16 fun facts about the iconic Ferrari F40 – Robb report

It was the ultimate signature car for any reducer born in the 1980s, and the gorgeous Ferrari F40 still belongs on all walls. Created in 1987 as a successor to the 288 GTO, the sleek mid-engine berlinetta celebrated Ferrari’s 40th anniversary. It was also the last vehicle personally launched by il Commendatore, Enzo Ferrari himself. Here, 16 interesting facts and statistics about one of the best Maranello Prancing Horses.

Ferrari wanted to build something capable of gutting the Porsche 959

In 1984, the engineers at the Ferrari factory had focused their attention on a Group B FIA Group target, the Porsche 959. The Germans had built the world’s fasting legal-production car (it reached 197 mph), and Ferrari I had, uh, noticed.But when the FIA ​​eliminated Group B in 1986, Enzo was left with five 288 GTO Evoluzione development cars and nowhere to compete with them. He (fortunately) decided to exploit the production and make it a legal machine for the road.

Enzo Ferrari issued a very direct order to the team behind the F40

When he finally introduced the F40 to the world, Enzo succinctly told the gathering crowd of journalists: “I expressed my wish to the engineers: to build a car to be the best in the world. And now the car is here.

Dual-turbocharged V8 generates 471 hp

The mill behind the driver’s head is a 2.9-liter V-8 with a twin turbocharger and intercooler. It started as a 288 GTO engine, but expansion and other tweaks saw the version finally settle in the F40’s compartment with 471 hp and 426 ft-lb of torque. The F40 offered an impressive zero-to-60mph time of 4.2 seconds.

Many F40s had slightly different gear and torque curves

And output power. Some manufacturing issues saw different, though not as dramatic, statistics when several examples of F40 were modified. Until 1990, the F40 was manufactured without a catalytic converter, at which point EE. USA It required the inclusion of the device for broadcast purposes.

Only 400 F40 were originally planned to be built

When it debuted, Ferrari promised a limited production of 400 units. The price for each rolling artwork? $ 400,000, which was approximately five times the price of the previous 288 GTOs. (Today, that would be around $ 900,000, if the 1987 price were adjusted for inflation.)

However, the clamorous demand was too difficult to ignore and more were manufactured.

Understandably, far more than 400 customers wanted an F40, so after reaching that self-imposed production limit, Ferrari just kept building units. When all was said and done, 1,315 F40s were made, 213 of which arrived in the United States.

Unfortunately an F40 just burned in Europe

In late February 2020, many phones captured the tragic vision of an F40 completely engulfed in flames in Monaco. Despite some heroic efforts with garden hoses, the F40 burned down.

How much is a Ferrari F40 worth today?

Around $ 1.5 million, although the price fluctuates. In 1990, Formula 1 champion Nigel Mansell bought an F40 for a record price of £ 1 million (approximately $ 1.7 million, then). That record held for more than three decades, when it was not sown in the 2010s. Today, you may find that the Ferrari F40 is worth around $ 1.4 to $ 1.7 million, from recent auctions and sales.

You can definitely buy a Ferrari F40 today

Specialty websites and small exotic car dealers have active sales on the list. Auctions like RM Sotheby’s, Mecum and Barrett-Jackson have also sold many F40s in recent years.

The rarer (and more expensive) F40 cars have very thin paint layers

There is a simple reason for this. Less than two liters of red paint was used in many of the early F40s. Why? To save weight. (Yes, seriously.) The spray paint was so thin that the body tissue, made from Kevlar, was visible through the cape. When deliveries began, many customers found this to be undesirable, so cars were sprayed with thicker coats. Therefore, units that still have original, lightweight paint are more desirable to collectors and are subsequently worth much more.

The F40 has no driver aids

If the paint was applied sparingly in an attempt to reduce the weight of the car, almost all other amenities and driver assistance were removed under similar thought. That means there is no ABS (the F40’s brakes are not even assisted), there is no power assist in the rack and pinion direction, and there is no air conditioning system, rugs, trim, or handles. Not even a radio was offered. Later, for the American market, air conditioning units were added because the cabin is simply overheated by the engine.

All deletions make the F40 extremely agile

A tubular steel chassis and Kevlar body panels, along with the removal of all other nonessential parts, leave the F40’s curb weight at 2,433 pounds. This was leaps and bounds ahead of its closest competitor, the Porsche 959, which weighed 3,214 pounds.

Not everyone loved the handling as a result of the weight-saving design

Gordon Murray, father of the iconic McLaren F1, tested the F40 for Engine trend Back in 1990 and I noticed that little else was magic beyond lightness. “[Ferrari] it’s asking the two- and three-inch diameter steel tubes at the base of the chassis to do all the work, and that shows, “Murray said. “You can feel the chassis flexing on the circuit and wobbling all the way. It really trembles. And of course, once it excites the chassis, the door panels start to vibrate and squeak. ”

Ferrari did not mind the criticism of the F40

A Ferrari marketing executive is said to have said: “Customers had been saying that our cars were becoming too luxurious and comfortable. The F40 is for the most enthusiastic owners who want nothing more than pure performance. ”

For the most demanding, 10 examples of the F40 competition were created

The F40 was not wild enough for some Ferrari owners, so the brand offered a handful of F40 Competiziones. The first two were called the F40 LM (Le Mans), although Ferrari later thought that attributing the name to the iconic endurance race was too limiting, so they called them “Competizione”. Engine upgrades resulted in a whopping 691 hp and a reported top speed of up to 228 mph.

You can build your own F40

Thanks to a partnership with the Legos Creator Expert line, if you have the time and patience, you can create a serious and detailed F40 replica. The $ 299 kit has 1,158 pieces, and the resulting model is nearly a foot long. Like a real-life cousin, he also dropped out of production.