25 years F40



by Matthias Urban

25 years ago today - on July, 21st 1987 - the F40 was presented in Maranello. The press conference car was # 73015, one of the seven prototypes. The car’s body was composed of Kevlar, Carbon and fiberglass coated by a thin lacquer coat that allows a view on the synthetic structure of the bodyshell. The car was powered by Tipo F120A engines, a 2.9 litre V8 engine (2,936 cc) and twin-turbo charged that produced 478 hp and made the car 312 km fast. The car emerged from the 288 GTO and the 5 Evoluzione-GTOs can be rated as experimental models for the F40, means in the genealogical tree the F40 is closer to a 308 than to a Testarossa, the 12 cyl. car of that time. Nevertheless, the F40 was the strongest and fastest production sportscar of its time.
Originally a production of 400 units was planned, when production ended in 1994 with #99893 the official figure of produced cars summed up to 1,331 units and –believe it or not- 1,440 units are in F-Register.com’s database!!! 211 to 213 cars have been officially US-cars. The first US-car was completed in 1990. Only a handful of cars have been produced or converted to Right Hand Drive, most of them for the Sultan of Brunei. Early cars did show fog-lights at the rear. MSRP has been around 225,000 Euro.
The most exotic F40 should be # 79883, the only ever car produced car with the Valeo-transmission that was used on a small group of Mondials. # 79883 was exclusively built for Commendatore Agnelli. Michelotto took 20 cars to build LM versions of the F40 and further 7 cars he converted to GTEs.
The F40 was, supported by the then hype, said to be the first “subject of speculation”. It was the last Ferrari being produced when Enzo Ferrari was still alive. Prices for contracts and “used” cars jumped to incredible levels, the highest price known is 1,63 mio. € in 1989. Today’s level for a F40 is around 350,000 €. Most of us might have a F40 die cast model as well. Mine is a very early production car by Bburago. I paid something around 18 € then, even this 1:18 scale car became an object of speculation after a rumour grew that the casting mould had been destroyed what wasn’t really the case, but made prices jump to an absurd 500 € for a short time.

If you are subscribed to F-Register.com already you can easily access the database to have a look on all 1,440 F40s in there!