1996 Ferrari 456 – Classified of the Week
June 13, 2023
Ferraris, as beautiful and as fast as they typically are, can be a little scary. We don’t mean over cooking it and parking it in a hedge scary (although many a driver has ended up exactly there after receiving a hefty cheque from their ego that their body simply couldn’t cash), we’re talking about the type of fear that goes hand-in-hand with the arrival of a maintenance bill for said prancing horse. Notoriously expensive to own and maintain it’s a facet of Ferrari ownership that puts a lot of people off, despite many models currently languishing at rock bottom prices. There are notable exceptions to that rule, however and one such example is the Ferrari 456.
Released in 1992 it was Ferrari’s most expensive car at the time, costing well over £160,000 but then it did feature a tubular space-frame chassis, aluminium and composite body panels and a stonking great 5.5-litre V12 engine spitting out around 440 horsepower and over 400lb ft of torque. Replacing the decidedly out-dated 412 as the discerning GT car of choice, the Pininfarina-designed 456 was a beautifully sculpted, graceful looking two-door, 2+2 coupé, the lines of which still hold up today and the car is ageing like a fine wine. Available with either a gated six-speed manual or four-speed automatic (the latter of which tend to command higher asking prices) the values of both variants have dropped off a cliff and have remained fairly stable for a while. At the time of writing the cheapest available here at Car & Classic is a ’97 model at just £37,000, a paltry amount compared to the list price when new. The 456 was treated to a face-lift in ’98, along with the addition of an M for ‘Modificato’ to the badge but the meat of the car remained essentially the same.
We see the 456 as sitting in the sweet spot between the capriciousness of earlier cars and the later electrical wizardry of more modern models. You don’t have to remove the engine to change the cambelt or have a degree in electronic engineering to replace a spark plug and that V12 is a strong, reliable unit. Yes it’s a Ferrari so bills are going to be on the higher side of painful but compared to a lot of cars of this calibre it’s nowhere near as crippling. The fact remains the 456 is still a stunningly beautiful, wonderfully comfortable, well balanced (51 front, 49 rear) and pant-wettingly fast grand tourer that is currently very, very affordable, comparatively speaking.
The focus of today’s Classified of the Week then is this 1996 manual version. We’re not going to lie, the metallic blue paintwork over beige hide colour scheme really drew us in and we think it looks absolutely fantastic. You can keep your red Ferraris, we’ll take something a little more unique and beguiling thank you. With less than 44K on the clock it’s had some use which is good and should mean that any servicing or maintenance issues will have been addressed by now, something that is supported by the car’s service book, past invoices and old MOTs.
On the subject of the car’s mechanicals, this 456 has recently been treated to a comprehensive service which included setting the valve clearances, replacing the water hoses and a re-finishing the cam covers and plenum chamber. All in all then it’s ready to roll and at under £60,000 there’s little to complain about.
We anticipate prices to rise soon so now is the time to scratch that Ferrari itch with this beautifully presented, manual gearbox 456. It’s a Ferrari that’s not too Ferrari. It doesn’t get all shouty about it, instead choosing to display a little more decorum, a touch more understated class. So if that sounds like a bit of you then we challenge you to find a more handsome, better performing car for the money. If you can we’ll go and buy a hat, and then promptly eat it. Oh, and did we mention the 456 is the last Ferrari ever to feature pop-up headlights? What are you waiting for?
