HOW TO INVEST IN A CLASSIC CAR

It has been a slightly nailbiting time for the Testarossa, or specifically its owner, as I await the final report on the car's health from Joe Macari Performance Cars, where the car is having its medical. I am now scheduled in for a detailed assessment of the car on Friday January 16 with workshop manager Andrew, which sparks some of the same kind of feelings I had before my health insurance-related full medical a couple of years back. Fortunately,

I'm not too nervous because a) I bought the car for its paintwork, which is original and pristine b) its very low mileage (21,500) and full, verifiable UK history and c) its straight, uncrashed bodywork. None of these are likely to be proved wrong (I have been informed), so I suspect it will be a question of addressing lots of bric-a-brac from seals to brackets to hoses. Though, on a Ferrari these costs can mount up.

Meanwhile, I have "got the bug" (as a Ferrari collecting friend put it). Ferraris are becoming such a popular alternative investment that according to some indices they are outperforming art, wine, stamps, and all other so-called "investments of passion". A Testarossa similar to mine is on the market for £125,000 (I paid less than £75,000 in November, to which the cost of the current sprucing must be added.). But before you remortgage the house and buy a 456 GTA, this only applies to certain Ferraris, in certain conditions, and like all investments it applies at certain times - only three years ago many of the Ferraris that are now increasing in value were in steep decline.

On the principle that one Ferrari is all right, two are too many and three are not enough (to paraphrase James Thurber on Martinis) I have been devoting some time and attention to the next one (or two). The challenge is that Ferraris are not like Porsches: there are so many models with such aristocratic heritage (and limited runs) that the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

According to my well-placed friends, a very good place to browse for an entry-level Ferrari (that is, one for less than £100,000 - this is the alternative universe of the high net worth) is The Ferrari Centre in Kent. A workshop and adjoining warehouse at a dead end in an industrial estate (with no signs pointing to it, for obvious reasons), it is run by respected former racing technician Roger Collingwood and his wife Claire. Claire is a former Ferrari racing driver herself and featured prominently in a GQ article on Ferrari owners a mere 25 years ago.

It is easy to get lost for choice at The Ferrari Centre. An almost-as-new 328 GTB with 5000 miles for £125,000 - an investment car for sure, but would you dare to drive it? Or a soon-to-be-pristine Mondial t cabriolet for £40,000 - the last of the maligned Mondial range actually had a serious 300 horsepower V8 and is the world's only mid-engined four-seat convertible - with collector's value? Somewhere in between are two delicious-looking F355 Spiders - the mid-1990s F355 is tipped by many to be the next collector's car, better to drive than either its predecessor (the 348) or its successor (the 360 Modena). And they look and feel just right; at around £70,000 they might be safer than shares, and certainly a lot more fun, but with the opposite problem to the museum-piece 328: would you be able to stop driving them?

Roger also warns me that different Ferraris have unpredictably different levels of maintenance cost. The F355, despite being newer than a 328, is vastly more expensive to run, for example.

My personal problem is that I have started high in the Ferrari ownership stakes: the Testarossa is no entry-level trotter but a supercar thoroughbred, the top-of-the-range of the 1980s (unlike you count the limited-edition F40). Unless I want my prancing-horse ownership to go downhill, I need to stick with 12 cylinders, and true icons: which means that delicately gorgeous 365 Berlinetta Boxer in the corner of The Ferrari Centre, for the price of a decent semi in many English towns. And I couldn't possibly do that, unless the investment logic really outweighed that of a buy-to-let or a financial portfolio.

And in fact there is one Ferrari model whose investment value is about to explode, or rather, has just started to explode. It's getting pricier by the day, and it's very rare; so rare there are none for sale in the UK and just two on the open market in the whole of Europe, and I rather want one. Its model shall remain secret because ten GQ readers wielding chequebooks could double the market price (it's that rare). But I need to wait and see what the conclusion is from Joe Macari in Wandsworth before I reach out for my second Martini, I mean, Ferrari, whatever model I choose. Until then, ciao bella, as the Testarossa driver says.