Thank you all for your comments. The classic car market is powered to a great degree by nostalgia, the drive to own what we had when young or lusted after when young. That is the role fulfilled by my current fezza or would be if it made sense to use it frequently. But the trouble with Ferrari is the equationat (mileage x £2 = depreciation) so you buy a nice example, as I did, with low recorded mileage and then it doesnt get used for more than at best 2000 miles a year. It doesnt make any rational sense except on the occasions you do drive it.
But there is also another factor - performance. I chose my first Ferrari after I sold my Elise. I tried all the then available alternatives but the Ferrari was the only one that gave me the mid engined go cart drive. I am a boy racer at heart. Nothing is as enjoyable as overtaing someone round the outside on a roundabout and then blasying away.
Plus my father had always promissed himself a Ferrari but sadly died before he got round to buying one. I am sentimental - the fezza is Dads car !.
I never really enjoyed Fezza no 1. I was nervous of repair bills, reluctant to add miles, and not that fond of 18mpg on a good day. In a burst of common sense it got replaced by an F type V6 supercharged. The Jag was an excellent sports car and fun to drive but with three issues. The first was the ridiculous size of boot since the car had to be a spider. The second was the drivers seat squab which put a damaged hip ( bike crash) onto a hard bolster. The third was a flappy paddle box with no less than a ridiculous 8 gears which meant you ended up driving it in full auto all the time. It had to go but it was a pity because as an every day useable car it had a lot going for it.
You should learn from your mistakes but I didnt. I bought another low mileage Ferrari, this time a model earlier than Fezza 1 with a manual box and fewer electronics. Even more fun to drive than Fezza 1 which was 100bhp more powerful and with flappy paddles, but with the same mileage and depreciation issue.And service bills and increasingly unavailable spares since it dates from 2003.
I guess I am writing this as much as anything to try get my thoughts clear in my own mind. I am past the age of "get out and get under" or I would go for a true classic. Maybe an XC120. I want an every day useable car but I like the mid engined dynamics of the likes of Lotus and Ferrari. And I love open cars. Does it have to be a Porker which on previous trial drives I have found a bit soul-less? What else is there in this space. And a Porker wont cost less in depreciation than the Ferraris in the price range I buy.
I'll stop here before I write a Luddite style philosophical post about life and the meaning of sports cars.
