Dissecting The Perfect Ferrari

Welcome to a Happy New Year! 2023 has been a whirlwind that’s expected to continue. January is a time of resolutions, giving up on resolutions, a reflection of dreams and dreams deferred, and wanting the best stuff for yourself.

Have a conversation with anyone. I mean, anyone. It could be your best friend, a work acquaintance, or a stranger on a park bench. Anyone you like, or don’t like, so much will have dreams of ‘when they make it’ in life.

A lot of the answers I hear or read or watch on YouTube, in television programs, podcasts, et cetera, or even through conversations with acquaintances of my own, have given variations of the same response: I want a Ferrari.

Over time, I’ve learned that there are people who know cars and people who enjoy them. So you may love the Toyota Supra that’s on sale, but not be aware of the mechanical workings of a turbocharged engine that’s prone to kill modern Hondas.

In a way, the same is true of Ferraris. You say you want a Ferrari, but which? As true in cars, varying models can serve some people better than others. This leads us to the first hurdle: modern Ferrari is presently in transition to become more technically innovative, altering perception of what a prancing horse is supposed to be.

So a brand new Ferrari is out: the Purosangue SUV that isn’t an SUV, the capable but expensive 296, the Roma with infuriating cabin controls, and the 812 GTS with a powerful V-12 but commands $430,000 at a minimum.

This brings us to the modern classics. The latest addition in this category is arguably the 458, produced in many forms from 2009 to 2015. A screaming V-8 in a mid-engine supercar that was a tech de force when it comes to aerodynamics has won over many hearts, even prompting Corvette engineers to use it as a template to build the Z06.

Another car that fits this category: the 599. A predecessor to the 812, this too was a V-12 flagship super GT inclined to take on Aston Martin. While fast, it wasn’t neck-snapping compared to the breakthrough performances that surrounds today’s exotic crops.

If a manual transmission is a sole priority on your Italian stallion, the your options start to open up pre-2010. It’s not impossible to find a Ferrari equipped with a clutch pedal once you start to comb through the classifieds.

One giveaway to a stickshift Ferrari is a 20- to 100-percent bump in value compared to the equivalent automatic. So if you seek a 360 from the early 2000s for roughly $120,000, a manual one in similar spec will swing closer to 160. Barring a non-clean title, that’s the low end of the pricing spectrum. Unfortunately, dependent of model, that percentage can skew greatly based on rarity.

Then there are the Ferraris pre-dating to the era when automatic gearboxes didn’t have enough popularity with buyers (yet). Until they were responsive enough to actually benefit from a performance standpoint, the timing of changing gears depended on your hand with the shifter, your left foot on the clutch, and understanding the rev line to determine where the engine made the most power. Every model had a unique reaction in motor responsiveness, with you, the driver, as the control variable. Cars like the F40 and 250 GTO have no problems fetching millions on the auction block.

It also means virtually every Ferrari before 1999 is considered a classic. Supercar reliability didn’t quite hit its stride, meaning you were hit with high running costs associated with its exotic status. This started to improve with the 360, a top pick of mine for the perfect Ferrari. The conversation started to pick up when Honda could demonstrate a supercar could be durable, and Audi had bought Lamborghini to kick off a revolution of how truly capable a supercar could be.

With upticks in quality forthcoming, Ferrari lagged behind. Yet everyone wanted one. It was never their cars weren’t dynamically competitive with other supercars, it just had the X factor. One can presume it’s because they came from the unique institutions of Maranello, just as they do today. Perhaps it’s why when you hear one on YouTube (headphones recommended), it just stirs the soul.

So a newer Ferrari is the way to go toward less expensive running costs, which isn’t relevant in the grand scheme of things if you’re dropping six figures anyway. But it also affords you to be choosy with what you want it to do for you.

If mid-engine performance is a priority, the 360 is a good baseline with good looks, high quality interior materials, a howling V-8 soundtrack, and enough prowess to haul ass on a race circuit. Its successor, the F430 aka 458 predecessor, tells a similar story. You’re in the sweet spot here before Ferraris started to get too complicated to use. The 2000s saw a transition in the company where technology started to see performance gains and implemented in road cars going forward.

This is where my perfect Ferrari comes in. The car I choose has technology simple enough to understand, yet touches base with the old world of what built the company’s reputation in the first place. That X factor.

In 2006, the V-8 was the smallest engine available in a Ferrari. The motor would only get bigger. It would fill a gap in the ‘lineup’ that only Ferrari sees fit. SUVs were still blasphemous so the ‘practical’ car on offer was the 612 Scaglietti. This was a grand tourer with a V-12 and enough room to occupy four people. With more power available to squeeze out, Ferrari opted to build a more athletic GT.

This brings us back to the 599. For sportier pretensions, it was strictly a two-seater with the ride quality said to be more relaxed. But the V-12, then rated at 612 horsepower and 448 lb-ft of torque, could push this near two-ton supercar upwards of 200 miles per hour.

But looking at it, it’s clear that this is the understated car. Although it was the flagship at the time, there’s no flash to it. Next to, say, a then-new 430 Scuderia, the 599 proved to have far more substance than style. Scratch beneath the surface and you’re in for a real treat.

So, this was a super GT with a potent V-12, a comfortable interior, subtle styling; all good things. Well it gets better, as the 599 had a trick option up its sleeve. You could get one with a manual transmission.

That means all of its capabilities were left in control of the driver, who could row a 599 through the clutch and a stick. Values skyrocketed because only 30 cars in the world were built with the manual. We’re lucky enough to have 20 of them come to North America. So sourcing one is difficult, but not difficult enough that there is a car community devoted to finding the right exotic for you if you’re committed.

It’s also my kind of car. Pride would come from gas station stops and enthusiasts recognize what it is, but won’t turn heads in highway traffic unless I put the pedal to the metal.

If you settle for an automatic, you’re not missing out when it comes to speed. Used examples are far more accessible in terms of price and production. A few thousand 599s, GTOs, and its counterparts were built in its lifetime, with a lot of them possible to find for under $200k.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

I will never hold it against you the next time someone says, ‘I want a Ferrari.’ Just be prepared for me to ask you, ‘which one?’ And be ready for a lecture into the rabbit hole of Italian horses so we figure out which one is your perfect Ferrari.