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All Ferraris are special, but some are unquestionably more special than others. The most desirable Prancing Horse-badged cars have always been those that made a statement of intent – the halo supercars that pushed the boundaries of performance and set the Maranello, Italy-based manufacturer apart from its rivals. Outside of the glittering coach-built jewels of the 1950s and the sublime sports racers of the following decade, a quintet of stallions stands above the rest.
Known among fans of the marque as the “Big Five,” the most collectible and recognizable series production Ferraris belong to a modern generation and include the 288 GTO of 1984-87, the F40 of 1987-92, the F50 of 1995-97, the Enzo of 2002-04 and the LaFerrari of 2013-18. While it may have been second out of the gate, however, it’s arguably the Ferrari F40 that set the archetype that all subsequent supercars from Maranello have followed: world-breaking performance, a bespoke chassis and, of course, inordinately outrageous looks.
“The F40 occupies a unique place in Ferrari history,” says Jarrett Rothmeier, SVP Private Sales and Head of Research and Collections Development at RM Sotheby’s. “It was the last model that was built during Enzo Ferrari’s lifetime – the final supercar he was able to put his stamp on in some way.”
Enzo Ferrari, who passed away in 1988 after a battle with leukemia, was 88 years old when the proposal that would become the F40 officially kicked off. The company that bore his name had put out more than 60 road cars in the four decades since the former racing driver struck out from Alfa Romeo to build his own machines. While Enzo originally saw his street-car business simply as way to fund his racing, in the decades since his road-going creations transformed the brand bearing his name into one of the most iconic production car companies in existence.
The mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-door coupe F40, produced between 1987 and 1992, would be the capstone to that unexpected course of success for Il Commendatore, as Enzo was widely known. And it would be made according to his desires, as suited the final product to roll out during his life. “I expressed a wish that we produce a car which could remind us of Le Mans and the GTO,” Enzo said at the car’s launch.
The idea of the F40 grew out of a project based on its predecessor, the Ferrari 288 GTO. That car had been whipped up in part as an outgrowth of a plan by Ferrari to enter the world of Group B, but when that racing series was unexpectedly canceled, the 288 GTO was left simply as the new pinnacle of Ferrari’s road car development, its turbocharged V8 proof of the company’s ability to squeeze class-leading amounts of power from relatively small, forced-induction engines. But half a dozen 288 GTO Evoluzione, or “Evolution,” models were left over from the aborted Group B plans, each modified with a host of aerodynamic changes and powertrain upgrades – features that, in turn, inspired Enzo and Ferrari engine-development boss Nicola Materazzi to begin work on a new car for the street that would better integrate those developments into a cohesive package.
“I expressed a wish that we produce a car which could remind us of Le Mans and the GTO.”
The heart and soul of any Ferrari lies in its engine bay, and the F40 is no different – even if it is a far cry from the naturally aspirated V12s that had defined the carmaker in the 1950s and ’60s. Power comes from a 2.9-liter V8 sitting proudly beneath a vented Plexiglas cover that uses twin turbochargers to help spur a whopping-for-the-time 478 horsepower and 426 lb-ft of torque – this in a car that weighs just 2,765 pounds in European specification and 3,018 in US form. Nail the launch, and the F40 rockets from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds; stay on the gas long enough, and it eventually surmounts the 200-mph barrier. (Keep in mind, this was introduced at a time when a new Chevrolet Corvette needed more than 5.5 seconds to go from naught to a-mile-a-minute, and a Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet topped out at 150 mph.) The F40 was the very first production car to break that 200-mph barrier, earning the F40 a permanent spot in automotive history books.
It also looks like nothing else – either from Maranello or any other car company. Sweeping and streamlined, raked with NACA ducts and boasting a mighty wing on its stern, the F40 resembles a product of Lockheed Martin as much as something penned by the coachbuilder Pininfarina. The body is made of kevlar and carbon fiber, with every single one colored in Ferrari’s iconic rosso corsa. At 77.6 inches, it’s nearly as wide as a modern full-size pickup truck such as a Ford F-150 … but at 44.3 inches high, it’s roughly half as tall. And while flip-up headlights had become common by the late 1980s, no car has ever worn them as well as the F40.
That aeronautical simplicity and directness of purpose extends to the car’s interior, as well. Insulation and upholstery were kept to a minimum, as was just about any feature that could be considered luxurious; the sole gesture to comfort inside is a standard air-conditioning system, needed to keep the heat from the mighty motor from overwhelming the cabin. The seats are meant for holding bodies fast during high-g maneuvers, not coddling on the drive to Easthampton. It represents a notable contrast from both the company’s sports cars of the time and the F40’s 288 GTO predecessor, which had a rather conventional (for a Ferrari) cabin.
“We wanted it to be very fast, sporting in the extreme and Spartan,” Giovanni Perfetti of Ferrari’s marketing arm said at the car’s launch. “Customers had been saying our cars were becoming too plush and comfortable. The F40 is for the most enthusiastic of our owners who want nothing but sheer performance.”
“There’s a little bit more of an element of danger when you drive the F40.”
That emphasis on performance – in particular, the afterburner-esque nature of the car’s turbocharged power delivery – led the car to develop something of a reputation as a handful to deal with behind the wheel. Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger, who raced for Ferrari at the time of the F40’s launch, once described being caught off-guard by wheelspin at 120 miles per hour. A 1992 note from Car and Driver says it all: “Just lit off both F40’s turbos, in second gear. Was actually bending steering wheel, trying to hold on, as if atop a tasered bull or a rocket-propelled grenade.”
