F40 GT

1990 Ferrari F40 GT

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 17, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari’s sensational F40 went on sale in 1987 and actually hung around until the early 1990s, which is quite a while in the world of limited-run Ferrari supercars. Three of four examples were prepped by Michelotto to “LM” specification, which increased interest in customer F40 racing cars.

So to that end, nine examples of the “GT” ended up being produced. It retains a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V8 that was eventually rated for up to 550 horsepower in race spec. This particular chassis was purchased new by the designer of the Mugello race track and campaigned in the Italian GT Championship.

It competed in seven rounds in 1992 and eight the following year. The car was later taken back to its 1992 look, and it is one of 21 F40s to race in a major sanctioned series. The car now has an estimate of $3,250,000-$4,000,000. More info can be found here.

Ferrari F40

1989 Ferrari F40

Offered by Bonhams | Knokke-Heist, Belgium | October 11, 2019

Photo – Bonhams

The first Ferrari “supercar” was the 288 GTO. But let’s be honest, it looks like a 308 GTB. The F40 is truly the first balls-to-the-wall Ferrari supercar. And it’s about time we featured one.

Only 1,311 examples were produced between 1987 and 1992, and it was one of the final cars approved by Enzo himself, which is part of the reason it is so special. As time has gone on, these cars have become more appreciated, more expensive, and sadly, much less used.

Some of that is due to it being a not super-friendly road car. Power is from a rear/mid-mounted twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V8 rated at 471 horsepower. The Pininfarina-designed body is made of composite materials and aluminum. It’s light. Sixty arrived in about four and a half seconds, and the car topped out just shy of 200 mph at 197. Unlike many of its F-car supercar brethren, there were racing versions.

This Italian-delivery example should bring between $870,000-$1,100,000 at auction. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $1,025,248.

F40 LM

1990 Ferrari F40 LM

Offered by Gooding & Company | Monterey, California | August 17-18, 2013

1990 Ferrari F40 LM

The Ferrari F40, while not the first “supercar,” can safely be considered the first “modern supercar” – outrageous styling and outrageous performance with exclusivity to top it all off. The F40 threw the gates open for the decades of ridiculous cars that followed it.

But unlike many of the supercars after it, this one went racing. Ferrari is first and foremost a race car builder (or so they’d like you to believe). Even Ferrari hasn’t sent their halo car into competition since. Based on the road car, this racer has much of the same styling, although with more lightweight body panels. Under the rear engine cover is a 760 horsepower 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8.

Ecurie Pozzi was a race team that had campaigned Ferraris for many years. They saw the potential of the F40 and, in conjunction with Ferrari and Michelotto, the F40 LM was born. Ecurie Pozzi received two of the 18 LMs built and theirs were the only ones that ever saw sanctioned racing. This is the second of the two.

The competition history of this car is as follows:

  • 1990 Camel Grand Prix at Heartland Park, Topeka, Kansas – 25th, DNF (with Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Jean-Louis Schlesser)
  • 1990 Grand Prix of Ohio at Mid-Ohio – 3rd (with Jabouille and Olivier Grouillard)
  • 1990 Mosport GP – 2nd (with Jacques Lafitte and Hurley Haywood)
  • 1990 300km Road America – 33rd, DNF (with Michel Ferte)
  • 1990 Lime Rock IMSA GTO – 32nd, DNF (with Haywood)

And that was it for the F40 LM. This car remained in the Charles Pozzi collection until 2000. It has spent the last few years in a New York collection and has remained in race-ready condition in its original 1990 livery. There were other F40 race cars built for customers back in the day, but this is one of only two Ferrari-backed Michelotto F40 LMs that ever raced and it’s the only one in private ownership. Get it now for a cool $2,000,000-$2,500,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Gooding’s Pebble Beach lineup.

Update: Sold $2,090,000.

S/N: ZFFGX34X0K0079891

RM in Arizona Highlights

RM’s big sale in Arizona (almost two weeks ago… we’ve kind of had a backlog of auction results to publish and they were the last to publish their results online). As I’m looking back at it, we featured a number of cars from this auction including their top seller: this 1957 Ferrari 410 Superamerica that sold for $1,815,000. The second highest-selling car was the first car we featured, the most fantastic looking BMW 507 Roadster I’ve ever laid eyes on. It sold for $990,000. RM sold 90% of their cars for a total of $25.6 million.

A trio of pre-1905 American cars all sold, including our featured 1901 Duryea Four-Wheel Phaeton that was purchased by Mr. Car Crazy, Barry Meguiar for $96,250. Also sold were the 1903 Waverely Electric Surrey for $110,000 and the 1903 Stearns Suburban for $82,500. One of two cars we featured that did not sell was the 1913 Pathfinder Touring car, which was bid to $90,000.

A giant 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Town Car Concept sold for $258,500, missing its reserve by $50,000. This car came from the John O’Quinn collection and had gone unsold at at least one other RM event.

From the 1950s we featured a 1953 Nash-Healey and a 1954 Allard K3. The Nash-Healey brought $71,500, just short of my projection and the Allard was a relative steal at $57,750 – less than half of what a similar car (or the same one) was listed as “for sale” for a few months back.

Other pre-war cars that sold were the very rare Brewster-Knight that sold for $88,000. And that wonderful, purple Isotta Fraschini sold for $407,000 – dead on what I said it would bring (no I’m not bragging). Also sold was this amazing 1937 Cord 812 SC Sportsman Convertible Coupe. One of 64 – yours for $385,000.

Supercar fans could have had their choice of our featured Tom Walkinshaw Racing prepared 1993 Jaguar XJ220 S that sold for $230,000. Or the always popular Ferrari F40, this a 1991 model that brought an astounding $781,000.

The other Ferrari we featured, a 1983 512 BBi sold for $96,250. And the other Jaguar, a 1967 Series I E-Type went unsold. There was another very rare old Ferrari at this sale, a 1952 342 America Coupe Speciale by Pinin Farina – one of six built and one of only three coupes built by Pinin Farina. It sold for $632,500.

There was a Duesenberg Model J sold at this sale and I’ve said previously that we’d feature every Model J Duesenberg that comes up for sale if at all possible. Well, we ran out of time before the sale. Once we clear the backlog and get caught up we’ll be sure to have a rundown of that car.

For complete auction results, click here.