Ferrari Mondial QV

The Mondial 2+2 coupe was introduced as the Mondial 8 in 1980. It was the first Ferrari to depart from the company's familiar 3-digit naming scheme and was initially powered by the same mid/rear-mounted 214bhp 3-litre V8 as used in the Dino 308 GT4. 

The chassis was also based on the 308 GT4, but four inches longer in the wheelbase. Suspension was by double wishbones all around. The transmission was borrowed from Ferrari's F1 efforts and featured a transverse mounted gearbox which lowered the drive-line by five inches. The first Ferrari to offer power steering as an option, it also had air-conditioning as standard with climate control for both the driver and passenger.

Following some criticism of its relatively modest performance, Ferrari introduced a more potent version during the summer of 1982, the 240bhp QV. This gave the car a top speed of 146mph and could propel it to 60mph in just 6.4 seconds. When production ceased in 1993, some 6,800 Mondials had rolled off the Maranello production line, of which just 1,145 were QV coupes, only 152 of which were in right-hand drive.

This particular Mondial is one only 9 finished in Nero Black and was supplied new to Sheik Basil Salim Al Sabah at his Knightsbridge address by Maranello Concessionaires in November 1982. As the original purchase invoice confirms, he paid a princely £26,900 for the car including £505 for the electric sunroof and £23.41 for a full tank of fuel!

The car has covered just 46,000 miles to date with 9 stamps in the service book, the last less than 300 miles ago when the cambelts and gearbox oil were also renewed by Northern Supercars of Lancashire. Other bills on file show that a sports exhaust was fitted in 2007 along with the Ferrari 348 wheels that the car still rides on today. Virtually all the old MOTs are also present to confirm the mileage. There is also an insurance valuation from Maranello Concessionaires in 2011 stating that it should be insured for £20,000.

Supplied with all its original handbooks and a continuous ownership history from new, it also comes with a factory workshop manual and a technician’s maintenance guide. With just one registered keeper in the last 5 years, the car is said to drive beautifully and has an MOT until February 2014. The icing on the cake is a wonderfully appropriate registration number, MON 814L.

With its proven drive-train and four seat practicality, the Mondial is considered an ideal entry into the fabled 'prancing horse' club and is one of the marque's most reliable and inexpensive to maintain models. It is something of a mystery why they remain so undervalued today, a situation that we feel sure cannot persist for much longer. Yet another one to buy now while you can still afford to!