Introduced in 1999, the 360 Modena revolutionized Ferrari’s road-car lineup. And that lineup needed change, since the late 1980s and early ’90s had seen falling sales of older models (namely the 412, Testarossa, and Mondial) and a poor reception for the 348.
The man behind the revolt was Luca di Montezemolo, who arrived as company president in 1991. The 360 Modena was the first V8 car designed from scratch under his leadership, and while Montezemolo’s demands were conflicting—the new model had to be larger and more refined yet lighter and faster than its predecessor—Ferrari’s engineers and designers proved up to the challenge.
The 360 was different from any Ferrari that came before
it, most notably because it was Maranello’s first car to utilize an all-aluminum chassis (co-developed and built by Alcoa inside the Scaglietti works). This made it both 130 pounds lighter and 64-percent more torsionally rigid than its nine-inch-shorter, one-inch-narrower, steel-framed predecessor, the F355.
The 360’s Pininfarina-penned aluminum bodywork was equally radical. Some 5,400 hours of wind-tunnel testing resulted in a sleek, streamlined shape that produced nearly 400 pounds of downforce at 180 mph without the use of an external wing.
Thanks to its 400-hp 3.6-liter 40-valve V8 engine and six-speed transmission, the 360 sprinted from 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds and topped out at 183 mph. It was also three seconds a lap faster around the Fiorano test track than the F355, as well as more comfortable and significantly more roomy inside. In addition, it was everyday usable, reliable, and much cheaper to service than earlier models.
That was 1999. The following year, Ferrari unveiled a convertible version. The 360 Spider was mechanically identical to the Modena, aside from its fully automatic soft top and some additional chassis bracing, with virtually identical performance numbers.
In 2003, the 360 received a serious performance boost with the introduction of the Challenge Stradale. Inspired by the 360 Challenge race car, the Challenge Stradale featured stiffer suspension, sticky tires, launch control, faster shifting, standard carbon-ceramic brakes, revised bodywork, and so on. With 25 additional horses, 240 fewer pounds, and more downforce, the CS hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and lapped Fiorano 3.5 seconds faster than the Modena.
The newest 360 is now 20 years old, and while it’s been outpaced by its newer relatives, these Ferraris remain enjoyably quick, and nicely reliable, machines. Plus, you can pick up a good example for as little as $75,000.
Marketplace
Thanks to its all-aluminum body and frame, exotic flat-crank 40-valve V8, and fantastic braking, handling, and interior roominess (at least compared to the earlier 348 and F355), the 360 Modena was a true modern supercar—and an instant hit with buyers. Unfortunately for today’s buyer, the recent rising tide of Ferrari prices in general means 360 prices have jumped substantially since we last ran this Buyer’s Guide back in 2020.
Ferrari built roughly 8,800 Modenas and another 7,500 Spiders, and a quick online search will reveal dozens, if not hundreds, for sale on any given day. Today, prices for both coupe and convertible start at around $75,000 (a 50-percent price hike in five years for the coupe) for an F1 transmission-equipped, 20,000- to 30,000-mile example.
While that might sound like a lot of miles, practically speaking it’s not; the 360 is a reliable, well-built exotic. If you must have an ultra-low-mileage example, expect to pay up to $50,000 more than the prices in the accompanying chart.
The other big price differentiator is the now-extinct stick-shift. Five years ago, a gated manual shifter added around $20,000 to a 360’s price tag. Today, that number is closer to $50,000, also on top of the charted prices.
The rarer Challenge Stradale—around 1,275 were produced—has also found a new level of collector appeal, with prices for good cars jumping by about one-third in the last five years. Pristine examples with 5,000 miles or less and lots of options can sell for as much as $350,000, a five-year increase of roughly 75 percent.
While on the topic of options, 360 production mostly coincided with CEO Luca di Montezemolo’s plan to “option up” Ferrari’s production cars, a trend that continues to this day (and has spread to other luxury automakers). As a result, later examples are often equipped with colored brake calipers, Scuderia Ferrari fender shields, Daytona-style seats, modular wheels, carbon-ceramic brakes, a Challenge-style rear grille, and more, which makes them more desirable, as well as more expensive, than earlier cars.
