Enzo died in 1988.
The F40 was the last Ferrari developed and built under the guardianship of Enzo.
In commemorating Ferrari’s 40th Anniversary, Enzo instructed his loyal team to create a supercar that could provide racing car technology to the boulevards.
Ferrari experienced F1 success with turbocharging and developed the road-going 288 GTO in 1984; the F40 followed suit using a twin-turbocharged mid-V8 engine.
The F40 used Kevlar integrated into a steel chassis and designed by Pininfarina.
Ferrari built 1,315 F40s between 1987 and 1992, all officially painted in Rosso Corsa.
All but seven of the 1,316 were left-hand drive.
The Sultan of Brunei had his seven converted to right-hand drive.
The development of the Ferrari F40 was shrouded in more secrecy than other Ferraris at the time; the initial intention was for it to race against the Porsche 959 in FIA Group B.
Group B was stopped unexpectedly in 1987, forcing Ferrari to rethink the role of the F40, from race car to road car.
While we take 200mph as not unusual today, in 1987, only one car could exceed the 200mph barrier, the Ferrari F40.
Car & Driver reported: ‘made our knees tremble involuntarily, our hearts do little stutter steps, and it made our palms disgustingly wet.’
I am sure Enzo would have been delighted.
