SUPERCARS / HYPERCARS

Best: Audi R8 Bargain: Porsche 911 Turbo (996) Brave: Ferrari 456 GT

OKAY, ALL USED SUPERCARS FALL INTO THE Brave category by definition, but you might need to swallow a particularly hefty brave pill before buying a used Ferrari 456.

Paul Weston and Graeme Lambert both took the plunge and, a little like the red and blue pill options in The Matrix, they’ve had two quite different experiences – but neither regrets taking ownership of Ferrari’s epically elegant 2+2 V12 grand tourer.

‘At the time, in late 2021, I’d bought probably the cheapest manual 456 in the country,’ Lambert says. ‘Which, naturally, is not the way to do it. And I must say, that is how it’s playing out…’

Although the car itself cost a mere £42,500, some unexpected jobs, including rectifying a fuel leak caused by something perishing in the tank, a new radiator and a failed heater matrix (a £5k fix) have resulted in some supercar-worthy bills. Graeme is sanguine about it: ‘It’s a 25-year-old Ferrari; they’re expensive and you do need to go in with your eyes open. It’s one of the most expensive cars the company made; prices were toward £180k towards the end of its production run, and parts costs are still in line with that. Do I regret it? No – so far.’

Key to the purchase was a desire to own a special car with a greater spread of abilities than a two-seater sports car: ‘I need to take two child seats,’ says Graeme. ‘A 911 would have been a sensible buy but the rear seats are a little cramped to accommodate them, and I need to get a pushchair in the boot. I also looked at an Aston DB9 but I wanted a manual.’ (The vast majority of DB9S are autos.)

Ferrari made two variants of the 456, in two generations: the manual GT and torque-converter auto GTA from 1992 to ’97 followed by the 456M (for Modificato) from ’98 to ’03 – like the auto pictured here, on loan from Ferrari specialists Rardley Motors – with traction control, body production moved in-house to Maranello after previously being outsourced to Pininfarina, and a carbonfibre bonnet among other refinements.

Like Graeme, Paul Weston owns an early manual car, and regularly uses it to taxi two young children. ‘It was designed for the glory days when you would point it at Nice, cruise at 150mph and arrive some eight hours later, completely unruffled. It’s a completely effortless engine.’ The 5.5-litre V12 generates 436bhp and was good for as much as 190mph when the 456 was new.

Weston echoes Lambert’s sentiments on parts: ‘Ferrari parts are as expensive as you’d expect, but some are at least compatible with Fiat and Alfa parts. I haven’t had any horrific bills; a best friend is a Ferrari mechanic at Prestige Auto Care in East London, which keeps the costs down.

‘I didn’t actually set out to buy one; I was looking to buy a Ferrari 550 Maranello. What swung the 456 was finding out this car had been owned by Nigel Mansell.’ Mansell reputedly ordered two from the stand at the Earls Court motor show; one in left-hand drive to be shipped to Florida, and this right-hand-drive car for use in the UK.

Walking around the Daytona-meets-fiat-coupe shape today, it’s easy to see what enamoured Our Nige in the early ’90s. The last Ferrari to be sold with pop-up headlights, it’s impossible not to break into a smile when they flip open. There’s a lot that’s early-’90s elsewhere in the design details too: the 17-inch wheels (and modest exhaust tips) look tiny by modern standards, the body overhangs unfashionably long. Inside, it smells gorgeous; you inhale lungfuls of Connolly leather while selecting drive via surely the most attractive gear selector ever fitted to an automatic transmission, a slim slice of aluminium.

While once upon a recent time, values grounded out at £25k, bottom-dollar (buyer-beware) cars today are high 30s to mid 40s, excellent cars around the £70k mark.

Not feeling quite brave enough, or desire something more modern? The first-gen Audi R8 remains a lovely, lovely thing, and manual V8 coupes are still out there for £3540k, although V10-engined cars stretch upward to £60k.

Slicing through the open-gate shift in the immaculate eight-cylinder car pictured here, you don’t find yourself craving another two cylinders. Today, it feels like a modern classic in character, albeit one full of technology – adaptive dampers, aluminium construction, all-wheel drive.

Sticking with the AWD German theme, a potential bargain is the 996-generation Porsche 911 Turbo from 2000-2006. ‘So German it’s painful,’ was evo’s description of the 996 Turbo in period, and it is perhaps one of the most strait-laced of supercars; less soulful than the R8.

But a Turbo still feels pulse-racingly quick, and nervesettlingly solidly built, even today. Traction, balance and sheer acceleration are remarkable, all the more so because they’re independent from whatever the weather’s doing. Prices range from low 30s to the 60s for an approved used or rare manual car, while at the uppermost end of the market a delivery-miles car has recently been advertised for just shy of 100 grand.

As Lambert points out, with all these cars the lesson is go in with your eyes open. But perhaps the greater lesson still is to get out there and enjoy these cars while they’re still at this price point – and while we still can. JT