You might not be poor … but you have a serious health problem:

Petrol runs through your veins. And the little blood still left there is Ferrari red. Deep Ferrari red.

There is only one cure:

The Ferrari F40. Full stop.

The very car the venerable Enzo Ferrari himself did unveil in the summer of 1987, 40 years after his firstborn, echoing 40 years of Ferrari glory. F40. 

It was a man‘s, man‘s world, then. Enzo‘s world. A world is gone forever when Enzo passed away on a somehow sunny day in August 1988. That makes the F40 unrepeatable for any collector … and for you. The F40 was Enzo‘s last Supercar. Supersupercar.

Yes, the name F40 was not chosen casually but recalls and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the company: This Ferrari was in the truest sense the last one with the founder’s “signature,” capable of fully expressing all the values of Enzo´s Ferraris.

And yes, the Ferrari F40 is still one of the best uncompromising sports cars ever, light and nimble, and very powerful, with its 8-cylinder with 2 IHI turbochargers, rear-wheel drive, and a 5-speed gearbox to move the world.

Performance was truly remarkable … and it still is:

4.1 seconds for 0/100 km/h and 324 km/h top speed, these are (almost) the numbers of “La Ferrari,” equipped with a 3.0 cc engine, 478 horsepower for a weight of only 1,100 kg. A hurricane behind the driver‘s ears.

The Ferrari F40 is still an extreme and elegant car: 

Its design came from the pencil of Aldo Brovarone (for Pininfarina) and is appreciated for its aggressive, low, and sharp front end, with twin headlights of which the upper ones were retractable. Nothing in the styling was left to chance, so the rear, with a large fixed-wing integrated into the squared-off tail, was equally aggressive. Completing the tails were 3 central exhausts and the engine, foregrounded by the black grille.

Some more trivia:

The car was derived from the 308 GTB and the 288 GTO Evoluzione prototype and was wanted and made without a radio, leather seats, central locking and door handle. Its development was also completed in just over a year, instead of the canonical 2 or 3.

Production ended in 1992 after customers spent tens of millions solely for deposits to gain access to the purchase contract, and in this way, the first examples put back on sale exceeded 1 billion Italian lire which translates into roughly 360.000 USD in 1987.

As a reminder, the F40 was the first road car in Ferrari history to be built with a variety of composite materials such as Kevlar for the chassis, fiberglass for the body, and aeronautical resins for the fuel tanks, and Plexiglas for the side windows. It was also, at presentation, the fastest road car ever built.

Of course. It was Enzo‘s last gift to the world. Your world.

After you made the decision that you need one, the BIG question is.

Which F40 Version would you like to purchase?

Without considering the few road-legal Competizione options, not mentioning the GTE and the “holy-grail” F40LM ( we will do that in another post ) you have 3 options:

Out of the 1311 units, we can confirm the rough numbers:

55 units are Series 1 = slider windows ( Lexan ) units that have different doors and no in-door trim and are considered to be the rawest, purest, and the “only true” F40s made for the road, ever.

“Roughly 300 units” are Series 1,5, so-called “non-catalytic converters”, basically the same car as Series 1 but with in-door trim and proper window down glass window. Very helpful to get some fresh air into the cabin with the 2,9 liter V8 “heater” sitting on your back…

Although we have been very much attracted to the idea of having 3 different Asset Class ratings for the 3 different F40 road-legal versions, we have decided that we will list the much lesser produced slider window ( we think that is the one every collector should have and will get ) and the Series 1,5, both in the second best rating category SF50_AA…

While the Series 2 version has been rated one category  lower under SF50_A

“Roughly 950-1000 units” are so-called Series 2 cars. Catalytic converter and adjustable suspension make this the least desired specification. The “950-1000” units include the US-supplied cars delivered after 1990/1991 with side markers and adjusted ECU-Management in order to qualify for US / EPA emission requirements.