Used Ferrari vs new AMG GT R Pro: which gets your £189k?

Now everyone’s calmed down from the mega-debate that resulted from our ‘used Audi RS6 vs new Ford Fiesta ST’ question, we’ve got a new one for you. This time, your budget is £190,000. You lucky thing.

Let’s say you’re in the market for a loud, angry track-focused road car. You want downforce. You want V8 bellow. You want speed, sticky tyres and silly stripes. Surely then, Mercedes-AMG has just cooked up the perfect toy for you? For £188,345, you can now buy AMG’s most hardcore GT yet: the GT R Pro.

….or, you could ignore the box-fresh, 577bhp twin-turbo German, and spend £189,000 on a ten-year old Italian car with 16,000 miles on the clock, and only 503bhp. A rip-off? Not when the car in question is one of Ferrari’s all-time finest driver’s cars: the lightweight banshee that is the 430 Scuderia. (Which, if you're interested, has already appreciated by around £50,000...)

Ferrari’s obsession with saving weight in the hardcore F430 went so far, it even dropped the ‘F’ off the front of the name. The 4.3-litre naturally aspirated V8 revs to nigh-on 9,000rpm, and pummels along a car weighing 100kg less than the standard F430. This was the age of Ferrari’s brutally quick automated manual gearboxes, with racecar-like shifts on track, without the weight of a dual-clutcher. No carpets, no sat-nav, and – look at that – a manual handbrake. Retro.

This Scud also appears to come fitted with a roll cage and a fire extinguisher. Two optional extras you’ll very much hope never need to be tested.

The AMG GT R Pro is, on the other hand, the very zenith, the peak, of what AMG can do with a road car right now. It takes the already nutty GT R and adds better aero, lighter wheels and seats, and retuned suspension. Until the Porsche 911 GT2 RS came along, the GT R was the fastest rear-drive car ever around That Racetrack In Germany. What'll the Pro do? The mind boggles. 

No more power, mind you. Is the Pro worth a £40k premium over the GT R? With the roll that AMG’s on right now, we’d struggle to bet against it.

Nine-stage traction control and driving modes ranging from Comfort through Sport and Sport Plus to Race are also present. Wonder how much of that was inspired by the manettino switch in the ten-year old Scud?

Either of these could be yours for £190,000 with a few pocketfuls of change. But not both. You must decide. Would it be the blood-and-thunder AMG, or the dainty, revvy, racey Ferrari?