A Ferrari F40 for sale is a rare thing worldwide, after all, only 1,311 units were manufactured, all with a V8 bi-turbo engine. However, in the United Kingdom, a copy equipped with a V12 engine is being auctioned; But what explains this unique model?
This particular F40 is the brainchild of Simpson Motorsport, a racing company that had previously operated a Ferrari 348 LM for a driver named Stefano Sebastiani. This connection with Sebastiani made Simpson get closer to Ferrari and the team was able to buy directly from the manufacturer a unit of the F40 used in crash tests at the Maranello factory.
Sebastiani and Simpson Motorsport then decided to create something unique and used the V12 engine of a Ferrari 550, launched in 1996, instead of the V8 bi-turbo. The new engine would make the F40 almost 10 hp more powerful (485hp vs 478 hp).
Visually, the model was equipped with an F40 GTE competition kit and even gained an FIA-certified cage. The model was certified and competed in events in Europe and the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2006 before being withdrawn from competition. The model participated, for example, in the 1000km of Spa and the 6 Hours of Vallelunga.
Mauro Baldi, former Formula 1 driver, winner of the 1993 24 hours of Le Mans, drove the car in one of the races in Vallelunga and stated that the model was much better to drive than the original with a V8 biturbo engine,Now
, the model returns to the spotlight by being auctioned by the Iconic Auctioneers and costs between 500 and 600 thousand pounds – R$ 3,6 million and 4,3 million – despite the high value, it is estimated to be half the amount charged for an F40 for “daily use”. At an auction last year, a unit of the original F40 was sold for US$3.3 million, equivalent to 18.5 million reais.