“There’s a little bit more of an element of danger when you drive the F40, which I think some people enjoy,” RM Sotheby’s Rothmeier says. “If you don’t have that car pointed in the right direction when you step on the accelerator, you can get yourself into trouble, which a lot of people did back in the day. Or even today.”
“A lot of people” may seem like a strange turn of phrase when talking about an exotic rarity, but by the standards of its fellow gods atop Ferrari’s supercar Olympus, the F40 is almost common. It was produced in greater numbers than any Ferrari Big Five, with 1,311 examples rolling out of the gates of Maranello over the car’s seven-year production run; compare that with just 272 examples of its predecessor and 349 copies of its successor.
Supply didn’t correlate to lower pricing, however, as the F40’s manufacturer suggested retail price at launch of roughly $400,000 ($399,150, reports Car and Driver) was roughly five times as much as the 288 GTO that had come before it. To be fair, at $85,000, the GTO was massively undervalued when new, as prices on the second-hand market quickly exploded to multiples of that. Ferrari wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
While the car’s original list price works out to more than $1 million in today’s dollars, the F40 market has well outpaced inflation. “In general, the F40 market has done quite well,” Rothmeier says. In 2014, an average price for an American-market car would be in the $1-1.4 million range, depending on miles and condition. A decade later, “a good US-spec car is now trading well into the $3 million range.”
“They’ve doubled and then some in the past 10 years,” he says.
Still, variables can affect the value of any individual car. F40s with a particularly compelling story – be it immaculate care, low mileage, a notable owner somewhere along the way or an unusual early-production feature – are starting to separate themselves from the pack value-wise, Rothmeier says. “The ones that have the low mileage and great provenance, they’re the ones that are appreciating more from a value standpoint,” he says. “It’s not unlike the art scene, where provenance is becoming more and more important.”
Unsurprisingly, the most expensive F40s today tend to also be the rarest – the Ferrari F40 LM race cars that competed in IMSA and several other racing series, of which just 19 were produced. In 2019, an F40 LM that had raced back in-period hammered for €4.8 million. “Today, that car might have even doubled in value since then,” Rothmeier says.
213 F40s were made for the US market, arriving primarily as 1990 and 91 model-year vehicles and distinguished mostly by their small black impact bumpers on the nose and tail, front-side marker lights and their required catalytic converters. Those tend to be more valuable at auction in the US, Rothmeier says, with the comparatively rare 1992 examples commanding the higher prices among that subset. (One example achieved $3.9 million in Monterey in 2022.) Despite this, the European market favors the earliest European-specification production cars from 1988. European-spec cars have also seen their values climb, he adds, with examples currently selling for roughly $2-3 million depending on mileage and quality.
There are other variations within the F40 family that make some more individual than others. Approximately the first 50 cars were outfitted with racing-style sliding windows (as seen above), whereas the subsequent versions had traditional wind-down windows. The first two years of production came without catalytic converters or the adjustable suspension added to raise the front end to keep the chin from scraping on errant pebbles – like this 1990 “non-cat, non-adjust” model that sold for $3.5 million in June 2024. “Today, these are now starting to become more valuable in general,” Rothmeier says.
With chatter among the tifosi (and mysterious, highly disguised prototypes seen darting around Maranello in recent months) suggesting a sixth member of the Ferrari’s Big Five is likely to debut in the next year or two, the F40 market could be about to grow even hotter. “In general, whenever a new supercar comes out people tend to get more excited about the older ones,” Rothmeier says. “Collectors see value in having the whole set.”
That’s not just figurative; Ferrari’s complex internal rankings of its customers that determine which cars buyers are eligible to purchase take into account how many of the brand’s supercars sit in their garage, according to Rothmeier. Those who go out of their way to rack up all five members of the rare quintet are liable to find themselves closer to the front of the line when the next supercar arrives.
And if rumors and spy shots are to believed, the new car – allegedly code-named F250 – may have a unique link to the F40: while the previous three supercars have all boasted V12s, the next one could be the first since the F40 to pack fewer than 12 cylinders, with the Ferrari F250 all but assuredly featuring a plug-in hybrid powertrain based on either the V6 of the 296 GTB or the V8 of the SF90.
“With no variation in exterior or interior colors like its successors, condition, provenance, mileage and delivery specification are the key areas to focus on when considering the purchase of a F40. There are some very special examples out there, however even cars without a spotless provenance are still great driving cars,” Rothmeier says. “It’s a different experience from any of the other supercars, which has made the F40 one of the true icons from the ’80s and ’90s.”
“While the F40 is still a relatively rare car, enough were produced to allow us to see great variation regarding condition and mileage in the cars available to the market at any given time,” Rothmeier continues. “If you want an immaculate, very early production car with less than 1,000 miles on the odometer to keep as an investment, that can be found. However, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and want a higher mileage example to drive and enjoy, those can be easily found as well.”
Albeit expensive, servicing the Ferrari F40 is relatively attainable too. “There are highly regarded workshops on both sides of the Atlantic that are well-versed in looking after these cars,” says Rothemeier, “including some that have even developed reversible modifications – like carbon ceramic brakes or aftermarket nose lift kits – to enhance the F40’s already exceptional driving experience but not adversely affect its collectibility.”
So if you should be considering bringing home a Ferrari F40, remember these tips: US cars will carry higher prices than European ones, but only for American buyers. Early-build versions, especially those with 70000-series chassis numbers, tend to be worth more due to their more pure nature. The rare race-worthy F40 LMs will cost you most dearly, but they’re among the most worthy additions to any exclusive garage. In the current market, all of them are likely to hold or increase in value as time goes by.
And of course, if you do pick up an F40, be sure to drive it every now and again.
