Ferrari 512 BB
Why 3.2: The flat-12 the Testarossa would inherit and soften, in a narrower, rawer body Ferrari never federalized — every US car is a grey-market federalization job. Auction averages have climbed 263% since 2011, and a car once considered the 'affordable' flat-12 Ferrari next to its successor is not affordable anymore.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €39k (1976) → €276k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
The long version
This is the car Testarossa fans forget existed: same basic idea — a flat-12 slung amidships, gearbox mounted beneath the crank, an arrangement that gave every Boxer-era Ferrari an unusually high center of gravity for a mid-engine car — in a narrower, more aggressive shape that predates the Testarossa's wide-body theatrics by eight years. Ferrari built 929 of the carbureted 512 BB before switching to fuel injection for the BBi, and never once federalized either version for the US market; every American example went through an independent specialist's smog and safety conversion, a process that got noticeably easier by the fuel-injected BBi era but never ran through an actual US Ferrari dealer. For years that grey-market friction kept it priced as the overlooked, cheaper flat-12 next to the more famous Testarossa. That gap has closed hard: auction averages are up 263% since 2011, recent sales cluster around $200,000–$250,000, and the concours-condition average now sits near $305,000. A car bought for decades by people willing to deal with import paperwork specifically because they wanted to drive a flat-12 Ferrari is increasingly being bought by people who want to own one instead.