INVESTMENTS OF PASSION

Classic Ferraris are beautiful, rare, and fabulous to drive. And they now also happen to make great investments if you know what to buy. ANONYMOUS

What is it about classic Ferraris? For starters, there can be few things as stirring to the emotion of boys and men of all ages, as the sight and sound of a classic Ferrari. It's not just the look and sound but also something rather sensual about the colour and curvaceousness. The sensuality added to the physicality. And of all the cars produced by this iconic marque, its the classic models that are increasingly grabbing the attention of enthusiasts, collectors and investors.

It all started when a gifted young Modenese engineer and racing driver called Enzo Ferrari formed his Scuderia Ferrari (Ferrari stable ) in 1928. Initially, Enzo raced Alfa Romeo cars, but during the second world war, when Mussolini nationalised Alfa, he decided to build his first Ferrari car.

Enzo, or the Commendatore as he later became known, was famous for his single-minded pursuit of racing glory. He never planned to build road cars and only did so to offset the cost of the racing team. It is this racing pedigree and the obvious parallels between these racing cars and the roadgoing variants that has contributed so greatly to the desirability of the marque over and above many other cars of the same era.

All of the early Ferraris were handbuilt by renowned local coachbuilders with names that became legends in themselves, such as Pininfarina, Scaglietti and Zagato.

Engines, gearboxes and the rest of the mechanicals were designed and manufactured by Ferrari and in most cases could trace their lineage directly back to his most contemporary racing examples.

Whilst Enzo's earliest cars are somewhat collectible, it is the great cars of the 60s and 70s which have become the most desirable for collectors like me. In many cases they were produced to special order and it’s the small details that can make such a difference to the collectibility.

Take for example, the most sought after of the 1960s road cars, the Ferrari California Spider. This is known by many as the Ferris Bueller car after the film in which the lead character destroys his father's pride and joy, a California Spider. (Luckily the film used a fake, based on an MG.)

The car is technically called a 250 GT California Spider; it was derived from an original design by Pininfarina called the 250 GT Cabriolet. The California variant was built mainly for the American market and featured a more rakish design, lighter weight and better performance.

The original cabriolet may trade for around US$1.5m (£1.1m) today but it's the rarer and sexier California Spiders which are commanding the stratospheric prices. The long wheel base variant can trade for between US$2.5 -3.0m, but it is the short wheel base variants that are making the really huge sums.

In 2008 the British DJ Chris Evans paid US$10.8m for a beautiful black short wheelbase car which was once the property of James Coburn. This car was particularly special as it was one of a handful featuring closed headlamps which gave it an even racier look.

Personally, I stick to collecting cars from the 1960s and believe strongly that it's all about rarity value with Ferraris. In my view it's unlikely that more recent cars will ever command the prices being sought for earlier models, due to the sheer numbers now being produced.

Classic Ferrari prices have risen quickly over the last few years as investors and enthusiasts realise that the automotive equivalent of Warhols or Kandinskys are also not only great works of art - and never to be created again - but also a lot of fun to own and drive.

As an example, the California Spider that Evans bought for $10.8m would have fetched less than US$2m less than a decade before that. Even the less exclusive models such as the 246 (or ' Dino') have risen rapidly. Ten years ago, a good Dino could be bought for around US$60,000. Today the same car would sell for around US$200,000 and even more for a rarer GTS (Spider) model.

But don't collectors just waste their cars, keeping them in garages as museum pieces? Some may do, but my friends and I drive our classic Ferraris on a regular basis for the sheer joy of it. And there is no excuse for not doing so. Gone are the days when you could not get anyone to service your car, or insure or look after it. In key countries like the UK and US there is a plethora of specialists who will maintain, renovate and insure your beloved classic, often at prices that are eminently reasonable.

And all around the world there are a great many classic car clubs and organised events where enthusiasts can go and drive their cars with likeminded souls.

And you don't need to be on the Forbes Billionaires list to enter the classic Ferrari club. You can start inexpensively with a model such as a 308. (Some readers may remember it as the car Tom Selleck drove as Magnum PI.) These cars can be bought from about US$50,000 and I'd recommend them as a great and relatively inexpensive entry into the exclusive club of Ferrari ownership.

But a word of warning, particularly if you are new to the classic car game. It is very important to make sure you buy from a good dealer or get good advice. An ostensibly cheap car needing a lot of work will be a much more expensive proposition, long-term, than a more expensive well maintained example. And any car you buy must have a good ownership record and authenticated service history - no matter who is selling it, invest a few minutes in calling up all the garages on the history to verify the work has taken place.

I suspect that, as more and more of the baby boomer generation seek alternative asset classes in which to invest, prices will continue to rise. After all, how often can you invest and have fun at the same time? And for UK residents, it's also worth bearing in mind that so long as you're not trading in cars, capital gains taxes on the sale of classic cars are zero.

So if you, like many people, are fed up with little or no return on your cash in the bank, buy a classic Ferrari, have some fun and make some money (hopefully). And my tip? The stunning mid-engined 288 GTO. Loosely based on the cheaper and less desirable 308 mentioned above, in 1984-5 only 270 of these cars were built as roadgoing versions for a racing series. Today's price is up to US$800,000 for a good one but I suspect that could rise significantly in the next few years. And no, I don't own one. Yet.

ANONYMOUS is an ultra-high net worth entrepreneur and car collector living in London.