76 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
The Ferrari F40 Berlinetta was first conceived in 1986 and was
intended to celebrate Ferrari’s imminent 40th anniversary in the
coming year. Mr Ferrari’s friend Gino Rancati is said to have come
up with the idea, ‘The Old Man’ having functionary G.B. Razelli write
to him accompanying a silver plaque commemorating the event, as
follows: “Dear Rancati – With this plaque I want to commemorate
our meeting on the 4th of June when you kindly contributed to the
choice of the name for the GT car we presented at the Frankfurt
motor show. Your contribution has produced excellent results – the ‘F
Forty’, based on the idea of forty years of Ferrari cars, identifies and
personalizes the fastest Ferrari GT...”.
The F40 really embodied the next logical evolutionary step forward
from the turbocharged Ferrari 288 GTO of the earlier 1980s. The new
car was based upon a frontier-technology carbon-composite and
Kevlar-reinforced steel frame chassis with composite body paneling.
Power was provided by a twin-turbocharged, intercooled, 4-cam V8
engine with an advanced Weber-Marelli engine management system
and developing close to 500bhpin an overall package weighing
barely 1,100kg – 2,425lbs.
A road test in the British ‘Fast Lane’ magazine highlighted a 0-60mph
acceleration time of just 3.9 seconds, 0-100mph in 7.8secs and
0-140mph in 14secs. At the time the Ferrari F40 was the fastest road
car ever produced in series. There was talk upon its introduction
of production being limited to 400 examples but by the time that
production finally ceased in 1991 it is believed that the actual total
produced was no fewer than 1,315.There is a story of an immensely experienced purveyor of high-
performance cars to the nobility and gentry who in one day collected
a well-known German-manufactured contemporary supercar from its
manufacturer in Stuttgart, and then drove it down to Milan for delivery
to a customer. He then made his way to Modena, where he was to
collect another customer’s brand-new Ferrari F40 for delivery back in
the UK.