It is the dream of all car lovers to someday own a red Ferrari. Often these beautiful machines are put forward as some sort of mid-life crisis purchase but really the purchase of a Ferrari is the realization of a life long dream. For many people that Ferrari is the F40. The F40 is the prancing pony of prancing ponies. While this rare car is just a dream for many people, one lucky person can now make that dream a reality as it has popped up on sale.
There were only 1,315 F40 cars made and production ended in 1992. This rarity combined with the incredible beauty makes it one of the most sought after cars in the world today. Ferrari designed the F40 in response to the Porsche 959. In the 1980s it was the fastest street-legal car in the world and Ferrari was not pleased. They designed and released the F40 to defeat it. At the release of the car, Enzo Ferrari told the press that he had asked his engineers to build the best car in the world, and now he said: “it is here”.
The F40 was incredibly fast for its time, it was able to go from 0 to 60mph in 4.2 seconds. While no longer a record holder it would still be an incredibly fast car today. Originally there were only supposed to be 400 Ferrari F40s made with a tag price of $400,000 ($900,000 in today’s price based on inflation). Deman though was so high that Ferrari built 1,315 in the end with 213 going to the United States.
The F40 is such an incredible car that when one of these 1,315 dies people notice. In Monaco a car was burned to a crisp recently after an accident, it was a Ferrari F40 and the video went viral.
When the original F40s were built only two liters of paint were used on the car body. The idea was that every possible measure should be used to reduce the weight of the car, including limiting the amount of paint used. However, this means that if you look closely you can see the underlying kevlar. Many owners didn’t like this when they purchased the car and had them resprayed to cover the car. However, if you find a Ferrari with the original paint job it is worth a lot more money.
The paint job highlights the approach to the Ferrari F40. It is a car that was built for speed, not for ease of use. Many of the driver aids that we are used to today and that were prevalent in 1987 are not found in this vehicle. There is no carpet, or door trim, no radio, there are not even any door handles. The cars came originally without any air-conditioning and things like power-assisted steering or braking were needless weights that were left aside. This made the car incredibly light. The Porsche 959 at the time weighed 1417kgs while the Ferrari F40 came in at 1103 kg. The Ferrari F40 was a direct response to customers noting that the Ferraris were becoming “too comfortable”. This car was all about performance.
The car is so loved that a partnership was formed with Lego that saw Full Lego kits being released to build your own F40. The kit came with 1,518 pieces for a car that would be a foot long when finished. They have since stopped production and also become a collector’s item.
If you want to get your hands on a Ferrari F40 you can. There is a number on sale today at different auction houses with a company called Driving Emotions selling one right now. However, the last Ferrari F40 sold for over $1.5 million so you can expect it to cost you a sizeable amount.