Ferrari F-40 dream build

[GlueSniffer]

At the NNL East 2023 show last weekend, I found one of my holy grail kits, no missing parts, in great condition, with extra parts… for $30! The 1988 (first release) Tamiya Ferrari F-40! Thank you to the gentleman in the J.D. McDuffie shirt! I have been watching these kits on eBay for years and could never actually pull the trigger on one. I am excited for this as this if my first “modern” car as well as my first import and first exotic / super car. First bright paint job too. A lot of firsts for me with this!

So naturally I couldn’t wait to get home and begin ordering up all the parts for it! Parts, paint, photo etch and began 3D modeling one-off parts to print!

Wheels will be HKE inspired 3 piece 5 spoke, which I will attempt to do carbon fiber barrels on. 18”X8” Front and 18”X13” rear. I will 3D design and print them myself. My current in progress rendering:

Chassis will be detailed with Hobby Design up detailing set with resin calipers, photo etch rotors. I also bought Top Studio shock / coil sets.

Engine will have larger, more detailed turbos from Iceman Collections. Custom exhaust. Already wired it with plug wires and I have braided hoses. Current Engine progress:

Interior will be converted to right hand drive and I will 3D model and print the dash. I bought MOMO Daytona racing seats and a MOMO steering wheel from Scale Riders. Yellow racing harnesses.

Exterior will be yellow. Yes, YELLOW. Giallo Modena to be exact. Correct for this car although none but one was supposedly painted this color. Will make a carbon fiber front splitter. Slightly lowered. Mild F-40 LM look with street car style. I HATE YELLOW CARS. But for whatever reason, this is the only car I have ever liked in yellow. I like it more than the Rosso Corsa red by far.

Some reference photos!

 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Big congrats on such a find. Hey, start looking now for a clear case for it when finished. Super.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Looks good so far. Beautiful rendering work. I'll definitely stay tuned for more.   

[Toast]

I'm liking where this is going!

As an F40 fan it's been crazy watching the price of these kits go up the last couple years.

A goofy pic I made for another group.

[mrm]

First off, congrats on the acquiring the kit. It is a great tooling even by today's standards, let alone for the time when it came out. I have built probably half a dozen of them, starting in '91 and this kit brought me my very first "big win" at a model car show, somewhere in the mid to late nineties in Chicago. Some miserable soul eventually stole my trophy while displayed with the model at some later show, but anywho....

As an avid Ferrari fan and a definite F40 worshipper, I can't help but say few things about your plans. Realistically, you can not fit a 13 inch wheel in a real F40. At least not without messing up it's looks and /or it's handling. It came with 325 tires on the rear from the factory and going larger is pointless. I love the rendering of the wheels and I believe they will look great on it. If you are attempting carbon fiber barrels and you are designing and printing them yourself, it will save you a lot of time and effort if you design the barrels as a separate part from the centers. Your choice of color is your choice and carbon on yellow always looks great. I should know, because my 1:1 Vette was half carbon over yellow. However yellow is one of those colors I could never feel attracted to on certain cars. Namely the F40 and the Testarossa. But it can work, considering the changes you have planned. Now , about the right hand conversion... well... no F40 ever left the factory with RHD and such a conversion on a model is absolutely pointless IMHO, considering that it is not even challenging, because all that it is needed for it is to move the gauge pod, which would take less time by hand than setting up your 3D printer. The bigger turbos is a great idea. It has been done in real life more than once and the kit can definitely use some help, because what Tamiya has made for turbos is just pathetic. The F40LMs that were built by Michelotto did exactly that-bigger turbos, but bigger turbos require more cooling and the LM cars had considerably bigger coolers. The issue with that in 1:24 scale is that if you put LM size coolers you are not going to see anything bellow them. As far as detail sets go, Studio 27 makes a wonderful F40 photoetched set and in my experience it will give you everything you need and nothing you don't. If you have already glued everything on the engine on the picture, then I would hate to inform you that you are missing half the vital parts of that power plant, simply because Tamiya never included them. Namely cooling, oiling and fuel supply. I am mentioning it, because you said you got braided hoses and what is mostly missing from the engine in the kit is exactly where the braided hoses go. 

   It sounds like you have some great ideas and I would love to see where you take this project. I will definitely be following. The F40 is an amazing car and one of my all time favorites.

 

P.S. The car I have access to is one of the best examples in US and it has custom exhaust. Basically it has three straight pipes, eliminating the big muffler in the middle. Tubi used to make a custom exhaust for the F40, which basically looked like three stainless motorcycle mufflers next to each other. 

Here is what this one runs, which is also made by Tubi. It sounds amazing.

