27 October 2022
The F40 was the ultimate 80s status symbol; it swaggered outrageous styling and was the furthermost road-going Ferrari ever.
Ferrari built the F40 to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary.
The F40 car was a Berlinetta designed by Pininfarina and made from Kevlar, carbon fibre and aluminium, providing great strength and very low weight, coupled with, for the day, outstanding aerodynamic form.
The F40 was turbo-charged and built on a superb chassis, giving it the feel of a racing car. Car and Driver described the car as a ‘mix of sheer terror and raw excitement.
Ferrari made the most of a marketing opportunity; it was the first production car to exceed 200mph, knocking the freshly announced Porsche from that exhaled position.
Notwithstanding the electrifying performance, its real strength was the way it handled.
The F40 continued to exist in a very similar form throughout its six years in production. All were left-hand-drive and finished in Rosso Corsa. Although the initial production run was limited to 400 units, a total of 1,311 Ferrari F40 models were eventually produced.
An addendum; I said that all F40s were left-hand-drive; however, in Brunei, they drive on the ‘correct’ side of the road, so for the Sultan, Pininfarina made him a RHD version. Well, seven, actually; this makes them possibly the rarest of all Ferrari F40s ever made. I believe the Sultan also had one of the 19 Ferrari F40 LMs.
It was also the last car personally approved by Enzo Ferrari.
