Ferrari F40 Review

The F40 was built fast and on purpose. Enzo Ferrari launched the project in June 1986 and wanted it shown the following summer; it was revealed at Maranello on July 21, 1987, the last new car presented in his presence before he died in August 1988. Nicola Materazzi, who had engineered the 288 GTO, developed it out of the stillborn GTO Evoluzione racers, and Pietro Camardella drew the body under Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina. A Ferrari marketing man summed up the brief at the time: very fast, sporting in the extreme and spartan, and not a laboratory for the future in the way Porsche's 959 was.

What makes it special is how little stands between the driver and the engine. The 2.9 liter twin-turbo V8, an enlarged GTO unit, makes 471 hp at 7,000 rpm, and the body is Kevlar, carbon fiber and aluminum panels, eleven pieces by Ferrari's count, over a steel tube frame, with plastic windows; the first fifty cars had sliding ones.

Ferrari quotes 1,100 kg, 4.1 seconds to 62 mph and 201 mph, and Road & Track measured 196. Mel Nichols of Autocar found it docile on a smooth road and demanding but not difficult. Car and Driver called it a mix of sheer terror and raw excitement. Gordon Murray complained in Motor Trend in 1990 that the chassis flexed and the door panels rattled. All three were right.

Owning one is simpler than its reputation, provided the fuel tanks are current. European cars carry rubber fuel bladders in foam that specialists replace about every ten years, with parts alone over £22,000 at Bell Sport & Classic; American cars got aluminum tanks. Auto Express notes that a properly serviced F40 is robust thanks to its simplicity.

Living with it is another matter: there is no carpet or stereo, getting in and out is awkward, Car and Driver likened lane changes to leaps of faith, and the EPA rates the US car at 13 mpg combined. It cost just under $400,000 in America. Speculators pushed prices past seven times list in 1989 before the bubble burst, and auction results have since run past $8 million, a road car record set at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale in August 2026.

Judged strictly, the F40 is technically conservative, spartan inside and expensive to keep, and its category marks say so. Judged as what it is for, it is a road car built like a GT racer, with an engine that defines the turbo era and a shape that has not dated. Evo's buying guide opened by calling it, for many, the greatest road-going Ferrari of all, and nothing Ferrari has built since has settled that argument.