one - is a guilty pleasure

As you stare at the picture above of a gorgeous mid-engined V8 Ferrari, and then the title of this series - our Guilty Pleasures - you’ll no doubt be thinking, 'Jack you turnip, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. These are supposed to be sheds and s***boxes for which you harbour secret desires, not obviously-attractive Italian supercars'. And you’d be right, but let me define guilty.

You see, for as long as I can remember the Ferrari 355 has been the one. The car that even as the relentless march of technology piled more power and tech into supercars, I’ve lusted after – from a spotty 15-year-old to the Editor of TG, nothing surpassed it for desirability or attainability. I watched, wide-eyed, as prices fell steadily – salivated as they bottomed-out around £45k (still too steep for a junior car journo) then wept as they swept upwards – now cresting £150k for good one with a manual ‘box.

As a result, my eyes have been wondering to the next V8 Ferrari in the depreciation queue. I feel terribly guilty, but I’ve now seen so much praise heaped on the 355, that my love has waned. I’ve got the hots for the one that, for so long, left me cold.

The 360 Modena was the first Ferrari I ever drove. One of those pre-packaged supercar experiences allowed me to sample an Impreza STI, 996 Carerra and a dog-eared 360. I remember being blown away by how low, raw and unfiltered the Ferrari felt, I was knocked sideways by the noise and speed, but not by the curvy body. It always felt characterless next to the sharper and perfectly-scalloped 355.

But times change, used prices rearrange, and now it’s a solid manual 360 you can have for £75k… or a really scrappy one for as low as £50k. The design has grown on me, too - what was once amorphous has now clicked into retro-cool. Hard to believe when you look at my day job, but I struggle with what modern supercars say about you. I adore the engineering, the boundary pushing and the sheer absurdity of it all, but do I want to be the guy pulling up in the flip-paint Revuelto? Probably not. Rocking up in a scruffy 360 though, with too many miles on the clock, a car that’s been driven hard, as intended. That, I can get on board with.

As electrification engulfs the mainstream car market, and supercars become ever more expensive, complicated and ridiculously fast, I sense a movement towards a simplification of the driving experience. Embracing cars that capture driving purity, effortlessly. And what describes that better than wringing out a naturally-aspirated V8, click-clacking your way through the gears and parking it wherever the hell you like.