812 Superfast

Make
Ferrari
Segment
Coupe

It may seem surprising, but Enzo Ferrari was never particularly interested in his road-going cars. His focus was on the racing side of the business and the road-legal machines were a necessity to fund his racing efforts. The first production Ferraris were fitted with racing-derived V12 engines up front and set up to be the ultimate grand tourers of their day.

It was not until 1973 that mid-engined V12 engines were introduced and the now popular V8-powered Ferraris only arrived in the mid-'70s. This mini history lesson is all to demonstrate how historically significant the Ferrari 456 really is.

It too is fitted with a proper V12 engine in front of the driver and was designed to cover great distances at speed, just like those early cars. The 1995 model year example currently offered on Bring A Trailer has covered 41,000 miles, is painted in a suitably restrained Rosso Monza exterior color and comes with a six-speed manual transmission.

Four-seater Ferraris have tended to be less desirable than their sportier counterparts and the 456 has understated styling that has further depressed values which all means that they can be a bit of a bargain. A mere 3,289 were produced over an 11-year period and most were fitted with a four-speed automatic transmission, making this car even rarer.

The 5.5-liter V12 produces 436 horsepower which is enough to give it a 188 mph top speed and a 0-60 mph time of around 5 seconds. Impressive back in the '90s and still quick enough to get you into trouble today. This particular car has recently had the expensive cam belt service carried out, has not been in an accident and while it isn't mint it looks to be in good condition overall.

You may want to inquire about those panel gaps between the bumpers and the bodywork though. The bid at the time of writing is an extremely low $24,456 but that is sure to ramp up in the coming days but even at three times that price it would still be a veritable V12 bargain that is sure to appreciate in price in the coming years.