Man Maths: Ferrari 360 Modena

What, then, if you want something a bit more Ferrari-ish? Something with a bit more in the looks and power departments and a bit less when it comes to the number of seats. A proper Ferrari, as some might say. So I went looking, expecting the lower orders of AutoTrader to be peopled with shonky old 348s, quite the worst Ferrari I’ve ever driven. But no. Imagine my surprise when I noted that, bar one Mondial, the cheapest Ferrari there listed is a manual right-hand drive 360 Modena with a full service history and a vital and expensive belts change within the last 3000 miles. You can see for yourself here.

It’s up for £41,995 so it’s just possible that if you turned up with a sack of used readies, you might just nick it for something beginning with a ‘3’.

Now, I’m not the world’s biggest 360 fan (the beautifully sorted Challenge Stradale aside), but only really because they used to have this strange and discomforting tendency to oversteer on turn in to really fast corners on race tracks. But now it’s a ‘classic’ who’s going to drive theirs like that? Moreover it was the first truly modern mid-engined Ferrari, no mere development of its F355 predecessor, but an entirely new car built an entirely new way. It was the first to feature a pure aluminium spaceframe design, lighter and stiffer than what it replaced and so strong and effective it’s the way almost all Ferraris are still built today, a quarter of a century after its introduction.

Its looks have grown on me too and I now think it’s actually a more attractive car than the F430 that succeeded it. The engine and gearbox could not rise further in my estimation; the 40-valve, 3.6-litre V8 screaming its heart out at 8500rpm would still be something to behold, while slashing that six-speed stick shift around its exposed gate is a moment of pure Ferrari theatre, and all the better for it.

So should you? Well of course not: the car in question has done 78,000 miles, had an unspecified number of owners and we’re not exactly talking Japanese hatchback levels of dependability here. But this is where man maths takes over. This car appears to have been well maintained, Ferrari engines are incredibly strong and hardly ever go bang. I’m only going to do 2000 miles a year in it. It’s aluminium so it won’t rot. It’s only going to go up in value and all the money I won’t lose on depreciation I can spend on its maintenance. I’ve got this bloke round the corner who once serviced a California… You know how it goes.

And you know what? You could just get away with it. It’s like putting your head in the lion’s jaws: you might not live to tell the tale, but what a story you’ll have if you do.

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