Here's Why the Ferrari Testarossa Is Shooting Up in Value

this is a

ferrari

testerosa three years ago you could buy a good

testarossa

for forty or fifty thousand dollars today the average selling price of a testerosa on autotrader is one hundred and sixty two thousand dollars and it's only going up and today I'm going to show you why this

testarossa

In particular it's a 1987 model and I borrowed it from a viewer

here

in the Los Angeles area to start, I'll show you all of its interesting quirks, everything unusual about the Testro that makes it such a unique car and for more information, click click the link below to read my column on autotrader.com oversteer the quirks of this car start before you even get in with the key now the key to this car looks like a normal everyday key except it folds this may seem to you strange, but people were complaining that when they drove the car, the key would hit their knees, so when you drive, you start the car and then you can fold it to keep it away from your knees and give a little more room for your knees, We are not in the car yet, we find the second peculiarity, which is the doors, you don't see a door handle

here

, do you?

No, that's because Ferrari has hidden the door handles inside these. 80's style side slams you have to get down here and open the door you have to know where the door handle is before you can get in the car now the strange thing is that they went to all the trouble to hide the door handle door but they didn't I didn't bother hiding the keyhole, it just sits there and then we have the side strakes on the doors. Take a look at these things. Has anything ever looked more '80s? The craziest thing about side door strikes isn't how they look when the door is closed. but rather what they look like when the doors open it looks like the door has a giant hole look at this hello now we're still getting in the car and we're not done with the quirks yet when you open the door the seat The belt slides all the way to the end of the A pillar to give you room to enter, so go in and close the door and guess what happens next.

The seat belt slides back. Now there is still a loop that you have to fasten once you are inside and that gives you a three point seat belt and this part is automatic. Now, once you're seated, it's time to adjust the seat and you'll find the seat controls here, three unlabeled switches and you have no idea what they are. do it until you start playing with them, for example, this one moves the rear end back and forth, not bad, we are not completely inside this car yet and we are still discovering crazy corks, for example, there is no ashtray in the center console of this vehicle.

There is one on every door, you pick it up and go, the craziest part is when the headlights are on, there is a little light inside the ashtray so you always know where to put your cigarette butts, even if it's dark outside. Speaking of the headlights, this is a sports car from the 1980s, so to turn on the headlights there is a little switch inside and there they are, they appear and since I'm in the front of the car, I might as well demonstrate one of my favorite features from testerosa the horn now that I'm inside the car we talked about some of my favorite interior details on this thing, for example, the two latches down here, one of them opens the rear hood, the other opens the front hood, neither are labeled, they just have the

ferrari

horse on them now the other crazy thing about this is the handbrake is located down here right now the handbrake is on because you can put it on and then put it down so you don't have any problems getting in and out of the car That It's not my favorite thing about the handbrake, although what I like most about the handbrake is that it doesn't really clear the driver's seat.

These are Italian cars from the 1980s. Next we move on to the center console, which is made up of many confusing buttons. With a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, my favorite button is this one that inexplicably looks like a file folder, press it and the glove box containing a giant mirror opens. Even more fun are the window switches, they are not next to each other. like in a normal car but one on top of the other so you don't know which is which and the pictures on the switches don't help because both switches show the same door but there is a difference the bottom switch is the white part of the picture is at the top and the switch is at the top the white part of the picture is at the bottom i have no idea why and then there is the best part push the window switch up and guess what that is, the window rolls down now that's all a little funny but not the most ridiculous thing about windows that would be this and back inside for added weirdness the dome light is not on press the button to turn on the dome light ceiling and you can point it to shine anywhere. the cockpit where you need it most, moving on to the headlight controls which are really crazy, the longer the original controls, the headlights, turn signals are the other stock, they are separate but the weirdness doesn't end there , you want to turn on the parking lights.

For that you will have to go to the center console and the fog lights. Oh, they're on the roof, of course they are. I also love the weird climate controls that are like a Ferrari center console version of a game of whack-a-mole. You press one and the other appears, there are also the strange climate control switches that apparently direct the air using these cryptic labels on this 80s style air flow meter. Now one of the other interesting things about this car is a tire spare part located inside the front trunk which is nice, practical, useful and somewhat unusual for a sports car like this, but the spare part is a bit strange.

You'll notice how wide the front tire is. The spare, on the other hand, is much narrower, it's like a bicycle tire, but. The strangest thing about the replacement is seeing how much the wheel sticks out. The wheel beyond the spare is almost as wide as the spare. I had never seen it like this before talking about the wheels. Another interesting thing about these wheels. Notice there are no lug nuts like on a normal car, instead of taking these wheels off, you have this thing, you put it in there, you adjust it good and it tightens and then you get this hammer and you start hammering if you want to take the wheel.

