Ferrari F40
Presented in Maranello on 21 July 1987 for the marque’s fortieth year. The last new Ferrari road model unveiled in Enzo Ferrari’s lifetime — a road car held at racing temperature.
Vehicle pass
F40
What the factory recorded.
Eight numbers taken from Ferrari’s own technical record for the road car. Later European examples received catalysts and a hydraulically adjustable ride height; the figures below describe the early Euro non-cat specification.
- Engine
- 2.9 L V8
- Twin-turbo, longitudinal mid.
- Power
- 478 PS
- At 7 000 rpm. Euro non-cat figure.
- Torque
- 577 Nm
- At circa 4 000 rpm.
- Top speed
- 324 km/h
- ≈201 mph. Factory.
- 0–100 km/h
- ≈4.1 s
- Factory.
- Gearbox
- 5-speed manual
- Gated, twin-plate clutch.
- Dry mass
- ≈1 100 kg
- Euro spec; later cars heavier.
- Body
- Composite
- Kevlar, carbon, aluminium on steel tube.
Three reasons the F40 reads as a closing chapter.
Presented in Enzo Ferrari’s lifetime.
Unveiled at Maranello on 21 July 1987, thirteen months before Enzo Ferrari’s death. The last new Ferrari road model the founder saw introduced; he had approved it personally for the marque’s fortieth year.
Drawn at Pininfarina; engineered by Materazzi.
Bodywork penned by Pietro Camardella inside Leonardo Fioravanti’s studio at Pininfarina. Chief engineer Nicola Materazzi carried over the turbocharging discipline that had defined the 288 GTO Evoluzione programme.
A road car at racing temperature.
No ABS, no power assistance, no traction control. A 2.9-litre twin-turbo V8 over a steel tube frame wrapped in Kevlar, carbon, and aluminium; a fixed rear wing and a glass cover laid over the engine.
One road car, three competition registers.
Where production counts diverge between Ferrari and Michelotto sources, the discrepancy is named rather than resolved. Chassis-by-chassis records carry the final word.
F40 Road
The series production car. Built between 1987 and 1992. Mid-cycle changes added catalysts and a hydraulically adjustable ride height on later examples; the earliest cars retain neither.
F40 LM
Competition derivative developed by Michelotto Automobili of Padua. Reworked engine internals and aerodynamics for IMSA and selected European races. Production count is recorded inconsistently across factory and Michelotto sources.
F40 GT
Built by Michelotto for the Italian Supercar Championship (CSAI-GT) in the early 1990s. Air-restricted to championship regulation. A small register; each chassis is documented individually.
F40 GTE
Later evolution prepared for the BPR Global GT Series and FIA GT. Some examples carry chassis history from earlier LM or GT cars. Out-paced by the McLaren F1 GTR from 1996 onward.
Six sales, openly documented.
Hammer with buyer’s premium, as the relevant auction house recorded it. Private transactions are excluded — not because they don’t move the market, but because we cannot publish what we cannot verify.
- 25.04.20261989 Ferrari F40Road car · Belgian first delivery · Classiche.RM Sotheby’s · Monaco€ 4 336 250
- 17.01.20261992 Ferrari F40Road car.Mecum · Kissimmee$ 6 600 000
- 05.12.20251990 Ferrari F40Ex-Alain Prost provenance · Classiche.RM Sotheby’s · Abu Dhabi$ 3 886 250
- 16.08.20251993 Ferrari F40 LM by MichelottoCompetition variant. A category of its own.RM Sotheby’s · Monterey$ 11 005 000
- 15.08.20251990 Ferrari F40Road car.Gooding & Co. · Pebble Beach$ 3 800 000
- 02.02.20191987 Ferrari F40 LMPre-production prototype chassis · 1995 Le Mans entrant.RM Sotheby’s · Paris€ 4 842 500
Auction results are point-in-time anchors, gross of premium. They are not — in themselves — a market value. Two F40s sold within a month of each other can stand millions apart on specification, originality, mileage, and provenance.
Transparency, by register.
Each datum on this page resolves to one of the registers below. Where they disagree — most notably on F40 LM production counts — we describe the gap rather than averaging it out.
A closing chapter, recorded.
The F40 is held by HICONIUM as one dossier among a small register of cars whose authorship the platform considers settled. New entries are added quietly, on the evidence.