While classic Ferrari sports cars are characterized by the sonorous small displacement V12 engines sitting in the middle of their stretched bonnets, the turbo era of the 1980s brought along a new Ferrari that has come to serve as the definitive Italian supercar of the modern era – the Ferrari F40.

Still one of the most extreme vehicles on the road today, it’s hard to believe that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the F40 since it was first introduced in 1987. Commanding an astronomic starting price of $400,000 when new, only 1,315 units were ever produced. As it is also the last vehicle founder Enzo Ferrari personally commissioned, the Ferrari F40 continues to demand an enormous sum of money today.

At this year’s Monaco RM Auction event, a special Ferrari F40 will cross the block to be sold to a lucky new owner. Not all Ferrari cars are built equal and this particular example is rare even amongst F40′s. Of the 1,315 units, eight examples were built as prototypes. Of the prototypes, a select amount were chosen to be converted to LM specifications for racing. That is the sort of rarity we are dealing with here.

This Ferrari F40 Prototype/GT is chassis number 74047, number six of the eight prototypes built for factory testing before displayed at the 1987 Frankfurt Auto Show. A factory backed racing car until 1991, Ferrari had sold the F40 to a privateer racing team.

The #74047 Ferrari F40 had its engine tuned to produce 590-hp and received suspension upgrades, larger Brembo brakes, a quick-fill fueling system, a fire suppression system, and wider  Speedline wheels. Campaigning in the Gran Criterium Supercar GT series, the F40 earned its share of podium finishes.

It’s history fully documented, the RM Auction house estimates this F40 will go for $919,800 to $1,182,600 dollars. Held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco from May 11 to May 12, the RM Auction has prepared an extensive Ferrari collection for the special event. You can check out the selection of collectibles that will be auctioned at the official RM Auction site.

GALLERY: 1987 Ferrari F40 Prototype/GT

At this summer’s Silverstone Classic, Ferrari F40 enthusiasts hope to set a world record while celebrating the 25th anniversary of the exotic.

The Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain is organizing the largest collection of F40s ever seen at the world’s biggest classic racing festival. “Our original aim was to get at least 25 of these Ferraris together and, as I have contacted owners, I have been gratified that so many want to be part of the celebration – so much so that we now have more than 50 F40s registered for the event with more still to come!” reported Nigel Chiltern-Hunt, the club’s co-ordinator for this anniversary gathering and an F40 owner himself. “A parade of those F40s present is planned for the Sunday and it undoubtedly will be the largest gathering of F40s ever seen anywhere in the world and will certainly beat the club’s own previous record of 40 F40s (pictured above) seen at the Silverstone Classic in 2007.”

The Ferrari F40 was first introduced in 1987 to celebrate the Italian automaker’s 40th anniversary. It features a twin-turbo V8 engine with 478-hp and was the world’s first 200-mph production road car. The supercar was sold at around $475,000 and only 1,315 F40s were ever produced. Silverstone Classic should be housing no less than 50 at this year’s show in July.

“Silverstone is the perfect place for Ferrari to be celebrating this important milestone in the incredible F40’s history,” said Nick Wigley, Event Organiser. “It was, of course, at Silverstone in 1951 that Ferrari achieved its first grand prix win and, since then, the circuit has witnessed countless more Ferrari victories, most recently when Fernando Alonso won last year’s British Grand Prix. With such a rich sporting history, it’s no surprise that so many fabulous Ferraris star in many of the major races staged at the Silverstone Classic. Now the promise of a record number of Ferrari F40s lining up on the infield is another major attraction. It’s a truly mouth-watering prospect that no supercar enthusiast will want to miss.”

[Source: Silverstone Classic]

Originally owned by Lee Iococca, this Ferrari F40 is heading to RM Auctions with less than 300-miles on the odometer and could fetch anywhere from $650,000 to $750,000.

The iconic Ferrari supercar was built for Iacocca while he was the chief executive at Chrysler. The F40 was created to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary and was originally limited to just 400 units but popular demand caused Ferrari to expand production to 1,315 cars – only 213 ever made it to America. This particular F40 was the 94th of the 213 US-specification cars, produced in October 1990.

The Ferrari F40 features a 2.9L mid-mounted V8 engine with 471-bhp and weighs in at just 2,425-lbs. Back in the late 1980s, the F40 was tested to do 0-60 mph in just 3.9-seconds.

Included with the vehicle will be all the original documents including a “Built Especially for Lee Iacocca” card.

GALLERY: Lee Iacocca Ferrari F40

Wraps are easily becoming the new aesthetic modification of the future. The offer owners a fairly cost-efficient method of changing the entire look of their vehicle, without having permanent ramifications. If you get bored of it, you can simply peel it off and go back to the stock look. And with any style that catches on and demand goes up, enthusiasts find new and better ways to set themselves apart from the crowd. This Ferrari F40 went the route of a full on carbon fiber wrap as opposed to just a more common flat black wrap.

The material used is a carbon fiber film that is also known as DI-NOC from 3M Films. The DI-NOC material comes in a different variety of finishes including wood, aluminum, marble, stucco, granite and more. One impressive aspect with the material is that you can actually feel the fiber in the weave and, truth be told, the close ups reveal that is looks a lot more realistic than one would think.

We’re loving just how race-inspired and menacing this Ferrari F40 looks with the complete wrap. And even alongside its current-generation friends and counterparts, it’s definitely a stunning car. The matte black wheels and tinted headlights and taillights just round off the package perfectly.

[Source: Mike Bolt Photo via Jon Sibal]

GALLERY: Carbon Fiber Vinyl-Wrapped Ferrari F40

Ferrari is hard at work trying to refine the turbocharging process so that future products will use the high-horsepower, low emissions (and low weight) technology. According to a report in the U.K.’s AutoCar, Ferrari engine developer Jean-Jacques His says the development is well under weigh, but the biggest issue facing the project is turbo lag.

Conventionally, turbos take time to spool up to full power, but that doesn’t suit the Ferrari way of doing things. Instead, Ferrari has traditionally opted for naturally aspirated (non turbocharged or supercharged) engines that deliver better throttle response and a more linear deliver of power. His told AutoCar that a delay of any sort in the power delivery was simply unacceptable.

A few years ago Porsche introduced variable turbine geometry (VTG) turbos that helped reduce turbo lag significantly, but apparently even that impressive technology is not enough for Ferrari. The company has also discounted using Fiat’s Multiair setup, as it doesn’t work as efficiently at higher rpm and with larger engines.

Ferrari has used turbos sparingly across its model range over the years, including most recently in the F40 supercar (pictured above), which was last made in 1992.

Another bit of info gleaned from the interview is that Ferrari’s new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, which debuted in the California, is suitable for V12 engines, meaning that were likely to see this new technology arrive in the successor to the 612 Scaglietti and other future V12 models.

[Source: AutoCar]