The Ferrari F40: A Legend’s Performance and Its Current Market Value

But First a little bit of backstory

Ferrari is one of the most respectable car manufacturers known for its amazing racing pedigree. When Enzo Ferrari initially started the company, the only aim was to win races, and producing cars was never the initial plan. Before creating the company, Enzo Ferrari was a salesman and racing driver for Alfa Romeo. 

To consider the gentleman driver and other amateur racers, Alfa Romeo withdrew from the races in 1933 and became their unofficial representative on the track.

After several issues, in 1945 Ferrari adopted its current name and developed the new V12 engine that would power their first car, the Ferrari 125S, and the rest became history. Later after forty years, the Ferrari embossed its name as one of the most iconic car manufacturers with the Ferrari F40. 

The F40 is a celebration

The intended purpose for the creation of Ferrari F40 was to celebrate the 40th anniversary, the car was given the utmost attention. It was combined with many desirable features that made this car an icon of the automotive industry, while also re-establishing its reputation as an exotic performance-oriented car manufacturer.

Before the F40, Ferrari was purposefully headed towards luxury and comfort at the cost of performance, which was not expected by Enzo Ferrari. The F40 was made to change this perception and with its roots attached to Ferrari’s racing days, which they use to dominate with unmatched racing capabilities. 

And the F40 just stunned the world, you can also confirm with a statement given by Ermanno Bongfiglioli’ the head of special projects of Ferrari in 1980 and one of the creators of the Ferrari F40.

 

“I have never experienced a presentation like that of the F40. When the car was unveiled, a buzz passed through the room followed by thunderous applause. No one, except for close associates of Enzo Ferrari, had yet seen it. Indeed, the company had cloaked the development and testing of that car in unusual secrecy. And the surprise at such a stylistic leap was almost shock.”

Everybody present there knew that this was something special, this is what Ferrari as the manufacturer was capable of and it was better than whatever that present on the road. Reportedly, a total of 1,311 units were produced, with 213 of them being allocated to the United States.

Ferrari F40 Design and Development

Not only one of the best Ferraris, but one of the mightiest sportscars ever made, the F40 was the new benchmark for all the performance car manufacturers. It was a remarkable engineering endeavor undertaken by Ferrari, with the assistance of Pininfarina the F40 evolved from the 288 Evolizione concepts to a fully ready production vehicle in just 13 months.

 It was designed to be the most focused no-nonsense road car Ferrari has ever created thus far, and they went all in with implementing the advanced material sciences, including the early implementation of carbon fiber and bonded Kevlar panels.

A strict regime was also placed to help achieve the weight of approximately 3,000 pounds, which was surprisingly light for a supercar of that time. To put things into perspective, the Bugatti EB110 weighed 3,571 lbs. The exterior was adorned with a downward sloping front nose and a sizeable rear wing allowed it to have exceptional aerodynamics. A drag coefficient of 0.34 is kind of exceptional.

The interior of the car was also kept minimal, with gauges, lightweight cloth bucket seats, and pull-cords instead of interior door handles adopted. The initial fifty cars produced featured sliding Lexan windows, whereas subsequent models were equipped with wind-down windows. It was quite evident that comfort and convenience were not the front runners this time as performance stole all the limelight.

Ferrari F40 specification and performance

The highlighting feature of the Ferrari is its insane performance capabilities. It is to this day one of the best driver's cars that is well known for its Go-Kart-like handling capabilities. At the back sits a Tipo F120A/F120D 90° V8 taken directly from its predecessor, the 288 GTO. The engine was enlarged to 2,936 (from 2,855 cc) however featured the same twin-turbochargers to summon 478 horsepower and 426 lb-ft of torque via a 5-speed manual transmission.

With a redline of 7,000 rpm, the F40 gets three exhaust pipes, one for each cylinder bank and the central pipe directs gases emitted from the turbochargers' wastegate. Oh, btw, did we mention that every car had a different power output and torque curve?

 Each F40 engine was meticulously assembled by hand, leading to subtle differences in the build quality, component fitting, and tolerances. This hand-assembled approach can result in slight performance variations between engines.

For some adrenaline junkies, the Ferrari F40 LM later known as F40 Competizione debuted in 1989. The car put simply was the close-fisted version of the F40. If you guessed more power and frequent nervous breakdowns, you are right. The F40 Competizione used an upgraded version of the same engine good enough for 691 horsepower, a 220 horsepower jump from the base F40.

A total of 10 customer-request models were ever made. The first two models were called LM (Le Mans) whereas the subsequent models gained the Competizione tag. As for the performance, the base F40 (if that's even a thing for Ferrari) claimed a top speed of 201 MPH however multiple independent measurements put it at no more than 199 MPH. This is where Competizione models with a claimed top speed of 228 MPH came in to save the day.

How much do you need to buy the Ferrari F40?

A no-brainer, buyers need deep pockets to actually own and maintain a Ferrari F40, as all that performance styling and the icon do not come cheap. The launch price of the car in 1988 was set at $399,150 which is quite expensive even according to today's standards for a car. I know it is a Ferrari let alone the F40, and the prices have increased during all those years.

If you're looking for a Ferrari F40 for sale to add to your garage today, be ready to spend well over $2 Million for a good enough example. According to CLASSIC.COM Market Benchmark, the F40 in 2024 sits at an average value of $2.3 Million. A 1990 Ferrari F40 at Pebble Beach Auctions 2022 was sold for eye-watering $3.9 Million.

Another such example is from RM Sotheby's 2023 Monterey car week where a 580-mile driven 1990 Ferrari F40 fetched $3.3 Million.

Image Source- Ferrari Media