When buying a 360, one significant factor to watch out for is the number of previous owners. Every new owner spends some time seeing just how fast the car will go and how far it can be pushed, and after a few owners the effects can start to add up—especially if, like many exotics, the car has been regularly flipped and rarely, or never, properly serviced.
Since the 360 was once much less expensive by Ferrari standards, some owners were unwilling to spend the money for ongoing maintenance. Look for a car with a full, documented service history, a clean CarFax report, a recent cam-belt service, and a clutch-life readout by a respected shop.
Or, better still, hire a qualified shop do a full pre-purchase inspection. This can easily require most of a day, and so can cost as much as $1,000, but the opportunity to bargain with the seller about who pays for what in terms of deferred maintenance, old date-coded tires, sticky switches, and so on, as well as the resulting peace of mind, makes it worth the expense.
The standard advice I give to every Ferrari buyer applies: Do your research, buy the best car you can afford, and make sure you have it inspected by a shop that knows the model inside and out. The cost of repairing a bad 360 can easily run 25 percent or more of the purchase price. —Michael Sheehan
| Model | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| 360 Modena | $200,000 | $270,000 |
| 360 Spider | $225,000 | $275,000 |
| Challenge Stradale | $425,000 | $550,000 |
These prices are for nicely optioned, well documented, and fully serviced cars in good to great condition as of February 2025.
The Garage
Like all Ferraris, 360s are attention-and-money-hungry—but they are also relatively simple cars to work on and can be maintained by a qualified independent shop, no pricey dealer visits required. These are also impressively reliable when given regular maintenance.
Sticky switches and interior surfaces are ubiquitous with this generation of Ferraris. There’s no lack of companies that will refinish the switches with a one-to-two-week turnaround, and the bigger and better shops can also repair and re-stencil the switches in-house. It’s not cheap—expect to pay $3,000-5,000—but once repaired, the freshened switches will be good for decades.
Leather dashboards shrink in the sun, pulling away at the edges and exposing the underlying foam and/or dash structure, and the defroster vents can crack. It will cost roughly $6,000-8,000 to remove and recover the dash, airbag cover, and center console in new leather.
Now that they’re more than 20 years old, the catalytic converters—specifically the pre-cats built into the exhaust manifolds—can be problematic. The pre-cats can rattle apart and get sucked back into the engine, causing anything from a random, intermittent misfire to catastrophic damage. New factory headers with pre-cats run north of $10,000.
Any remaining original fuel pump, fuel pump relay, and/or roll-over valve will be long past its sell-by date by now, so you should expect issues in the future. Replacing both fuel pump relays runs about $300, replacing both fuel pumps will cost roughly $3,000, and expect to pay around $2,000 to replace all four roll-over valves.
The 360 Spider’s power convertible top is operated by an electric pump, multiple hydraulic rams, and the associated hydraulic lines, while the top bows fold and unfold with the help of what are essentially giant rubber bands. All of these components are now at least 20 years old, and all of them can fail.
Less common problems include the F1 shift actuator (one of the two main F1 components, along with the pump) and leaks in the various hydraulic lines, which can run up a $10,000+ bill.
The gearbox oil-to-water heat exchangers can fail due to electrolysis in the cooling system, which can degrade enough metal to allow coolant into the gearbox. This failure is usually avoidable if the cooling system is serviced at least every three years.
Another less common problem is final drive whine, which is usually heard in fifth or sixth gear while lightly accelerating or maintaining a steady speed. Removing and disassembling the gearbox is the only way to discover the root cause of the whine.
Finally, a hot idle is typically due to a failing fan thermo switch. This can cause only one, or neither, of the radiator cooling fans to run. —Michael Sheehan
On The Road
While much slower than Ferrari’s current models, the 360 remains an excellent driver’s car, with great handling, more than enough power to entertain, and the option of a classic open-gate shifter.
