Ferrari F40
With only 1315 F40's ever made this is like most Ferrari's a rare car , what makes it even more rare however is the fact that it is one of the best cars Ferrari has ever made. The car was built to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ferrari as a company and was only built for half a decade. The car was a successor to another great car and possibly an all time Ferrari great the 288 GTO. The F40 when it was being built and throughout its production life was the fastest car that Ferrari built and one of the fastest cars of the time in the world.
With a retail price of nearly half a million dollars the car came out demanding a ward of cash for the quality it gave you. However the price of a good one of these nowadays is much more due to the exclusivity of the car and it being extremely sort after.
Contrary to some belief this car was in production as early as 1984 with a design being made to compete with the German rivals. Mainly the car was a counter to the very fast Porsche 959 in competition racing (Group B, FIA). With the Group B competition scrapped Enzo was left with cars and no need for them but he was spurred on to create these as road cars and used this chance to capitalize on making something no one would forget. Needless to say the cars were then developed and produced for road use. Enzo turned to one of their now long time designers to work on the car. Leonardo Fioravanti would worked for Pininfarina was the desinger of this brilliantly shaped machine.
As with most Ferrari's of that era it was all about speed and the Ferrari was powered by a big bore version of the GTO's 2.9 liter, this was further twin turbocharged to produce 471hp. The earliest of the F50's were also the best sounding as US regulations in those days did not require you to have one fitted on this type of car. Unfortunately regulations changed and the car was forced to mask the raw sound of that GTO engine. The suspension was double wishbone F1 style setup which made it extremely stable in the corners. A special addition which is now almost standard for supercars was the ability to raised the nose of the car when needed.
The car body was made brand new from Pininfarina and was covered in kevlar and carbon fiber to make sure it all stuck together aluminum was used for the more central components. Use of this material was to make sure the car was strong enough to withstand physical forces but also light enough to thrill the enthusiast and racers alike. The windshield and windows were also plastic , not glass and the inside was stripped down to the bare minimum. Weight loss was akin to Slim fast with no sound system , carpets , door panels and even glove box.
After the design was past the drawing board stage from then on the car was put onto a heavy regime of wind tunnel testing. Everything about the car was made with aerodynamics in mind , much of the speed of the car is actually down to the shape and lack of drag instead of just raw power. The car also has a lot of air flowing through under the hood with the open wheel set up that Ferrari had running in the car , this is because of the engine which was turbocharged and created a lot of heat.
The performance of the F40 was one of a true blue blood supercar, with the power to weight ratio flying of the chart. The car weighed in at just over a ton and put out around 471hp with a 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds. The F40 was also the first road legal car to reach the 200 mph mark and held this record for a while. The car is said by many to be the greatest car ever made and legendary host J-Leno says the F40 is one of the greatest cars.
