Ferrari Testarossa

About

As of 2026, it's 42 years old.

Some cars are products of their decade. The Testarossa is the 1980s, distilled into automotive form, all sharp angles, wide hips, and those unmistakable side strakes running down its flanks like the gills of some exotic sea creature. Pininfarina designed them partly for cooling, mostly because they looked spectacular, and they became one of the most recognisable design features in car history.

The name means 'redhead' in Italian, a nod to the red-painted cam covers on its glorious flat-12 engine, mounted low and wide behind the cabin. With nearly 400 horsepower and a top speed pushing 180mph, it was one of the fastest cars of its era and sounded utterly magnificent doing it.

Then television made it immortal. As Sonny Crockett's ride in 'Miami Vice,' a white Testarossa became the ultimate symbol of 1980s cool: pastel suits, neon, and unapologetic excess. Suddenly every kid and every aspiring tycoon wanted one. It was the supercar of the Reagan era.

Wide, low, and dramatic, the Testarossa is pure period theatre, and that's exactly why it's beloved. It doesn't pretend to be subtle or modern. It's a flamboyant, strake-covered slice of the decade that taste forgot, and the world adores it for that.

Ferrari Testarossa through the years