Two Ways to Spend £350k on a Ferrari

Once again I was browsing the web for cars I can’t afford, and stumbled upon a rather nice dilemma to have, if I were to have £350,000 burning a hole in my pocket.

Both cars in said dilemma happen to be Ferraris, with mid-mounted V8s, painted in red, for sale at the same dealer, Premier GT, who have no influence or affiliation with this article, I just the cars would make a nice feature to ponder! So, let’s take a look and see if we can make a decision between us.

‍458 Speciale

‍2015 (15) | 4,500 miles | £349,995 | View ad here

I don’t need to tell you the 458 Speciale is one of the greatest driver’s cars of all time. You’ve heard that from enough people already, myself included! As time goes on though, the car world’s appreciation for the Speciale only continues and values are holding very strong.

It is of course the last of the naturally-aspirated V8s, so as the end of an era, it will always be remembered for that alone, but as a car to drive and own, it is even more special than the sum of its parts, and even its name!

This car is finished in Rosso Scuderia (slightly lighter than the typical Corsa) with full Ferrari history and full PPF to keep it looking pretty, which is great because it would be a crime not to use this car as intended! It hasn’t seen more than a few hundred miles a year in the nine years since it was new, sitting at just 4,500 miles. For me though, this could easily be a forever car, given there’ll never be another car like it, so who cares about the number on the dash? This car needs to be driven, and driven hard!

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SF90 Assetto Fiorano

2021 (21) | 840 miles | £349,995 | View ad here

Now onto the new era of Ferrari, with hybrid tech, four-wheel drive and enough touch-sensitive buttons to drive a technophobe to insanity. What it also has, though, is 1,000hp, so if outright performance is your bag, the SF90 would waltz away from the Speciale with its paltry 600 horses, and when it comes to torque, the SF90 has more than double.

It would make a lovely tourer given its effortless power and hyper GT characteristics, but get it on a road and it would decimate almost anything you could throw at it. Supercar Driver Ali can attest to this who has done 20,000 miles across Europe in her SF90 Spider — you’ll be able to read about Ali and her adventures in the upcoming issue 49 of Supercar Driver magazine!

The £80,000 of options fitted to this car mean it really is a stunning thing inside and out too. The trade-off is of course the raw emotion of the Speciale, but given this car is six years newer and is barely run in yet at 840 miles, there’s huge appeal to the level of performance and a basically new car for the same price. And just like the Speciale marks the end of an era, the SF90 marks the beginning of another, so perhaps this will remain a significant car in years to come as well. My money is still on the Speciale, but I guess only time will tell.