Stolen Ferrari Discovered After 26 Years

It seems as though people are in love with destroying Ferrari cars. We recently reported on two cases where a Ferrari F40 was crashed in Australia, and another was destroyed in a fire in Monaco. This is truly tragic news, as only a handful of these legendary 1980s supercars were ever built and are still considered one of the best Ferrari cars ever produced. On the other end of the Ferrari spectrum sits the Mondial which has never been at the receiving end of much admiration and love. Still, it's a Ferrari and deserves some recognition right? Well unlike modern Ferrari hypercars such as the LaFerrari the Mondial in question has lived a less than glamorous life in the heart of the Netherlands.

The Mondial was a mid-engined grand tourer produced by Ferrari from 1980 to 1993 and featured a V8 engine and styling and bodywork by Pininfarina and Carrozzeria Scaglietti. This car replaced the Ferrari 308/208 GT4 coupe and is the last V8, rear mid-engine 2+2 Ferrari.

The Mondial never lived up to expectations, mostly because it was a dud to drive, and performance from the V8 engine was underwhelming at best. Still, a Ferrari always deserves the best. That was not the case with the car in question. Back in 1994 Dutch police had given up on a case involving a stolen 1987 Mondial after leads had gone cold, and the owner got his full insurance payout. Case closed right? Well, the story gets more interesting than that.

It has taken 26 years, but the car has finally been found. In June of 2020, a Dutch fire brigade out on training exercises stumbled upon a wedge-shaped object lodged at the bottom of a river. It turned out to be our beloved Mondial.