“Best Sellers,” FORZA #86
Pressing the Sport button in the center console instantly resolves this slightly lazy feeling, changing the 360 Modena from a sharpish GT into a much more aggressive sports car. Shifts are significantly quicker, though they’re still abrupt, with nothing like the smoothness of newer F1 transmissions. The suspension is noticeably stiffer, eliminating almost all traces of body roll. As I ramp up the speed, the Modena now responds in kind. Through a fast series of esses, the Ferrari feels perfectly neutral and composed as I flick the wheel back and forth. The pin-sharp steering is light but communicative, and the chassis is very pointy. Despite its mid-engine layout, the 360 feels forgiving as I continue to push it harder.
Given the V8’s generous power, I can short shift and still make very quick progress. But with a motor that revs this willingly, short shifting is the last thing on my mind. As is the case with almost all Ferraris, the engine is definitely the high point of the Modena. The V8 picks up steam quickly, its snarl transforming into a heady, high-pitched shriek as it spins effortlessly toward redline.
Switching cars, the Challenge Stradale immediately feels more responsive and keyed into the tarmac than the base 360 in its Sport mode. But, like the Modena, the CS’s default setting—in this case, Sport—leaves the car feeling a little disjointed. It moves around a bit more than it should, and shifts from the F1 ’box feel clunky. Selecting Race mode puts the Stradale fully in its element, quicker-shifting and better planted. The car is certainly stiff, bobbing and dipping over undulations like a bantamweight boxer, but, thanks to the sophisticated damping, the ride doesn’t beat me up.
Turn-in is razor sharp, and the car rotates more quickly than the Modena, changing direction instantly with zero body roll. But I do have to stay on my game. Where the Modena has a very neutral cornering stance, with the back end faithfully following the front, the edgy CS always feels as if it’s a millisecond away from serious oversteer.
The difference in sound is equally dramatic: The 360’s aftermarket Tubi pales in comparison to the stock CS exhaust. The shriek is raw and loud enough at higher revs to make me wonder why I didn’t bring earplugs.
The last couple thousand revs shove me back in my seat, hard, as the CS devours straights with an almost frightening intensity, the F1 gearbox upshifting in as little as 150 milliseconds with every tug of the right paddle. While the engine doesn’t necessarily rev any quicker than the Modena’s, throttle response is better. In general, the CS’s V8 feels like a very precisely built race motor, which is pretty much what it is. Its mid-range acceleration is similar to the 360’s, but the top end is something else altogether.
After sampling the 360 and CS back to back, I’m astonished at how Ferrari turned the former into the latter. I was exhilarated after my time in the Modena; it’s truly a fantastic sports car. But then the CS completely blew me away. If you’re looking for maximum fun, this is the car to have—as long as you can fully embrace its always frantic personality.
“Resurgence,” FORZA #159
Freed of traffic and restrained throttle inputs, the 360 simply comes to life. What had seemed pretty unremarkable cruising between Points A and B now feels engaging, exciting, and, occasionally, as the back end hunkers down and scrabbles for traction out of the turns, electrifying.
There’s not enough front tire to turn in with impunity (there’s a good reason the Challenge Stradale received 10-mm wider rubber than the base 360s), but once it takes a set the Spider grips more tenaciously than expected. Approach the limit and the front end kicks back gently, the rear end ready to swing out if provoked. The driver has to do more work at the wheel than in a newer Ferrari to maintain the proper line, but that’s the name of the involvement game, and it’s for the best.
Instead of fixing your mistakes, this Ferrari simply informs you where you’ve made them. It’s up to you, not the car, to do better next time. And you’ll want to, because the real pleasure of the 360 comes from precisely clipping apexes, getting on the accelerator earlier and earlier in the corners (throttle response is sharp without being twitchy), fighting the wheel, and letting the swell of power push you back in the seat as the road opens up ahead.
The Spider isn’t particularly powerful by current Maranello standards (it’s 160 horsepower down to the California T and a whopping 270 ponies less mighty than the 488), but still feels properly fast when kept in the upper third of its rev range. There’s not a lot of mid-range grunt, but keep the revs up and you won’t care.