Edited May 2, 2023 by mrm

[Mattilacken]

Sweet! I am following! 

[GlueSniffer]

20 hours ago, Toast said:

I'm liking where this is going!

As an F40 fan it's been crazy watching the price of these kits go up the last couple years.

A goofy pic I made for another group.

That pic certainly sums it up! I have a collection of vintage MPC Dodge Tradesman vans, I feel the same way about those as they seem to be $90-$200 on average depending on the kit. The F-40 seems to always be around $100+ and factor shipping on that. I’m surprised my girlfriend hasn’t duct taped my mouth shut over me raving about this kit and the price 😁

[Ace-Garageguy]

57 minutes ago, GlueSniffer said:

...I’m surprised my girlfriend hasn’t duct taped my mouth shut over me raving about this kit and the price 😁

Wow. You have a girlfriend who has sufficient manual skills to use duct-tape? I am impressed indeed.  

[GlueSniffer]

19 hours ago, mrm said:

First off, congrats on the acquiring the kit. It is a great tooling even by today's standards, let alone for the time when it came out. I have built probably half a dozen of them, starting in '91 and this kit brought me my very first "big win" at a model car show, somewhere in the mid to late nineties in Chicago. Some miserable soul eventually stole my trophy while displayed with the model at some later show, but anywho....

As an avid Ferrari fan and a definite F40 worshipper, I can't help but say few things about your plans. Realistically, you can not fit a 13 inch wheel in a real F40. At least not without messing up it's looks and /or it's handling. It came with 325 tires on the rear from the factory and going larger is pointless. I love the rendering of the wheels and I believe they will look great on it. If you are attempting carbon fiber barrels and you are designing and printing them yourself, it will save you a lot of time and effort if you design the barrels as a separate part from the centers. Your choice of color is your choice and carbon on yellow always looks great. I should know, because my 1:1 Vette was half carbon over yellow. However yellow is one of those colors I could never feel attracted to on certain cars. Namely the F40 and the Testarossa. But it can work, considering the changes you have planned. Now , about the right hand conversion... well... no F40 ever left the factory with RHD and such a conversion on a model is absolutely pointless IMHO, considering that it is not even challenging, because all that it is needed for it is to move the gauge pod, which would take less time by hand than setting up your 3D printer. The bigger turbos is a great idea. It has been done in real life more than once and the kit can definitely use some help, because what Tamiya has made for turbos is just pathetic. The F40LMs that were built by Michelotto did exactly that-bigger turbos, but bigger turbos require more cooling and the LM cars had considerably bigger coolers. The issue with that in 1:24 scale is that if you put LM size coolers you are not going to see anything bellow them. As far as detail sets go, Studio 27 makes a wonderful F40 photoetched set and in my experience it will give you everything you need and nothing you don't. If you have already glued everything on the engine on the picture, then I would hate to inform you that you are missing half the vital parts of that power plant, simply because Tamiya never included them. Namely cooling, oiling and fuel supply. I am mentioning it, because you said you got braided hoses and what is mostly missing from the engine in the kit is exactly where the braided hoses go. 

   It sounds like you have some great ideas and I would love to see where you take this project. I will definitely be following. The F40 is an amazing car and one of my all time favorites.

 

P.S. The car I have access to is one of the best examples in US and it has custom exhaust. Basically it has three straight pipes, eliminating the big muffler in the middle. Tubi used to make a custom exhaust for the F40, which basically looked like three stainless motorcycle mufflers next to each other. 

Here is what this one runs, which is also made by Tubi. It sounds amazing.

My 1:1 car is also yellow! And I hate it! 🤣 My ‘68 Dart, will eventually be black.

As a kid I had a Tyco slot car track, I don’t know why I had 4 as my dad bought them and I wouldn’t exactly call him a Ferrari guy by any means, but I had 4 F-40s. 2 red, 1 black, and 1 yellow. I don’t know why, but I remember the yellow one being my favorite.

I must agree, for as great of a kit that Tamiya put together, the turbos are PATHETIC!  I don’t necessarily plan on huge turbos, but definitely a detail that needs fixing. I will use the kit supplied intercoolers and aftermarket waste gate. I did a few things to the engine already that I know are not “factory” such as I painted around the Ferrari lettering on the rear of the intake plenums and silver details on the valve covers. It’s actually sad just how little of the actual engine is visible when assembled. I found some incredible reference photos that’s to the restoration of a previously raced F-40 by Mototechnique. Or course that still does not compare to being able to see one in person and take your own reference photos! As for the hoses, I haven’t glued down the intake or the cradle yet. I still have those details you mentioned to address ( to the extent of my abilities, I’m not an award winning modeler…yet!) I have to make my best guess for hose size and AN fittings from photos.

