The Official Ferrari F40 Picture and Info Thread
#1
01-29-2008, 08:32 PM
The Official Ferrari F40 Picture and Info Thread 
The Teamspeed Official Ferrari F40 Picture and Info Thread
The Ferrari F40 is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-door coupé sports car produced from 1987 to 1992 as the successor to the Ferrari 288 GTO. From 1987 to 1989 it was Ferrari's fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car[citation needed]. The car had no traction control.
The car debuted with a factory suggested retail price of approximately US$400,000, although some buyers were reported to have paid as much as US$1.6 million. A total of 1,315 F40s were produced.
Ostensibly, the F40 was conceived as the successor to the 288 GTO and designed to compete with vehicles such as the Porsche 959 and Lamborghini Countach;[citation needed] for Ferrari management, the vehicle was a major statement piece. Over a period of several years prior to the F40's conception, the company's dominance in racing had waned significantly, and even in Formula One, an arena they had once dominated, victories had become sparse. Enzo Ferrari was approaching 90 years of age, and was keenly aware that time was not on his side. He wanted his new sports car to serve as his final statement-maker, a vehicle encompassing the best in track-developed technology and capable of being a showcase for what the Ferrari engineers were capable of creating. The company's upcoming 40th anniversary provided just the right occasion for the car to debut.
The F40's light weight of 1,100 kg (2,425 lb) and high power output of 478 PS (352 kW; 471 hp) at 7000 rpm gave the vehicle tremendous performance potential. Road tests have produced 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) times as low as 3.8 seconds (while the track only version came in at 3.2 seconds), with 0–160 km/h (0–99 mph) in 7.6 seconds and 0–200 km/h (0–120 mph) in 11 seconds giving the F40 a slight advantage in acceleration over the Porsche 959, its primary competitor at the time.
The F40 was the first road legal production car to break the 200 mph (320 km/h) barrier. From its introduction in 1987 until 1989 its only competitors were the Porsche 959 and the 1988 Lamborghini Countach[citation needed] (it was later overtaken by the Lamborghini Diablo), it held the record as the world's fastest production car, with a top speed of 201.4 mph (324 km/h). During the 2006 Bonneville Speed Week, Amir Rosenbaum of Spectre Performance managed to take his F40 with small boost and air intake modifications to 226 miles per hour (364 km/h
The F40 was discontinued in 1992 and in 1995 was intended to be succeeded by the F50 in GT1 racing but only three racing F50s were produced and none ever actually competed in a race. As Enzo had predicted it would be, the F40 was the last car to be commissioned by him before his death.
