Legend has it that Enzo himself once defined a Ferrari as an automobile with 12 cylinders. And if he didn’t, please don’t tell me.

Isn’t it funny, I think, standing over the gently idling Daytona, waiting patiently for some engine temp, how every consideration of Ferraris comes around to the wonderful sound but all they ever mention is the thrill when you bottom the throttle? Never this, never the smooth, seamless murmur through all those pipes at tickover, never the soft hissing of great masses of air sliding toward waiting cylinders or the faint background whirr of rotating parts warming to their task. Never the lovely anticipation of it all. Shame, that; the pleasure is never as intense without the anticipation.

Legend has it that Enzo himself once defined a Ferrari as an automobile with 12 cylinders. And if he didn’t, please don’t tell me. Even though the V8s do their job admirably well, there’s still something wonderfully hedonistic about having those extra four explosions. In a perfect world, we’d all have a Ferrari ‘12’ stashed away for pure mental health reasons. It’s a theme that Ferrari constantly turns to for their highest flyers: the biggest, baddest production Ferrari in the neighbourhood is the just-launched 599GTB, with six litres of V12 mounted right up front.

Alas, the new 599 is in the region of £160,000, and getting into a first-class example of most of the two-seater, genuine 150mph-plus Ferrari 12s that preceded it will now swallow damn near that much on the classic market – or more. Of course, finding the best price on the fastest Ferrari has long been shooting at a moving target, so photographer Paul Harmer and I went to a specialist with a rep for dealing in the very fastest to find out where the true values are these days.

Bob Houghton Limited has sold, serviced, raced or restored virtually every type of car Ferrari ever made; price guides have their place, but sometimes you just have to go talk to the people at the front.

Ferrari Testarossa Series
Ferrari Daytona
Ferrari Maranello 550/575
Verdict