2.8k-Mile Road-or-Race-Ready Ferrari F40 Is Chasing a New Owner's Millions at an Auction

Launched in 1987 to mark 40 years of Ferrari automotive excellence, the F40 is the last prancing horse to see the light of day under the scrutinous eye of the great Enzo himself. And the car bears his unmistakable influence – it was dauntingly ferocious, savagely fast, and uncompromisingly brutal: a racer for the road.

Light in weight – just 2,425 lbs. (1,100 kg) – thanks to the composite bodywork (a world first at the time), the F40 struck viewers with a race bloodline from first sight. As Ferrari themselves have it “you could have any color you liked, as long as you liked red!” Ferrari Corsa (Ferrari Race) is the name of the livery, and the list of non-options doesn’t end here.

No air-conditioning (except for the US market), no audio systems, no power windows, no door handles, no ashtray, no glovebox, no nonsensical driving aids (like, let’s say, power steering or power brakes). It was a driver’s car in its purest form. Carbon fiber and kevlar shell seats, race harnesses, light-absorbing gray felt trimming of the dash and central tunnel (to eliminate reflections that might obscure the driver’s sight), and rubber foot mat on the driver’s side – that was it (check the gallery to gawk at the simplicity of magnificence). After all, the car was meant as a racer, not a comfortable go-getter.

Not that it had any space to get anything. The enormous one-piece front and rear sections of the body were meant to provide aerodynamic performance, not to accommodate luggage. The powertrain took up the entire space behind the cabin, and the front housed the massive twin-fan radiator and a central-mounted battery.

The F40 wasn’t going to accept the status of golf set-carrying supercar, not for all the money in the world. The car was for driving fast. Period. The oversized drilled aluminum pedals gave a solid hint at the supercar’s purpose, and so did the “bare necessities” instruments panel, which houses the essentials – oil temp and pressure, turbo boost, engine RPM, speed, and coolant temp.

One such magnificent Ferrari F40 is now for sale (the auction is on for the next two weeks), and the interest is more than obvious – just minutes after becoming active, the first bid of $1 million punched in. No wonder these masterpieces were changing hands for around 1.5 million dollars in 1989. That’s nearly $3.6M at the time of this story!

This particular car that caught our attention is one of the early '89 models, having rolled off the assembly line in February of that year. It has gained a net worth of road experience of 2,800 miles (some 4,600 kilometers) from Germany to Japan and finally to the US, where it arrived in 2016. In 2022 it changed hands and quickly relieved its new owner of some 71,00 dollars in service works (water pump rebuild, fuel pump and injectors, tires, timing belt, and fuel cell replacement).

The F40 embodied the outrageousness of the late 80s by making use and abuse of not one but two turbos. A crucial addition for the 2.9-liter V8 that could output an official 478 bhp and a back-snapping 426 lb-ft of torque (484 PS and 578 Nm). Unofficially, though, the car is said to have unleashed over 500 bhp. You can see this car driving in the last video.

That’s another reason it was poster-worthy fast: 201 mph (324 kph), with a 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) time of 4.1 seconds. Four camshafts, two intercoolers, twin oil coolers, dry-sump lubrication, electronic injection, and ignition – all those aces up the carbon fiber sleeve meant adrenaline overdosing with a Gatling gun.

Only eleven body panels cover the steel tube-frame chassis, and the windshield and rear window are made of polycarbonate to skim down the “racer for the road” F40. Frankly, apart from its engine specs, the only big thing on the car is the rear wing. And the tires - 235/45 up front and 335/35 at the rear - to put that untamed Maranello rawness on the track.

The perforated and ventilated disc brakes (not aided in any way) are dual-circuit Brembos with four-piston aluminum calipers. A critical aspect about the stopping power – in June of 2022, the brakes were flushed, and the fluid was replaced, together with the shifter gate and knob.

The gearbox is a five-speed all-synchromesh manual transaxle (located under the triple exhaust pipes) that gives the driver something to think about when cornering with the unassisted rack-and-pinion steering.

This show-stopping Ferrari F40 is offered with a clean New York title, but it cannot pass a California emissions test (those turbos are not Greenpeace-friendly). However, several documents stand to prove the car’s history, and the winning bidder can rest assured this classic F40 is in peak shape.