The Ferrari F40 is a Legendary Vehicle

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The successor to the Ferrari 288 GTO, the Ferrari F40, is an automotive legend. The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-door coupé sports car built from 1987 to 1992 was designed to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary. Not only was the F40 the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car Ferrari ever sold to the public at that time, but it was also the last Ferrari personally approved by the brand’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, before his death in 1988 at the age of 90. The car debuted with a factory suggested retail price of $400,000 in 1987 (more than $837,000 today) while some buyers were reported to have paid as much as $1.6 million for the legendary sports car. Over the course of the model’s five-year lifespan, 1,315 units were manufactured in total.

Originally developed as an evolution model of the Ferrari 288 GTO, Enzo Ferrari’s desire to leave a lasting legacy in his final supercar led to further development of the 288 GTO Evoluzione program and resulted in the Ferrari F40, a car produced exclusively for road use. The F40’s power came from an enlarged 2.9-liter version of the 288 GTO’s twin IHI turbocharged V8 while the suspension setup was similar to that of the 288 GTO’s low clearance double wishbone setup. An entirely new body design by independent Italian auto design firm Pininfarina was designed with aerodynamics in mind and featured panels made of kevlar, carbon fiber, and aluminum for strength and low weight and also included plastic windows and windshields. The F40 did not include a sound system, glove box, door handles, leather trim, carpets, or door panels.

Relying more on its shape than its power for absolute speed, the Ferrari F40 had tremendous performance potential. It’s light weight of 2,425 pounds and a high power output of 471 horsepower at 7000 rpm has helped cement the F40 as one of the greatest sports cars ever produced. Road tests have produced zero to 62 mph times as low as 3.8 seconds, zero to 99 mph times as low as 7.5 seconds, and zero to 124 mph times as low as 10 seconds–matching its primary competitor at the time, the Porsche 959. The Ferrari F40 was also the first road legal production car to break the 200 mph barrier and held the record as the world’s fastest production car from 1987 to 1989 with a top speed of 201.4 mph.

The two-seat Ferrari F40’s official first specifications include a top speed of 200 mph, a rear, longitudinal 90° V8 engine, a maximum power of 478 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, a maximum torque of 425 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm, a weight of 2,425 pounds, independent front and rear suspensions, a five-speed transmission, rack-and-pinion steering, and a combined 13 miles per gallon. Discontinued in 1992, the Ferrari F40 was succeeded by the Ferrari F50, a two-seat roadster convertible introduced in 1995.

Scroll down for more photos and an in depth video of the legendary Ferrari F40, a car which Top Gear‘s Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson have both called the “greatest supercar the world has ever seen.”

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