As for the RHD conversion, I simply want to build the car tastefully and still be respectful of its Italian racing heritage but as if the car maybe in Tokyo. It will have Japanese plates. I know 7 RHD F-40s were produced for the Sultan of Brunei by Pininfarina, which a few were auctioned off. It would be easy to chop the dash by hand, but it’s more so an exercise in my 3D modeling as I am an amateur, and to make it mildly different.

But my question is the wheels. Everywhere I have looked was referencing the factory rear wheels as 17”X13” with a 335 tire (almost dead on 13”) whereas the kit supplied rear tires measured 0.620” which in 1:24 is about 15”! They seemed to have gotten that scale off a little. I will print my wheels in 2 or 3 pieces to make the carbon fiber decals a hopeful possibility. I have not found the tires I want so I will probably print those as well, Toyo Proxes 888. I have printed 2 sets of wheels so far, that was a learning curve in itself as you can’t just model a 1:1 wheel and scale it down, it prints them as thin as tissue paper! 

The photo you showed of the exhaust is most likely the route I will go, pretty much straight piped. The OEM muffler is ugly! May give it the heated stainless look with a golden brown tint.

 

I will most definitely look into the Studio 27 photo etch. The Hobby Design set I bought the day after I bought the kit still has not shipped, from over seas of course so there is a chance of not seeing it for 2 months. 

I would LOVE to see some more of your models! They look great from what I see in the photos and I am green with envy over your opportunity to look over a real deal! I will keep my fingers crossed for one to be at Greenwich CT concourse this year! I greatly appreciate your response! I did a search on here and didn’t see a lot of builds going with this kit, I love the passion for this one!
 

 

[GlueSniffer]

6 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Wow. You have a girlfriend who has sufficient manual skills to use duct-tape? I am impressed indeed.  

Believe it or not, she can tell you the difference between PVC and Pex tubing, knows the difference between solenoid and a relay. I am a lucky guy!

[mrm]

12 hours ago, GlueSniffer said:

My 1:1 car is also yellow! And I hate it! 🤣 My ‘68 Dart, will eventually be black.

As a kid I had a Tyco slot car track, I don’t know why I had 4 as my dad bought them and I wouldn’t exactly call him a Ferrari guy by any means, but I had 4 F-40s. 2 red, 1 black, and 1 yellow. I don’t know why, but I remember the yellow one being my favorite.

I must agree, for as great of a kit that Tamiya put together, the turbos are PATHETIC!  I don’t necessarily plan on huge turbos, but definitely a detail that needs fixing. I will use the kit supplied intercoolers and aftermarket waste gate. I did a few things to the engine already that I know are not “factory” such as I painted around the Ferrari lettering on the rear of the intake plenums and silver details on the valve covers. It’s actually sad just how little of the actual engine is visible when assembled. I found some incredible reference photos that’s to the restoration of a previously raced F-40 by Mototechnique. Or course that still does not compare to being able to see one in person and take your own reference photos! As for the hoses, I haven’t glued down the intake or the cradle yet. I still have those details you mentioned to address ( to the extent of my abilities, I’m not an award winning modeler…yet!) I have to make my best guess for hose size and AN fittings from photos.

As for the RHD conversion, I simply want to build the car tastefully and still be respectful of its Italian racing heritage but as if the car maybe in Tokyo. It will have Japanese plates. I know 7 RHD F-40s were produced for the Sultan of Brunei by Pininfarina, which a few were auctioned off. It would be easy to chop the dash by hand, but it’s more so an exercise in my 3D modeling as I am an amateur, and to make it mildly different.

But my question is the wheels. Everywhere I have looked was referencing the factory rear wheels as 17”X13” with a 335 tire (almost dead on 13”) whereas the kit supplied rear tires measured 0.620” which in 1:24 is about 15”! They seemed to have gotten that scale off a little. I will print my wheels in 2 or 3 pieces to make the carbon fiber decals a hopeful possibility. I have not found the tires I want so I will probably print those as well, Toyo Proxes 888. I have printed 2 sets of wheels so far, that was a learning curve in itself as you can’t just model a 1:1 wheel and scale it down, it prints them as thin as tissue paper! 

The photo you showed of the exhaust is most likely the route I will go, pretty much straight piped. The OEM muffler is ugly! May give it the heated stainless look with a golden brown tint.

 

I will most definitely look into the Studio 27 photo etch. The Hobby Design set I bought the day after I bought the kit still has not shipped, from over seas of course so there is a chance of not seeing it for 2 months. 

