Our Car of the Week this time is literally a legend. It is the first production car ever to top the 200 mph mark, built by one of the biggest names in the supercar industry: Ferrari. Some journalists have praised it as the best supercar ever over the years and we sort of agree. The Ferrari F40.
In my book, there are four things which made the F40 great: the mystery it covers around Enzo Ferrari, its lightness, its power and its simplicity.
If you are baffled by my first point, then allow me to explain. Some chap called Enzo Ferrari was racing with Alfa Romeo when he was young. He was very ambitious and passionate about cars and one day he fulfilled his dream of having his own car company. The company was named after him, Ferrari. Mister Enzo carefully supervised the building process of Ferrari’s F1 and road cars and, as a coincidence, the F40 was the last car built under his watch. So as a result this might be the last true-hearted Ferrari, the last one which got Enzo’s seal of approval.
Now let’s talk about the lightness. Advanced composite materials such as carbon fibre and Kevlar were used to make the body of the F40 and to further keep weight down, the interior was barbaric. It really was just a racing car inside as it has no carpets, no radio and if you asked for air conditioning you would have been labeled as mad. As a result, it weighs only 1100 kg.
Power is often the word we hear linked with supercars, and if you might think that the F40 is that light because it lacks in power, then you’d be wrong. The engine (pictured below) might only be a 3-litre unit, but it’s also a very bonkers 3-litre. It’s a V8 with two turbochargers. The result is 478 bhp and a whopping 576 Nm of torque. That power propels it from a standstill to 100 kph in just 3.2 seconds, which is still massively fast today, even faster than the Ferrari Enzo.
Its simplicity is not only connected with the lack of weight but with the focus of the thing as well. It doesn’t even have power steering or assisted brakes. That means it is agile and fast. But this also means that there are no things to distract you from the pleasure of driving it. You just have the steering wheel, the pedals and the shifter which, actually, is all you ever need. There really aren’t enough words to describe the awesomeness of this car, and for me, this is definitely the best supercar ever.
For us however, it is “just” out Car of the Week.