Story behind
Enzo's Last Word
By 1987, Ferrari was deep into the supercar arms race with Porsche's 959. Enzo Ferrari, 89 years old and not interested in losing, ordered a car that would be faster, lighter, and more raw than anything with a prancing horse had ever been. The brief was simple: no compromises for comfort.
The result had a carbon fiber and Kevlar composite body over a tubular steel chassis. The cabin had no door handles on the inside, no carpeting, no glove box. The rear window was a sheet of Lexan. And behind the seats sat a 2,936cc twin-turbocharged V8 that made 478 horsepower in a car that weighed just over 1,100 kg.
It topped out at 324 km/h. In 1987, nothing else on a public road came close. Ferrari originally planned to build 400. Demand pushed production to 1,315. Enzo Ferrari died in August 1988, a year after the F40 launched. It was the last new Ferrari he ever saw. Thirty-seven years later, it's still the car most people picture when they hear the word "supercar."
