A Ferrari mechanic crashed the world's highest mileage F40

Imagine you’re behind the wheel of a legendary Ferrari F40. It’s a wet roadway, and you make the bad decision to goose the throttle. You lost the back end and made the mistake of hitting the brakes instead of countersteering. The next thing you know, you’re shiny side down in one of the most iconic supercars ever created, and everything’s a hot mess.

This is not some poser Pontiac Fiero dressed up like an F40. This is the real deal.

To make things worse, the car isn’t yours. In fact, you’re a Ferrari technician, and you’ve just seriously wrecked the highest-mileage F40 in the world. That’s exactly what happened on January 16th in the UK, and there’s a video of the horrifying accident that’s one of the worst unforced automotive errors ever.

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So, what happened?

The driver was reportedly a Ferrari technician who was test-driving the F40 after some maintenance work was performed. In one of the post-accident photos, you can see plastic covers over the seats, a good indication that a mechanic was still in possession of the vehicle to avoid any potential stains on the bright red fabric. It’s also clear from the video that the roadway was wet. 

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The car’s super-wide staggered Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico tires, developed specifically for the F40, are known for excellent dry traction but not so much in wet conditions. The F40 is equipped with a potent 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine good for 471 hp and 426 lb-ft of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. Throw in the car’s notorious twin turbo kick to the rear wheels, and it’s goodnight even if you know what you’re doing.

It doesn’t even appear that the F40 was traveling at a high rate of speed, but there’s no way the driver lost control without giving the car some juice first. The turbos likely kicked in, which caused the back end to lose traction, as the F40 has no traction control. He immediately hit the non-ABS brakes in an attempt to slow the car down, which instead sent the F40 careening into the curb, flipping it over into a light pole. The hood came off, the light pole buckled over, and the rest is history.

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The price of a lack of vigilance is high

How much was this specific Ferrari F40 worth? For starters, consider that this Ferrari isn’t some ‘80s oil-burning and much-maligned Mondial that might cost around $50 grand. It’s the iconic ‘90s Ferrari supercar, of which a mere 1,315 were made and whose price tag can approach $2 million in mint condition.

This one was wearing an “F40 PRX” license plate, denoting it as the highest-mileage F40 in the world. That last fact doesn’t increase its value, of course, but rather shows that the owner was a driver, someone who liked to use his F40 for its intended purpose rather than have it sit in a museum.

It’s not just the price of the car and its rarity that matter, though. The F40 is considered one of the best supercars ever made. As the successor to the 1987 288 GTO Evoluzione race car, the F40 stands as a true driver’s car. It’s one of the few legends that occupies a place in the pantheon of iconic supercars and elicits passionate reactions from enthusiasts even 33 years after it ended production.

That might not buff out

Is this F40 a total loss? It’s hard to tell if the car has any structural damage, but things don’t look good for the F40’s Kevlar, carbon fiber, and aluminum body (an industry first at the time).

We’ve seen worse Ferrari wrecks that were repaired to the point where any damage was completely unrecognizable, so perhaps there is hope for this one, too. One of the bigger issues might be catastrophic damage to the twin-turbo V8, which could render it beyond repair. It’s not like Ferrari makes the engine anymore.

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Ferrari’s classic restoration services might be able to repair this F40, but keep in mind that a heavily damaged until could cost more to repair than buying another one (if you can find one, that is).

Not any Ferrari mechanic, and definitely not the one who wrecked it, should lay hands on it. It takes knowledge of classic Ferraris, access to rare parts, as well as extensive skills in repairing carbon fiber composite panels to put one of these back on the road.

Final thoughts

This is one of the most painful car wreck videos we’ve ever laid eyes on. If it were your run-of-the-mill Porsche 911 Carrera, it would still hurt but not nearly as badly. Every car lover has tremendous respect for the F40, and some of us would sell organs (or a mother-in-law) to get one. This kind of accident, where it’s not some novice at fault, makes it all the more painful to watch. Here’s hoping the owner is able to bring this F40 back to its original glory. 

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