Ferrari 849 Testarossa, undesirable dream cars...

... and what to do when you find £25k down the back of the sofa

By Cam Tait / Tuesday, 16 September 2025 / Loading comments

You’ve likely all seen the new Ferrari 849 Testarossa by now and, if you have, you’ve probably got a strong opinion about it, which makes it the perfect place to start this week’s podcast, right? Well, after an extensive preamble from John, that is, about the new Skoda Superb estate and some people he saw decked in fancy dress on the Circle Line that morning.

Surprisingly, it’s not the rebooting of the Testarossa name that has people up in arms about the new 849, but rather the way it looks. Ferrari’s design chief, Flavio Manzoni, has delivered a fair few controversial designs in recent years, from the brutal F80 to the (arguably a little underwhelming) Amalfi. But the 849 Testarossa may well be his most extreme yet, taking cues from the 512 S and 512 M prototypes of the '70s, and peppering it with flicks and fins for a far more purposeful look than that of its SF90 Stradale predecessor. Is it enough to ramp up the theatre of Ferrari’s one and only plug-in? Or is Maranello’s design department running out of steam?

As ever, it’s on to a buying challenge, this week provided by deeen. They want to know what would be the first car you’d look for if you found £25,000 hiding down the back of the sofa, with the only criteria being that it must be petrol, manual, rear-wheel drive, ideally have a limited-slip diff and ‘feel a bit special’. Among John’s many, many suggestions were 1996 and 1997 TVR Griffith 500s, both of which are open for bidding on PistonHeads auctions, and this 1988 Lotus Esprit before settling on this sublime E39 BMW M5 in Le Mans Blue. I, on the other hand, initially went for this TVR Tamora, before stumbling across this 1996 Cerebra. It’s a little cheaper at £18,000, but no harm in having a contingency fund, eh?

To wrap up, we take a stab at listing the cars we’d love to own, but could never commit to pulling the trigger on one. Inspired by jaybee’s ‘10 cars you'd like to own but could never justify owning’ topic, John puts forward the Jaguar XJ-S and BMW Z1 among many others, while I’ve gone for the Mazda MX-5 and Porsche 911 Turbo. All that and more on this week’s episode of The Gassing Station!

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