This 70-mile Ferrari 430 Scuderia is bordering on cruelty

What do you know about NOS? No, not the ‘You never had me. You never had your car’ go-faster juice – we’re talking about what’s referred to in musician/collector circles as New Old Stock. 

Because NOS is what best describes this delivery-mileage 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia. Other fitting descriptors include ‘mint’, ‘time capsule’ and ‘utter misuse of Maranello’s time and expertise’. 

Expertise, by the way, that Ferrari largely pioneered, like an electronically controlled diff, automated manual gearbox and race-derived traction control. Also the whole ‘it’s a 430 Scuderia, one of the greatest cars ever’ thing. Y’know, the usual.

And we’re sure that the £150,000 to £180,000 the un-fired Scud missile is expected to fetch at Silverstone Auctions’ upcoming sale at the Race Retro Show in Warwickshire somehow represents a ‘well-chosen addition to the portfolio’. But we’re equally sure that this might be the absolute worst way humanity has ever thought about the joyful objects we create for ourselves. Also, wasn’t the Scuderia about £170,000 new?

Honestly, who buys one of the greatest road-going Ferraris of all time – a 500bhp V8-powered madman, stripped of weight and creature comforts until nothing remains but noise and speed and sensation – and then leaves it to sit in a garage?

Helpfully, there’s another bit of musician/collector lingo that fits this particular situation: Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Unhelpfully – at least for the Americans among us – that acronym of that is GAS.