This Tuner Ferrari is Nearly $1m - Worth It?| 355 by Evoluto - TheSmokingTire

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:11]Guys, what a treat. What a treat. The question we have before us today is, can you make perfect?

[00:00:27]Because this is the 355 Evoluto.

[00:00:31]And I don't even have to talk. I just have to put it into third and do this.

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[00:01:21]Holy habibis.

[00:01:24]Peak analog indeed.

[00:01:27]What you do is you get a Ferrari 355.

[00:01:32]It can be a just not burned or crashed. You then send it to Evoludo along with $770,000 starting. And what they do is frankly a little bit of everything. They strip the whole chassis bare. They reinforce it with 23 bits of carbon. And they rebuild it with a carbon body, a re-engineered engine with over 200 new components, all new suspension geometry with a 77 mm wider front track and a 66 mm wider rear track. put in big brakes, magnesium wheels, sticky Michelin tires, changed the length of the arms, put titanium hubs and titanium hardware.

[00:02:28]They pulled a new steering rack that's only two turns lock instead of 3.2. I could go on and on, and in fact, I will, but So, how do you, or I should say, can you modernize the Ferrari 355 without getting rid of its beauty or its character? This car is the result of some incredibly thoughtful engineering.

[00:03:07]Some things are left alone, like the feel of the pedals and the clack clack of the gated shifter. Other things are strategically improved in just the most beautiful way. Such as, watch this, the steering ratio. Only two turns lock to lock. So rather than a big shuffle steer there, all I have to do is turn my hands 90° like a modern car.

[00:03:37]Part of the reason I sold my Acura NSX was because of that, the slow 90s steering ratio. Here's the tight technical part of this section here.

[00:03:49]Look, I don't even have to go hand overand in a regular 355. I'd be hand overhand all over the place here. Now, I'm just within 90° either way. A little more than 90 here, but not hand overhand.

[00:04:07]How cool is that? So, the combination of the change steering rack and the change suspension geometry means that one doesn't overwhelm the other. If you did all the suspension without the steering, it would be kind of a mess. And if you did the steering without the suspension, it would be kind of a mess. You know, in a stock 355, the wheels are really tucked under the body.

[00:04:33]Here, the fitment is right, but because it's not just spacers, it's proper geometries, the car rides soft, beautifully for touring, but the handling is still nice and sharp.

[00:05:02]I'm going to check out the turning radius here. Full lock to lock with the 19-in wheel. No rub, decent radius, no problem. Now we go down.

[00:05:23]The steering, the ride. Oh, the bite of the front end. Ha, baby.

[00:05:32]So, like a re an original 355, the gas pedal is heavy, which is a unique specific trait to that car. The 348 and the Lotus is spree, interestingly enough.

[00:05:47]But because this engine has all these new components in it, it's not just freer to rev. It's more powerful. It's now 420 horsepower. It's more serviceable. Evoluto has developed a litany of parts that are more serviceable than the original 355 and in many cases are backwards compatible to the original 355. If those parts are non-performance-enhancing, Evoluto is making them available to the public, which is good. The performance-enhancing stuff they're keeping proprietary, like the lightweight drive shaft, uh the allnew wiring harness setup that they're doing, uh the magnesium wheels, the engine management, things like that. You can only get that by getting the whole car.

[00:06:43]And the bite of the front end, the sharpness of the package is really what's shining here. It's got a good balance like the original car. Still no AB uh excuse me, there is ABS. It's the same as stock. There's no traction control, which is okay with me. Not a ton of torque. Traction control is not something you're really going to be worried about this car.

[00:07:19]Give the Porsche guys a little Ferrari 355 action there. Now, the interior upgraded the seats. They're similar to what modern Ferraris have. and the the inside it actually does ride the line between reminding you that you're in a 355 and being new. So the steering wheel is the most sort of designy modern bit. The center console I think works beautifully. The door panels work beautifully and the whole dashboard works beautifully. So you may not like the the vibe of the steering wheel but I think it really works. It's nice to grip and uh the whole rest of this cabin is a cohesive design.

[00:08:11]The sound is special. Very, very special.

[00:08:16]Like I said, 220 lb, 100 kilos out of the car. And that means this is right around 3,000 lbs. And 420 horsepower revving to 85.

[00:08:29]And 3,000 lbs is glorious. Let's go.

[00:08:35]You can duck the symphony with your foot and it's just a F1 race all day, every day.

[00:08:49]Other cool things they've done, electric air conditioning, which both works better than the stock one and frees horsepower from the engine. These are very good. Oh, things they have not messed with. Gated shifter.

[00:09:05]Fabulous. Fabulous.

[00:09:11]Oh, wow. The sound is extraordinary.

[00:09:14]It's small. It's agile. It's sharp, but it's not harsh.

[00:09:33]Wow, man. To be a billionaire in America in the year 2026, they're only doing 55 coups, folks.

[00:09:47]They have not ruled out spiders or GTS's, but all all they're doing right now is coups. And wow.

[00:09:59]I mean, yeah, it's so expensive. 770 plus a car, but it's incredibly fizzy without being harsh. I could spend a day in here. It doesn't beat me up. It rides beautifully. It's comfortable to be in.

[00:10:17]It's got a trunk. Whoa.

[00:10:22]Check out the next issue of Road and Track where I have a direct comparison with a stock 355. That's going to be awesome. This is incredible. Uh, hit the link in the description for more information. And thank you to Evoluto for letting me have a go in this absolutely extraordinary machine. See you guys next time. Bye.

[00:10:46]And don't forget, always fight your tickets. Go to off thererecord.com/t for 10% off all legal services from Off the Record.