Ferrari F40 LM
The factory-sanctioned Ferrari F40 LM series built by Michelotto
In the early seventies, the Ferrari factory effectively withdrew from all other racing series to focus their effort solely on the FIA Formula One Championship. While that focus paid off in 1975 when the Scuderia Ferrari won both the Constructors’ and the Drivers’ Championship titles, it was only due to a few privateers that the Ferrari name kept heading results lists with the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ and the Ferrari BB’s that came after.
In 1984, Ferrari’s mechanical engineer Nicola Materazzi wanted to go Group B racing with an evolution of the road-going limited edition Ferrari 288 GTO. He started a small side-project and eventually built five development cars called 288 GTO Evoluzione cars, but when the FIA brought and end to the Group B category for the 1986 season, the project was destined to be aborted with a proper racing series to compete in.
By 1986 the 40th anniversary of Ferrari was approaching and Enzo Ferrari at age 88 felt he wanted to leave a legacy in the form of a proper ‘supercar’. When all this came together, the decision was made to continue Materazzi’s 288 GTO Evoluzione project towards the production of a car exclusively for road use baptised ‘Ferrari F40’ to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Michelotto was officially the Ferrari service center for Ferrari Padua, but they had a history of great success in converting Ferrari 308’s for competition purposes. From Materazzi’s concept of the 288 GTO Evoluzione, Materazzi in conjunction with Michelotto built the pre-production prototypes for Ferrari.
The limited edition 1987 Ferrari F40 was not developed to compete with the limited edition 1986 Porsche 959 supercar, but, albeit an entirely different approach, the whole car world and the posters in everybody’s childhood bedroom placed the two supercars cars side-by-side. While the motor press receive the more raw and more expensive Ferrari F40 with mixed reactions, it became an instant icon with the general public, potential customers and speculators. The original ideas of a limited series of 400 cars sold for about a quarter of a million dollars was stretched to well over 1.300 cars. The request for Ferrari, specially the F40, exploded by the end of the eighties and the final cars of the ever-growing ‘limited’ edition were sold for up to one million dollars in a turbulent market.
Ron O'Dell, Reno, Nevada, USAApart from Materazzi’s side-project with the Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione and the unofficial support of a couple of privateers, the Scuderia Ferrari was still refraining from any motorsports’ effort apart from the FIA Formula One Championship. Inevitably a ‘privateer’ would stand up to take the iconic Ferrari F40 and re-enter the GT racing scene. The French Ferrari importer Ch. Pozzi SA commissioned Michelotto to develop a racing version of the F40 that was called F40 LM, for Le Mans, though in the end, this particular series of cars did never end up competing at Le Mans.
Eventually the Ferrari factory sanctioned the F40 LM project and Ch. Pozzi SA and managing director Daniel Marin, competed with s/n 79890 and s/n 79891 under the Ferrari banner in the IMSA series in 1989 and 1990. The racing team was led by ex-Renault F1 manager Jean Sage and had a proper line-up of drivers of past and future racing pedigree. Out of five entered races they took five podium finishes between the two chassis before both cars were sold to Ch. Pozzi SA in 1991.
- 1st test session at Fiorano circuit on 25 October 1988 driven by Dario Benuzzi (1m23.1s)
- Test session (4th) at Fiorano circuit on 24 November 1988 (1m19.4s)
- Test sessions at Fiorano circuit (broken gearbox) and Mugello circuit on 7 December 1989
- Test session at Fiorano circuit on 20 December 1989 (broken differential)
- Test session at Fiorano circuit on 11 January 1989 (broken 2nd gear)
- High speed testing at Nardo speed track in February 1989 (367 kph)
- Test session at Fiorano circuit in February 1989 driven by Dario Benuzzi (1m18.0s)
- Test session at Monza on 21 February 1989 driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille (2m31.0 in cold weather before oil pump failure)
- Monza testing on 3-5 March 1989 driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille (1m44.3s)
- Monza endurance testing on 20-23 March 1989 driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Alain Ferté
- After the forced abandon of the Le Mans project, technical development continued in preparation for the IMSA races at Monza, Fiorano, Paul-Ricard, Jarama, Lédenon by various drivers, including Piere-Henri Raphanel and Jean Alesi.
