In 1984 when this Ferrari was manufactured my dad had an Austin Princess. To benchmark me as a 20year old in 1983 I drove a Hillman Imp. My mate Tony’s dad had a Porsche 928 as a company car. I nearly feinted when he took me out in the car. ‘What a car’ I said. ‘I wanted a Ferrari 400i’ he replied. He was a senior buyer at British Shoe Corp and he never did get that Ferrari 400i.

So when we get the chance to represent that childhood memory of course I am going to jump at the chance. However, often when similar things happen the icon disappoints. NOT so with this Ferrari 400iA. There are good ones and bad ones. This is a good one. A Ferrari Owners Club Concours winner no less. ‘Ah, but shiny concours cars don’t drive well’ is a school of thought. Well this cars drives really well and everything works as it should.

We present our Ferrari 400i in stunning unmarked Azzure with Crema leather, sporting correct 400TRX wheels and of course that magnificent 4.8litre 60degree V12 generating 315bhp and taking the 400 to 146mph top speed with outstanding torque and no small amount of style! As can be seen from the photos the car is presented in stunning condition. Not a mark on the cars lovely metallic blue coachwork. The car sits beautifully on those perfect TRX wheels shod with the correct tyres. Inside the cabin is a sea of Crema leather with the dash and supporting console filled with gauges and switches to keep the driver well informed.

Lets deal with the elephant in the room. It’s an automatic. Apparently we all want a manual gear change. Well we did 20-30 years ago. BUT not so much now. This is a grand touring supercar of its day. Built to eat up miles of roads here and abroad with grace and pace. In recent years there is a movement towards automatic cars and the reason is because we are not 30 years old anymore. We have dodgy knees and maybe a hip replacement on the horizon. We still want a classic car and we still want a rapid, stylish and elegant classic car too. So grand touring cars and automatic gear change are fine by me and I suspect the buyer of this car will have the fact it is an automatic very much front and centre in their consideration There is a massive history file with this car too. It only has 46000 miles on the clock but there is a full service history of main dealer and specialist service. The original Ferrari service folder is with the car together with a marketing catalogue for the 400i. Numerous Ferrari Owners Club events and awards are documented in the history. The latest owner of this car has cherished it for nearly 13years and his business commitments have meant the car has been stuck in the garage too often.

So time to sell. A rare car indeed and even more special because of the condition and supporting history with this cracking Ferrari 400iA

£49995