Evoluto Ferrari F355 is now ready with 414bhp

Remember Evoluto’s rather appealing reimagining of the Ferrari F355 from 2024? It is now production-ready, with the British firm confirming that it has tested every specification it promised a couple of years ago.

Evoluto Ferrari F355 V8 upgrades

At the heart of the project is a reworked version of Ferrari’s mid-mounted 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V8. It now produces 414bhp and 273lb ft, compared with 375bhp and 268lb ft when the car was new in 1994.

The increase comes from lower-inertia internal components, alongside bespoke camshafts, ported cylinder heads and a newly designed stainless-steel exhaust system. As it remains naturally aspirated, all 414bhp can be enjoyed right through to its 8,500rpm redline.

For those wanting more, Evoluto offers exactly that. It is not quite the 500bhp, 3.9-litre monster Evoluto mentioned to TopGear.com in 2024, but a bored-out 3.7-litre V8 option now delivers 474bhp. This version revs to 9,000rpm and gains ‘extreme’ high-lift cams, uprated fuelling and strengthened internals for “sustained high-speed operation”. A new ECU controls the whole lot.

Wider chassis and upgraded suspension

The front track is 77mm wider and the rear track grows by 66mm, making room for completely new upper and lower arms, uprights and anti-roll-bar drop links. Braking comes from substantial Brembo hardware, with six-pot front calipers and four-pot units at the rear. Evoluto has also revised several of the F355’s hard points, including the centres of the upper and lower ball joints.

Where original components could no longer be sourced, the company designed and manufactured replacements itself. These include wheel bearings, each 1kg lighter than the originals, and driveshafts. They are also intended to be easier to service.

Evoluto has now named its suspension partner, not only for this 355 but for future models developed with Boreham Motorworks. The latter, remember, is behind the reworking of the Mk1 Escort and RS200. The 355 therefore receives three-way-adjustable R53 dampers.

Ferrari F355 cabin, weight and delivery

There is a quicker steering ratio and improved, though still hydraulic, power steering. The redesigned cabin makes extensive use of carbon fibre - not literally tonnes of it - while retaining no digital screens and gaining an improved HVAC system.

On the subject of tonnes, Evoluto quotes a dry weight of 1,250kg, roughly 100kg less than Maranello achieved in the Nineties. Over the past year, the car has covered more than 5,000 miles of track testing, although Evoluto originally told TG that it had been engineered with a road-focused bias.

Work to strip down the first of only 55 customer cars begins next month, with delivery expected towards the end of the year. Prices for each car start at £595,000 - a hundred grand less than when it was first revealed.

It looks good in red, doesn’t it? And, judging by this short film - recorded in Catesby Tunnel, home of Top Gear’s Tunnel Run - it sounds rather good too...

20 seconds