Ferrari F40

The Ferrari F40 is a supercar that was produced by Ferrari from 1987 to 1992 as the successor to the 288 GTO , with which it shared some parts. During its production run, the F40 was Ferrari’s fastest, most powerful and most expensive vehicle and it remains one of the highest performing street legal vehicles ever produced.

The F40 was in the most literal sense designed as the successor to the company’s GTO supercar, but the project’s meaning ran deeper. At ninety years old, Enzo Ferrari was keenly aware that his life was coming to an end, and was somewhat disappointed that Ferrari’s dominance in international motorsport had faded somewhat over the years. As a result, Enzo wanted a new pet project put into the pipelines, something that could remind the world of the company’s capabilities as a manufacturer as well as provide both a competitor to the Porsche 959 and come to be his masterpiece; the company’s impending 40th anniversary provided just the right occasion for the car to debut. The plan was simple: create a vehicle that combined the company’s best technologies into a no-frills sports car that would come as close as possible to being a full fledged race vehicle while still retaining the necessary equipment to be a street-legal product. It was the last car to be commissioned by Enzo himself before his death.

It was intended that there were to be 400 F40s made, all painted red.

The F40 was designed with aerodynamics in mind, and is very much a creation of its time. For speed the car relied more on its power than its shape. Frontal area was reduced, and airflow greatly smoothed, but stability rather than terminal velocity was a primary concern. So too was cooling as the forced induction engine generated a great deal of heat. In consequence, the car was somewhat like an open-wheel racing car with a body. It had a partial undertray to smooth airflow beneath the radiator, front section, and the cabin, and a second one with diffusers behind the motor, but the engine bay was not sealed. Nonetheless, the F40 had an impressively low Cd of 0.34 with lift controlled by its spoilers and wing. Power came from an enlarged, 2.9 litre version of the GTO ’s twin IHI turbocharged V8 developing 478 bhp (356 kW) under 16 PSI (110 kPa) of boost. The suspension setup, like the GTO ’s, remained a double wishbone setup, though many parts were upgraded and settings were changed; the unusually low ground clearance prompted Ferrari to include the ability to raise the vehicle’s ground clearance when necessary.

The body was an entirely new design by Pininfarina featuring panels made of kevlar, carbon fiber, and aluminum for strength and low weight, and intense aerodynamic testing was employed. Weight was further minimized through the use of a plastic windshield and windows and no carpets, sound system or door handles were installed. Early cars had fixed windows, although newer windows that could be rolled down were installed into later cars and the F40 did without a catalytic converter until 1990 when US regulations made them a requirement for emissions control reasons.

It was originally intended to be built for Group B circuit racing which required the regulation Gr. B minimum of 200, but the car saw competition as early as 1989 when it debuted in the Laguna Seca round of the IMSA , with a LM evolution model driven by Jean Alesi, finishing third to the two faster spaceframed four wheel drive Audi 90 and beating a host of other factory backed spaceframe specials that dominated the races. Despite lack of factory backing, the car would soon have another successful season there under a host of guest drivers such as Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Jacques Laffite and Hurley Haywood taking a total of three second places and one third. Although the F40 would not return to IMSA for the following season, it would later be a popular choice by privateers to compete in numerous domestic GT series including JGTC

The F40 was discontinued in 1992 and in 1995 was succeeded by the F50 , which until a newer generation of factory backed GT1 cars that came along, remained competitive.

The F40 ’s light weight of 1100 kg and high power output of 478 hp @ 7000 rpm gave the vehicle tremendous performance potential. Road tests have produced 0-60mph times as low as 3.2 seconds, with 0-100mph in 7.6 seconds,0-125mph in 11 seconds giving the F40 a slight advantage in acceleration over the 959, which was considered its primary competitor at the time. From its introduction in 1987 until 1989, it held the record as the world’s fastest production car, with a top speed of 201 mph; the record was broken by the RUF CTR “Yellowbird”, owing to the RUF ’s 211 mile-per-hour top speed – although the F40 could still outrun it to its top speed, where then the RUF would go ahead. The top speed was publicly proven capable of its rated top speed in 1992 through an infamous incident in which a Japanese dealership owner proved the car’s potential by filming himself touching its top speed on an expressway only to be arrested after he sold a videotape to an undercover policeman. By that time, he already sold ten thousand videos.

The F40 was the first road legal production car to break the 200mph (322kph) barrier.