RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME
Although the F40 became a revered road car, says James Page, circumstances conspired against it for competition success
During the second half of the 1980s, GT racing was very much in the doldrums, international events having become the domain of Group C prototypes. The upshot was that Ferrari had a brand-new car that should have been ideally suited to motorsport, but there were few series in which it could participate. Undeterred, folk soon began to enquire about a competition-spec F40, with Daniel Marin – from renowned Ferrari dealer Charles Pozzi – persuading the company to let Michelotto build it for use in the American IMSA GTO series.
Formula One star Jean Alesi gave the F40 LM its on-track debut at Laguna Seca on 15 October 1989. Entered by Jean Sage’s Ferrari France équipe, it finished third behind the two Audis of Hans Stuck and Hurley Haywood. The following week, Jean-pierre Jabouille drove the same car at Del Mar but was forced to retire. As an aside, Alesi would join the Ferrari F1 team for ’91 and – at the urging of Nelson Piquet – managed to negotiate a roadgoing F40 into his contract.
A total of 19 LMS eventually left Maranello, but not many of those were actually raced. The car featured a strengthened chassis, uprated aerodynamics that included a front splitter and adjustable rear wing, competition brakes and transmission, plus wider wheels.
Power was raised to 700bhp via increased boost, bigger intercoolers, a higher compression ratio and a new injection system, while weight was brought down to just over 1000kg.
Shortly after F40 production had come to an end, prototype racing imploded and GTS once more came to the fore. For the 1993 season, Michelotto converted seven more cars to CSAIGT specification for use in domestic series. Boasting, among other modifications, a 590bhp engine, LM brakes, a lighter body and a lower ride height, they enjoyed reasonable success. Chassis 80742 won the 1993 Campionato Italiano Supercar GT series.
The BPR Global GT Series was launched in 1994, giving the F40 an international outlet. Bo Strandell entered one for Luciano Della Noce and Anders Olofsson, and they took victory in the Vallelunga 4 Hours plus a second at Spa.
Although the F40 was further upgraded into the Gt-evoluzione, by 1995 a new rival had appeared. The irony was that the Ferrari had long been viewed as a racing car for the road, and it was finally put in its place by a road car that was never intended to race. Gordon Murray was adamant that his Mclaren F1 shouldn’t be used in competition, but he was eventually worn down by privateers Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher.
In many ways – on both road and track – the British hypercar ushered in a new era. It won first time out at Le Mans in 1995, although the ageing F40 sneaked a victory at Anderstorp that year courtesy of Michel Ferté and Olivier Thévenin. Amazingly, Olofsson and Della Noce repeated that result in ’96, leading home a quartet of Mclarens. It was a well-deserved last hurrah for the Ferrari, almost 10 years after it had first been unveiled.