14 Surprising Details About The Iconic Ferrari F40
The Ferrari F40 is one of those cars that seems almost too good to be true, like a mythical creature with a badge.
I still remember the first time I saw one up close. It was parked at a local car show, and I stood there, mouth agape, as if witnessing a legend come to life.
But even after all these years, there’s more to the F40 than meets the eye.
Behind its iconic design and ear-popping engine is a treasure trove of surprises, from its raw, no-frills engineering to the stories that made it the supercar of the ’80s.
1. Arms of Steel Required
Forget power steering – the F40 demands pure muscle to navigate tight corners! Ferrari deliberately omitted this luxury to maintain maximum road feel and save precious weight.
Drivers needed Popeye-like forearms just to park this beast at low speeds.
The heavy steering becomes more manageable at higher velocities, but parking lot maneuvers? That’s your arm day workout sorted!
2. Braking Without a Safety Net
Stomping on the F40’s brake pedal is a commitment to physics in its purest form.
With no Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) to prevent wheel lockup, drivers needed genuine skill to threshold brake effectively.
Ferrari engineers skipped this now-standard safety feature to reduce complexity and weight.
The result? Heart-stopping stopping power that required finesse and perfect pedal modulation to avoid catastrophic skids on slippery surfaces.
3. Heart of the Beast
Lurking behind the driver sits a snarling 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine nicknamed ‘otto cilindri’ (eight cylinders).
Derived from Ferrari’s Formula 1 technology, this powerplant delivered a then-astonishing 478 horsepower.
When those twin IHI turbochargers spooled up around 3,000 RPM, the F40 transformed from merely quick to violently fast.
The engine’s distinctive high-pitched wail combined with turbo whooshes created a soundtrack that’s become legendary among petrolheads worldwide.
4. Lightweight Space-Age Construction
While most 1980s cars used heavy steel, the F40 pioneered aerospace materials in automotive design.
Its body panels combined Kevlar (the same stuff in bulletproof vests) with carbon fiber and aluminum.
This exotic cocktail of materials created a chassis weighing just 78 kg (172 lbs)!
The entire car tipped scales at a mere 1,100 kg (2,425 lbs) – practically featherweight by supercar standards, explaining its blistering acceleration and nimble handling.
5. Peek-a-Boo Headlights
Remember those sleepy-eyed pop-up headlights that made the F40 wink at you? They weren’t just adorable – they were aerodynamic brilliance!
Hidden during daylight hours to maintain the car’s slippery profile, these mechanical marvels rotated upward when needed.
Unlike electric systems in lesser cars, the F40’s lights operated manually via vacuum pressure, another example of Ferrari’s weight-saving obsession.
6. Escape Room Challenge
Locked inside an F40? Good luck finding the door handles! In another radical weight-saving measure, Ferrari eliminated interior door handles entirely.
Instead, drivers and passengers had to pull a thin wire cable hidden in the door panels.
This minimalist approach saved precious grams but confused many first-time passengers who found themselves temporarily trapped in automotive’s most expensive escape room challenge.
7. Windows That Slide, Not Roll
Early F40 models featured sliding windows made from lightweight Lexan (polycarbonate) instead of traditional power windows.
Just like a race car, these panels slid horizontally with a simple mechanical latch. The transparent Lexan panels were nearly half the weight of glass.
Later production models eventually received more conventional windows, but those first cars remained true to Ferrari’s obsessive pursuit of lightness, even if it meant sacrificing the luxury of rolling your window down electronically.
8. Birthday Supercar
The ‘F40’ name wasn’t random – it celebrated Ferrari’s 40th anniversary in 1987. Initially planned as a limited run of just 400 cars, demand was so overwhelming that production eventually reached 1,315 units.
What better way to celebrate four decades of automotive excellence than creating the fastest, most extreme road car of its era?
The birthday present became Ferrari’s halo car and established the template for special anniversary models that continues with today’s hypercars.
9. Enzo’s Final Masterpiece
The F40 carries a bittersweet distinction – it was the last Ferrari personally approved by company founder Enzo Ferrari before he passed away in 1988.
At 90 years old, Il Commendatore gave his blessing to this raw supercar that embodied his racing philosophy.
Enzo reportedly demanded his engineers create something special – a proper Ferrari that would show upstart competitors who was boss.
The F40’s uncompromising nature perfectly reflected its creator’s fierce competitive spirit in automotive form.
10. That Wing Wasn’t Just For Show
The F40’s massive rear wing wasn’t bolted on for dramatic effect – it generated serious downforce to keep the car planted at ridiculous speeds.
Wind tunnel testing confirmed it produced over 300 kg (660 lbs) of downforce at 200 mph!
Without this aerodynamic masterpiece, the lightweight Ferrari would become dangerously unstable approaching its 201 mph top speed.
The wing’s design followed function over form, though its iconic shape certainly didn’t hurt the car’s poster-worthy status.
11. Industrial Chic Interior
Step inside an F40 and you’ll find no leather-wrapped luxury – just exposed carbon fiber, visible rivets, and bare-bones simplicity.
The dashboard featured simple toggle switches and basic gauges without digital displays or computer screens. Even the seats were thinly-padded racing buckets with minimal adjustment.
Ferrari wasn’t being cheap; this industrial aesthetic was intentional, emphasizing the car’s racing pedigree. Every visible rivet and seam reminded drivers they were piloting something extraordinary.
12. The Silent Treatment
Conversations inside an F40? Good luck with that! Ferrari ruthlessly eliminated sound insulation and carpeting to shave every possible gram of weight.
The resulting cabin acoustics allowed drivers to hear every mechanical component at work – from transmission whine to the fuel pumps buzzing behind the firewall.
This sensory overload created an immersive driving experience impossible to replicate in modern, coddling supercars.
13. Racer in Street Clothes
Ferrari’s engineers essentially created a Group B race car, then grudgingly added just enough concessions to make it road legal.
The F40 shared its DNA with the 288 GTO Evoluzione racing prototype that never got to compete when Group B was canceled.
Rather than waste their competition-bred creation, Ferrari repurposed it for the street.
Even the paint was applied so thinly that the carbon fiber weave remained visible underneath – a manufacturing “flaw” that collectors now cherish as proof of authenticity.
14. 200 MPH Club Founding Member
When the F40 blasted past 200 mph during testing, it joined an extremely exclusive club.
It was among the first production cars to officially break this magical barrier, alongside the Porsche 959 and Lamborghini Countach.
Ferrari claimed 201 mph, though some magazines reported slightly higher figures.
Regardless of the exact number, achieving this velocity in the 1980s represented a quantum leap in production car performance.
The F40 didn’t just reach this speed – it did so with mechanical purity that’s impossible to replicate today.