- Test session at Vallelunga on 29 July 1989 driven by Eric van de Poele (1m13.5s)
- Test session at Heartland Park circuit in Topeka, Kansas driven by Eric van de Poele (1m40.9s) and Jean Ales (1m42.6s)
Michelotto built a total of 18 F40 LM chassis and converted one (s/n 74045 which was originally a pre-production Ferrari F40 built by Michelotto) chassis to the same full F40 LM specification under built number 13 that was previously skipped. While ’17’ was considered an unlucky number in Italy, that number was skipped too, so in the end, a total of 19 chassis with Michelotto built numbers 1 through 20 were built as listed below.
Ferrari F40 LM chassis built by Michelotto
| No. | Car | Chassis | Details | Delivered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74045 | 1987 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 19 May 1992 - LM specs Originally an F40 pre-production prototipo | ZFFGJ34B000074045 prototipo, LM #13 LHD | French Blue (PILOT livery, White wheels) / Red cloth | 
Rene Herzog |
| 79890 | 1988 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered to Carrozzeria Nova Rinascente (Dino Cognolato) on 14 April 1988 First road testing on 20 June 1988 at Vigonza (PD) by Dino Cogolato Delivered by Michelotto on 20 October 1988 Raced in IMSA Series in 1989 and 1990 Delivered to Ch. Pozzi on 25 January 1991 Sold to Gérard Autajon (FRA) in 2000 | 79890 LM #01 LHD | Red | 
Ferrari SpA
Ch. Pozzi SA |
| 79891 | 1988 Ferrari F40 LM First chassis road testing on 20 June 1988 at Vigonza Manufacturing by Michelotto ended on 16 January 1990 Raced in IMSA Series in 1989 and 1990 Delivered to Ch. Pozzi on 25 Januari 1991 Sold to Jean-Pierre Slaviç (CZE) in December 2002 | ZFFGX34X0K0079891 LM #02 LHD | Red |
Ferrari SpA
Ch. Pozzi SA |
| 88513 | 1990 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 23 May 1990 - GTC specs | ZFFGJ34B000088513 LM #04 LHD | 
Michael Gabel | |
| 88520 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 7 January 1991 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X0L0088520 LM #05 LHD | Red / Red cloth | 
Jean 'Beurlys' Blaton
Garage Francorchamps |
| 88521 | 1990 Ferrari F40 LM Manufactured 14 November 1990 Delivered 16 May 1990 - IMSA specs | 88521 LM #03 LHD |
Giorgio Perfetti | |
| 88522 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 8 January 1991 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X000088522 LM #06 LHD | Red / Red cloth |
Albert Uderzo
Ch. Pozzi SA |
| 88523 | 1990 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 5 December 1990 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X0L0088523 LM #07 LHD | 
Sultan of Brunei | |
| 88524 | 1990 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 21 December 1990 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X000088524 LM #08 LHD |
Capitanio | |
| 92235 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 22 September 1991 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X000092235 LM #09 LHD | 
Yoshido Matsuda
Matsuda Collection | |
| 92236 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 20 November 1991 - IMSA specs | 92236 LM #10 LHD | 
Jim McLean
Ferrari NA | |
| 92237 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 18 December 1991 - IMSA specs | ZFFGX34X000092237 LM #11 LHD |
Albert Obrist | |
| 92238 | 1991 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 19 December 1991 - GTC specs | ZFFGX3420L0092238 LM #12 LHD | ||
| 95448 | 1992 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 25 June 1992 - GTC specs | ZFFGX3460L0095448 LM #14 LHD |
Walter Hagmann | |
| 95449 | 1993 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 27 January 1993 | ZFFGX34X000095449 LM #15 LHD |
Young
Ferrari NA | |
| 97881 | 1993 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 8 June 1993 - GTC specs | ZFFGX34A3N0097881 LM #16 LHD |
Ed Wettach
Ferrari NA | |
| 97893 | 1993 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 8 June 1993 - push rod specs | ZFFGX34X000097893 LM #18 LHD | Red |
Ferrari NA |
| 97904 | 1993 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 6 July 1993 - push rod specs | ZFFGX34X000097904 LM #19 LHD |
Ferrari NA | |
| 99401 | 1994 Ferrari F40 LM Delivered 20 May 1994 | ZFFGX34X000099401 LM #20 LHD |
Ferrari NA |