A very wise man once said that if you want a reliable man servant, buy a Porsche. But if you want a fiery redhead mistress, get a Ferrari. This was what passed through Brad McCreedy’s mind as he stood before the mistress of his dreams.

Before sliding behind the wheel of the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, I considered how the Ferrari mid-engine V8 has evolved over the years. The 308 GTS Quattrovalvole, the one Magnum PI made famous, was really the first V8 mid-engine Ferrari since the V6 of the Dino 206/246. The 308 was absolutely bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful, but although it might have been quick in the ’80s, it now possesses the same power as a modern hot hatch – all show and no go. But the Scuderia promises more and delivers more, a lot more.

The 430 Scuderia is the race version of the 430 and successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale. It has those “go faster” grey racing stripes with matching grey wheels – or gold ones if you want to “Scooby” it up a bit. Just looking at the car on paper it is about 100kg lighter than the standard 430 and more powerful with 379kw/508hp. Its power-to-weight ratio is 2.5kg/hp, and it has the willingness to do 0 to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds, boasting a top speed of 319km/h – a fat bonus for our friendly traffic officers hiding in the bushes.

From the inside of the cabin you realise that Ferrari really tried to make a road-legal race car, and the fact that Michael Schumacher helped with the development certainly counts in its favour. It’s evident that everything that could possibly weigh down, and slow down, this car, even in the slightest, has been removed. The seats are manually operated, there are no carpets and the radio is even an optional extra! But strangely none of these missing luxuries detract from this car.

Simply hit that start button, and turn the dial on the steering wheel to “race” (or switch the driving aids off, if you feel brave) and you’re ready to fly. The sound from the engine must be one of the greatest aphrodisiacs you can find.

The ride is hard, as you would expect, and some owners have referred to it as “boob-shakingly” hard, which must be a good thing, right? But what a thrill to drive.

The semi-automatic gears are controlled from the paddles behind the steering wheel, and its shift is crisp and unbelievably fast (60 milliseconds). At its sound is, well, loud! Loud enough to warrant the no radio and of course to drown out the sound of your passenger moaning for you to slow down...

It handles like a dream and corners beautifully, planted on the road by special 19 inch Pirelli PZero Corsa tyres. The steering is very direct; all you have to do is point it in the right direction, and it will follow. But it’s the car’s ability to stop that is truly astounding. The carbon-ceramic brakes will never overheat or fade, no matter how hard you try.

And for those who feel the Scuderia isn’t fast enough, tuning company Novitec will happily boost the performance up to 534kw/717hp with two superchargers and a top speed of 348km/h. But if you do this, you’ll need some big round bits downstairs to handle this beast as well as approximately three quarters of a million rand for the conversion.
If you want to take the top off, Ferrari even made a spider (convertible) version of the Scuderia called the 16M (referring to the 16 Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championships Ferrari has won). It will set you back a bit more, but with only 499 made worldwide, it may just be worth it.

So, bottom line: if you’re looking for a slightly harder-core car with oodles of passion and you have about R2,8 million lying around (for a slightly used one) or possibly a kind bank manager (don’t think they exist anymore) this car is what you want. After driving it myself, I feel this car is actually not just what I want but what I need! So I began to think how I could make quick money for one of these. I thought of selling a kidney – or the wife. So if you want to buy either, let me know.