I would LOVE to see some more of your models! They look great from what I see in the photos and I am green with envy over your opportunity to look over a real deal! I will keep my fingers crossed for one to be at Greenwich CT concourse this year! I greatly appreciate your response! I did a search on here and didn’t see a lot of builds going with this kit, I love the passion for this one!
 

 

Glad to see you're doing research on the car. Few things to keep in mind, which makes such research and building the model kinda PITA. These cars evolved during their production and some examples greatly differ when looking at pictures. On top of that you have Euro spec cars and US spec cars, which are significantly different. Then you have few cars in Japan which are in my opinion being ruined. That Tamiya kit represents the very first production sample of a Euro spec car. 

This is a Euro sample with first gen Tubi exhaust. This is what the Tamiya kit represents, more or less. 

 

This is an early LM car, without the really big coolers.

The car I have access to is a late US spec car and as far as the Tamiya kit goes, it would be absolutely useless as reference. However, here are some diagrams you may find useful for your build. These are the non cat euro parts (very different on US cars), which should be perfect for the Tamiya kit. Most of the hoses you see are braided lines on the 1:1 car.

This is the transmission oil cooler on the driver side of the car. The lines coming out of it are about half the size those of the oil cooler on the other side.

 

This is your engine oil cooler lines. The "15" line would be not visible once the model is together, plus Tamiya does not include the dry sump tank anyway. Everything else however is very much visible on the model even when assembled. These braided hoses on the real car are quite thick. I would use something close to radiator hose size in scale. 

 

These are the lubrication and oil cooling lines for the turbos themselves. All these lines are braided hoses and they are almost half the size of the transmission oil lines. If I remember correctly the piece with the oil filter in the Tamiya kit has markings on it, which would actually indicate where some of those lines go. (at least 3 of them go there) 

 

Wastegate plumbing

 

And Euro spec fuel plumbing.

 

I can give you a lot more, but it would be pointless, since you can't fit it all in there and if you could, you wouldn't be able to see it anyway, once everything is assembled. 

Now, about the Sultan of Brunei's cars, they all came out of the factory red and LHD. They were converted for him after production by a third party under Pininfarina's commission. No F40 were made for the Japanese market. All cars there were either Euro or US spec cars. And all F40s came out of the factory with 325 rear tires, which at the time was the widest tire made. I ran 345 tires on my Vette and my wheels were 12.5 wide. The tires in the Tamiya kit perfectly represent the P-Zero Pirellis, which were at the time made specifically for the F40. If you make the same width wheels that are just one size larger, the kits tires would easily stretch over them and will not only save you the headache of sourcing tires, but would look really good, while maintaining originality to the F40. 

Good luck with the project and if I can be of any help, let me know. I will check if I still have some original Giallo Modena Ferrari paint and if I do I'll be happy to send you some. 

[chris chabre]

Ill be watching as a f40 is one of a very few super cars Id love to own haha

[GlueSniffer]

1 hour ago, chris chabre said:

Ill be watching as a f40 is one of a very few super cars Id love to own haha

Hey Chris! You and I both! Hope you’re doing well!

[GlueSniffer]

12 hours ago, mrm said:

Glad to see you're doing research on the car. Few things to keep in mind, which makes such research and building the model kinda PITA. These cars evolved during their production and some examples greatly differ when looking at pictures. On top of that you have Euro spec cars and US spec cars, which are significantly different. Then you have few cars in Japan which are in my opinion being ruined. That Tamiya kit represents the very first production sample of a Euro spec car. 

This is a Euro sample with first gen Tubi exhaust. This is what the Tamiya kit represents, more or less. 

 

This is an early LM car, without the really big coolers.

The car I have access to is a late US spec car and as far as the Tamiya kit goes, it would be absolutely useless as reference. However, here are some diagrams you may find useful for your build. These are the non cat euro parts (very different on US cars), which should be perfect for the Tamiya kit. Most of the hoses you see are braided lines on the 1:1 car.

This is the transmission oil cooler on the driver side of the car. The lines coming out of it are about half the size those of the oil cooler on the other side.

 

This is your engine oil cooler lines. The "15" line would be not visible once the model is together, plus Tamiya does not include the dry sump tank anyway. Everything else however is very much visible on the model even when assembled. These braided hoses on the real car are quite thick. I would use something close to radiator hose size in scale. 

 

These are the lubrication and oil cooling lines for the turbos themselves. All these lines are braided hoses and they are almost half the size of the transmission oil lines. If I remember correctly the piece with the oil filter in the Tamiya kit has markings on it, which would actually indicate where some of those lines go. (at least 3 of them go there) 

 

Wastegate plumbing

 

And Euro spec fuel plumbing.

