Ferrari F40

[THarrison351]

The F40 was the last Ferrari automobile personally approved by Enzo Ferrari himself. It was also designed to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary. This was released by Franklin Mint in 1991 and it really shows it's age and lack of detail' but overall the diecast captures the F40 well. Its the tiny details and crudeness under the sculptured bodywork that revels the diecast's age. When you tilt the trunk up, it won't stay open on either of the examples I own. You see a permanently mounted orange plastic piece of luggage which I'm sure was supposed to be leather. The interior is very plasticky with plastic seat belts and stickers for gauges and very little detail otherwise, Not that the real car had a lot in there either. Under the hood which comes with a long wire prop to keep it open. We find a simple representation of the  2.9 Liter version of the 288 GTO's IHI twin turbocharged and intercooled V8 engine with 478 horsepower and 426 ft-lb of torque. In miniature it's quite a good looking model. I decided a couple of years ago I wanted one of these and a Countach. The Countach was easy to find in good condition for cheap, the F40 not so much, These always seem to be missing something or suffering from rash. The first one I purchased had both. Although I didn't know about the rash until I cleaned it up. It's strange so many o f these are missing mirrors, because the are very rubbery and not easy to snap off. I've been sort of on the lookout for another one in better shape when this one popped up as a buy it now for cheap so I did. Once again a little polish was all that was needed to restore this one back to nice. Here't the pictures. 

Tomorrow I have a big beautiful Rolls Royce convertible to post.

[randyc]

As awful as the interior, is this the only F40 with properly sized tires?.  I.e. the rears are weirder than the fronts.   

[Gramps46]

10 hours ago, randyc said:

As awful as the interior, is this the only F40 with properly sized tires?.  I.e. the rears are weirder than the fronts.   

I agree Randy.  I was going to buy a BBurago when I noticed that its rear wheels do not have the correct offset. Was lucky to find a FM cheaply which has the correct offset but it is missing a mirror also like Tim mentions.

[NYLIBUD]

I have several F40 models,plastic,diecast.Different scales.IMO,the F40 was the hottest Ferrari,and to me,still is to,this day.

[THarrison351]

I have to admit, even though it suffers from the detail limitations from the time period. It does present well. I'm happy I was able to find a whole one for cheap. I think this is one to keep on the shelf in a nice display case with everything closed.

[randyc]

12 hours ago, THarrison351 said:

I have to admit, even though it suffers from the detail limitations from the time period. It does present well. I'm happy I was able to find a whole one for cheap. I think this is one to keep on the shelf in a nice display case with everything closed.

That would be best way to display.  It does look right that way.  I did have a plastic built-up Koenig F40 that I liked pretty well.  

[Snake45]

On 1/31/2020 at 7:48 AM, Gramps46 said:

I agree Randy.  I was going to buy a BBurago when I noticed that its rear wheels do not have the correct offset. Was lucky to find a FM cheaply which has the correct offset but it is missing a mirror also like Tim mentions.

I have one of these in black, I bought at the local toy show CHEAP two or three years ago. I think I only paid $3 or $5 for it. 

[NYLIBUD]

Again, by far my favorite Ferrari’s ever built.A street legal race car.What an incredible car.

[randyc]

It really was an exotic, beautiful car.   I liked these as much as any Ferrari since.  

[Gramps46]

The Franklin Mint F40 interior has been bugging me so I checked photos of the real thing and the actual interior is a darker suede gray and carbon fiber.  The biggest change should be the inside of the door panels should be body color and not gray.  Maybe some day I will get around to making the changes.

[THarrison351]

10 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

The Franklin Mint F40 interior has been bugging me so I checked photos of the real thing and the actual interior is a darker suede gray and carbon fiber.  The biggest change should be the inside of the door panels should be body color and not gray.  Maybe some day I will get around to making the changes.

 

I think when they released it in 1991 the majority of people purchasing them didn't have complete access to quality color pictures of the F40 like we do now and Franklin Mint was counting on that. Almost all of the diecasts from the early years were flawed under the skin.