The unveiling of Ferrari's 'budget' £140,000 California got us thinking: is there such a thing as a cheap Ferrari? After some head-scratching, we came up with these...
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The great entertainer: Ferrari 550 Maranello (1996-2002) (page 8 of 10)
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Undertake a high-risk pharmaceutical study, sell the kids, send the dog off to a stud farm, rent a bedroom to a nice family from Krakow.
Who cares how you raise the required cash, this is a car you need in your life.
With values finally dipping well below £40,000, 550s are now almost 'affordable' if you make the odd sacrifice here and there.
You might feel it's a price worth paying - it's one of the best cars Maranello's ever made and one of the best handling cars of all time. Thank the identical transaxle gearbox from the 456 that enables the big Ferrari to have an ideal 50:50 weight distribution. Of course the big 5.5-litre has something to do with it too. Boasting 479bhp the V12 allows for a sub-five second sprint to 60mph and, if the wind's blowing in the right direction, a genuine 200mph.
It's at this point we barely want to trouble you with the stratospheric running costs that, like the other V12 cars here, are potentially bankrupting should anything, God forbid, break.
