By Alberto Frammartino, May 8, 2023
There have been many supercars after the Ferrari F40, but none are as iconic. The F40 is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive supercar made between 1987 and 1992. Only 1,311 were ever produced and power was supplied by a V8 twin-turbo producing 471hp and 577 N⋅m (426 lb⋅ft) of torque. Power was funneled via a 5-speed manual. It was lightweight, it was spartan and it was fast. By today’s supercar standards, the F40 is primitive, back in the late 1980s it was ahead of its time. It was the last supercar overseen by Enzo Ferrari.
Due to the low volume and rarity, the F40 instantly became a highly tradeable commodity. Costing over $400,000 new, owners sold quickly sold their acquisition for over double the price. Prices have fluctuated since, at one point flatlining below the $1M price tag. However, once again the F40 is in high demand.
Of the 1,311 F40s made, an estimated 1,000 still remain on the road. With the future of the V8 in question, supercar prospectors are eying up the F40 as a kind of analog Bitcoin. The value of an F40 will only go up from now on.
Sotheby’s is auctioning a 1990 Ferrari F40 that once belonged to Alain Prost, the former 4-time F1 world champion. Prost received his brand new F40 when he joined the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, and sold it almost immediately.
Chassis number 83249, was completed in late 1989 and built without catalytic converters or adjustable suspension, features that would come to mark later-production F40s.
Chassis number 83249 changed owners a number of times, it lived in Lemington Spa England for a few years before finding its current home in the South of France.
A major service was undertaken in 2019, but with only 6,000 kilometers on the odometer, Sotheby’s is listing this particular F40 as new. Chassis number 83249 is certainly a time capsule, a snapshot of automotive technology as it was in the late 1980s early 1990s.
The F40 is being auctioned without reserve and is expected to sell for between €2,500,000 – €3,000,000 EUR. The auction date is 10 -12 May 2023.