 

I can give you a lot more, but it would be pointless, since you can't fit it all in there and if you could, you wouldn't be able to see it anyway, once everything is assembled. 

Now, about the Sultan of Brunei's cars, they all came out of the factory red and LHD. They were converted for him after production by a third party under Pininfarina's commission. No F40 were made for the Japanese market. All cars there were either Euro or US spec cars. And all F40s came out of the factory with 325 rear tires, which at the time was the widest tire made. I ran 345 tires on my Vette and my wheels were 12.5 wide. The tires in the Tamiya kit perfectly represent the P-Zero Pirellis, which were at the time made specifically for the F40. If you make the same width wheels that are just one size larger, the kits tires would easily stretch over them and will not only save you the headache of sourcing tires, but would look really good, while maintaining originality to the F40. 

Good luck with the project and if I can be of any help, let me know. I will check if I still have some original Giallo Modena Ferrari paint and if I do I'll be happy to send you some. 

Absolutely spectacular reference material! Thank you so much. I don’t think I ever would have gotten the lines as accurate with just my internet research! Your knowledge of these cars is definitely going to help take my build to the next level. Plumbing and wiring engines is one of my favorite parts of building any model and being so unfamiliar with modern cars, nonetheless Italian super cars, this information will be invaluable! Most of my experience is in hot rods, muscle cars, super stock and top fuel dragsters. Not going to lie, when I first opened this kit I thought I was looking at an enigma machine. I wasn’t sure what to make of most of it other than, follow the instructions, look at references, and paint it well!
 

I appreciate the offer on the paint too, but I had a bottle of Giallo Modena arrived a few days ago. I actually have a full PPG toner mixing bank at my work and access to the PPG color library, so I can mix almost any color under the sun. This was my first time buying paint from Splash. The cost of mixing a 1oz sample depending on the color is typically about $3-$5 my cost, So Splash selling them for $8.99 with a shaker bottle is actually not a bad deal! Thank you again though! 

As of today I’m at a short stand still until parts arrive over the next 2 days. Carbon Kevlar, carbon fiber decals, the MOMO parts, seat belt material, struts and springs, the new turbos and lots of other detail parts! 

Thank you again for the reference material and knowledge!

[GlueSniffer]

Had a short hiatus of this because of some work obligations, but back to the F40 now! Plus a lot of parts had arrived in the last few weeks! Here are some of the goodies going in it, including the incredible Hobby Design detail up set. It’s far nicer than I had expected and included much more than what limited descriptions all the retails had offered. 

 

Hose straps, MOMO seats and steering wheel, coil overs, metal wheel center locks, yellow racing harnesses…

Multiple carbon fiber and Kevlar weaves for different areas of the car. The plain weave if to try making turbo blankets.

A few paints. Including the Giallo Modena yellow for the body’s exterior.

The brake rotors alone in this set are mind blowing. Going to begin on them tonight!
 

Here is some progress shots. The MOMO Daytona seats didn’t fit the cabin very well, so I had to trim the seat brackets way down as well as the head restraints.

Made a carbon fiber front splitter from scratch, bigger than the factory lip, but smaller than a LM splitter. Nice middle ground.

Began the RHD conversion. Made a new left toe board, removed the right toe board. Most of this interior tub will get the same carbon fiber decal as the front splitter and a dark green panel bond lines.

New “medium” size turbos from Iceman Collections. These will look far better than the kit turbos. A little bigger, but not too big for a street car.

The rear coils have already been cut to size and installed.

Thats all for now! Going to start putting together the rear rotors now that they arrived. I only jumped to the interior to keep busy while I waited for that Hobby Design set to arrive from Japan! 
 

 

 

[beeRS]

This is going to be epic. I’m watching 👍🏼. 

[Bugatti Fan]

This will be one fantastic build, and the Tamiya kit has to be the very best starting point.

[adamelvis]

This is gonna be a wicked build. 
The F40 was one of my very first builds as a kid.!

TCB, Adam

[ea0863]

Loving this build of one of my favorite cars. Thanks for posting!

[Kenmojr]

On 5/2/2023 at 9:13 PM, GlueSniffer said:

My 1:1 car is also yellow! And I hate it! 🤣 My ‘68 Dart, will eventually be black.

As a kid I had a Tyco slot car track, I don’t know why I had 4 as my dad bought them and I wouldn’t exactly call him a Ferrari guy by any means, but I had 4 F-40s. 2 red, 1 black, and 1 yellow. I don’t know why, but I remember the yellow one being my favorite.

 

That Dart looks mean and looks like it packs muscle. 440 six pack?