During his original stint on Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson was smitten by the Ferrari F355. Who could blame him? It was a leap forward for Ferrari, and in time, enthusiasts have rightly deemed a classic. Clarkson bought this F355 GTS in 1996, but found Ferrari ownership wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be. Now, though, you can try your hand at F355 ownership.
RM Sotheby's is auctioning Clarkson's F355 GTS at its Cliveden House 2025 event next month. The car has just under 15,000 miles on its odometer, and importantly, it just got a recent major service. That's huge because F355s are maintenance-intensive cars, and the only thing more expensive than servicing one is fixing one that hasn't been taken care of. RM Sotheby's estimates a sale price of between $245,000 to $300,000, which is very strong for an F355, but this one has provenance and a couple of rare options.
Clarkson owned the F355 for just four years, putting around 6,000 miles on its odometer. He featured the car in his Sunday Times and Top Gear magazine columns, and in a hilarious segment in his Clarkson's Car Years special. He admitted that he wished he hadn't gone for the classic Rosso Corsa red, and for the open-top GTS model either, and that he couldn't bear the shame of driving it around. As RM Sotheby's notes, Clarkson gave away the car in a Sunday Times giveaway in 2000.
The contest winner kept it for a few years before selling it to the third owner. The current owner bought it in 2013, and apparently took excellent care of the car.
Beyond its famous first owner, this F355 is notable for being a manual-transmission targa, a pretty rare combination. Once Ferrari introduced the soft-top Spider in 1995, GTS sales plummeted. The arrival of the paddle-shift "F1" transmission in 1997 had a similar effect on the standard manual, too. Clarkson also ordered the car with cream and red sports seats, which you almost never see on F355s of any stripe.
If you're an American reading this, you can import this car, as it's well over 25 years old. Obviously, you'll have to deal with it being right-hand drive, but that might not be such an issue for getting one of the most famous examples of a beloved Ferrari.
Funnily enough, Clarkson never owned another Ferrari. His former Top Gear and Grand Tour co-hosts have, though. Richard Hammond owned a 550 Maranello and the 308 GT4 from a Top Gear cheap-car challenge, and James May owned a 308 GTB, a F430, and currently owns a 458 Speciale.
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