Outside, you just hope you don't hit any part of the body of the car, now another crazy exterior and one of my favorite things about this car is that the back of this car is actually wider than the front. Think about that in any other normal car. The rear of the car in the front of the car is the same width or maybe the rear is even a little narrower, but not on this one, the result is that just because you clean something in the front of the car doesn't mean that you will do it. clean it in the back, okay, so the test rose is weird and quirky and while some of those quirks may be annoying or strange to you, that's part of the charm of an Italian car and yes, all those things, all those weird quirks are contributing. to the increased

value

of this car, but it's not the only thing, there's also what's under the hood, a 4.9-liter, 390-horsepower V12 mounted in the rear, unlike most other Ferrari models With a v12 engine, the Testerosa does 0-60 in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 180 and is connected to an attractive manual transmission, without pedals, so the Testerosa looks quite attractive on paper and is loaded with a lot of car charm.

Italian and strange quirks, but there are two other very important things that are contributing to its increase in

value

. One is, obviously, his style. When I look at this car today, I can't believe there was a time when it was so cheap because it looks so exotic, so special, so wide and so low, those sides hit those rear hips even when it's not red. this car is really impressive when you think of an exotic car the testerosa is exactly what you think it's not like anything else on the road today and it also drives like nothing else on the road today okay we're going with the testerosa the clutch is directly below the horn the accelerator pedal which is the accelerator pedal is below the air conditioning in the middle this will be an interesting experience for everyone so because of this displacement now my leg is in the middle it is right where the gear selector oh This car is made for Italians, long arms, short legs and low standards, oh, listen to that, oh, that's just sweet, so now, in these corners, this car blows me away.

How much it feels like a kart. I know how wide this car is. and how big it is and how heavy it is, but since it doesn't have power steering when you go around these curves, the other thing is that the engine and everything is back there, you're very far forward in this car and of course, it's so low to the ground you really feel like you are in a kart which is amazing to me because this car is huge, I noticed going over these bumps the ride quality is something you have to put up with.

Gear changes are so nice with a closed transmission. This is a topic of endless debate because a lot of people don't like a door because it requires you to be very precise, but I think it's great, I love how far away the mirrors are. The mirrors are awfully small which is just inappropriate, however they are very far away so you can pretty much see what you need to see and this car is reasonably good to play with, in fact, having said that, one of the strange things that It has the hood cover. uh it actually robs you of a bit of visibility directly behind you, it sticks out an inch or two over the engine, oh listen to that man, that's an incredibly nice noise, it's just beautiful, the clutch isn't as bad as I expected . to be, it's not as bad as that 512 tr I drove recently oh the steering is at low speeds you just want to die I mean I just can't park so yeah right I can't imagine parallel parking this thing, park this thing and then a crowd comes at you and you're doing it, you're fighting the steering wheel, it's not tremendous, we all know it's not incredibly fast, it's not going to last from zero to 63 seconds, but the thrill, yeah, It's more like these cars. starting to get older it's more about experience younger people don't understand this they say oh why would you understand it's not as fast as a new 911?

Well, you know, this car gives you the most incredible, I mean, I look in the mirror and I see those wide fenders and I say, oh my God, this is the best, this wants to be a measurement instead of zero to sixty, we should measuring emotions because that's what it's all about, oh, listen to what it sounds like. That's cool, we're going to save space like Prius, you know who's having fun, you know, I don't want it to look like it's not fast, it's a fast car, I mean, it still feels reasonably fast and that's quarter acceleration.

It's not slow, but you can have fun with this car at any speed and that's great, not all cars are like that, most cars aren't. This is for people who just want to have the craziest thing. The most you know is that they are smiling because of what they do not because of how fast they go or how accurate I usually am when driving someone else's car. I think, "Okay, five more minutes and then I'm good. I have enough material and this time." Yes, we're going to stay outside a little longer. Yeah, I mean, I guess the point of this video is why these things are increasing in value.

Well, having this driving experience is unrivaled in modern cars. What I think people are starting to understand is that modern cars are becoming more. Faster and faster and more advanced and more advanced, but they don't offer all this visceral excitement. They don't offer the ability to feel that way when you drive. You know, anyone can buy a 48 and put their foot down. you have to really want it, you have to really know how to do it and it's just a different and much better experience in my opinion, so the testarossa has an amazing and unique driving experience that's not even slightly neutered like most modern cars Its styling is distinctive, ridiculous, wild, you'll never mistake it for anything else, it's powerful, it's fast, it's exciting and fun to drive, it's full of weird Italian car quirks and Italian car charm, of course, its value has been muted, it shouldn't.

It won't come as a surprise to anyone and I predict that one day every car enthusiast will be sitting around talking about how you used to be able to buy a testerosa for just $162k.