Enzo Ferrari is said to have once proclaimed, “Race cars are neither beautiful or ugly. They become beautiful when they win.” Since the 1987-introduced Ferrari F40 was the last car personally approved for production during Enzo’s lifetime, he didn’t have a chance to consider where F40s fall into that philosophy. But the car ended up becoming a racing legend, and that history definitely contributed to the car’s beauty in the eyes of car collectors, because F40s are selling for crazy money. This one, first owned by legendary auto exec Lee Iacocca, is likely to sell for a real estate price, especially given that it has just 320 miles on the odometer and a $60,000 stack of service records.
The F40 was expensive when new at $400,000 (over a million dollars today), and by the early ‘90s, F40s had already reached million-dollar prices. Eventually values dropped back to half a million towards the turn of the millennium, but from the early 2000s on they have steadily gained value to become several-million-dollar cars. When cars, sports cars or supercars, become such expensive investments, they are rarely used for their original intended purpose. As a result, they sit for years, going from one expensive recommissioning to another, between sales and shows. A good example of that is the ex-Lee Iacocca F40 that is going under the hammer soon.
Let me adopt a James Earl Jones / Darth Vader voice for a moment. Ahem.
“Lee Iacocca asked his engineers to build a sports car. Remember, the competition is good. We’ve got to be better.”
There. Wasn’t that convincing? Anyway, that particular sports car, the one with fuel-injected turbo power, the one that was faster than Camaro Z-28, Trans Am, and Toyota Supra, was the Chrysler Laser XE. (It also beat Mustang GT, Mazda RX-7 and Trans Am in the slalom, according to this ad). The Laser XE might have been built according to Iacocca’s wishes, but a few years later, Lido went ahead and ordered himself a Ferrari F40. Remember, the Lamborghini Diablo was introduced during Lambo’s Chrysler era, so perhaps he was simply doing market research. The F40, chassis number 87345, went into production in October 1990 and was finished in December and delivered to Iacocca that same month.
While it is an American market car, 94th out of 213, it was handed over to Iacocca in Modena, Italy instead of any U.S. based Ferrari showroom. The car was initially registered in Italy in 1991 with tourist plates, and as the RM Sotheby’s listing notes, Iacocca likely drove it a bit before the car was shipped to the States. U.S. market F40s like this one have catalytic converters and U.S. specific front details and important equipment such as air conditioning, but no adjustable suspension.
In any case, Iacocca barely drove the Ferrari. It was already listed for sale in November 1992 with a whole 72 miles on the odometer, and part of those might well have been factory test miles. You know a Ferrari needs to be well dialed in if it’s going to be delivered to a carmaker’s boss.
This is when the Ferrari took its first long sleep. It was sold again in 2006 in Las Vegas for over a million dollars, with 218 miles on the clock, and it required a $12,600 service during the summer of 2008 to address issues from storage. The cam-belt was done at a California specialist, and at that time the F40 was noted to not run on all cylinders. Both cylinder banks were “oozing coolant” at the head gaskets, but issues also stemmed from old fuel. The cam-belt service soon included overhauling the fuel pumps and the cooling system as well as the heads.
The specialist doing the work also diagnosed some incorrectly installed vacuum hoses, which contributed to the engine running poorly, meaning someone had been fixing stuff in the engine bay already before.
With the engine overhauled at 218 miles, the Ferrari changed hands in January 2012 through RM Auctions. With 283 miles on the clock then, the car went to a collector who again drove it very rarely. After his passing, the car was simply stored, and as it now heads to RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction, it has 320 miles on the clock.
To be presentable at the Monterey auction, to ensure a top-dollar result, and to again address issues stemming from sitting, the Ferrari has needed another overhaul, this time at Ferrari Newport Beach. The $40,000 service included draining and replacing bad fuel ($525), replacing the battery (parts $370, labor $350), replacing the spark plugs ($595 in parts), replacing the rusted coolant tank ($4426), and performing a major engine service at nearly $21,000, which included $2,673 in parts.
The 2010 vintage tires were also replaced, with 245/40ZR17 Pirelli P Zeros front and 335/35ZR17 rear – that’s $2,637 in total. The headlamp switch had also cracked, necessitating a $4200 repair.
At any rate, those 320 miles have been expensive. But naturally you cannot compare upkeep of this car to any other car, except for other rare supercars that are hauled from one display to another. This car will never completely wear down the P-Zeros. It will never be driven at breakneck speed. It’s not the sort of race car that Enzo referred to. It’s a classic ‘80s Ferrari supercar, bought to accumulate value, and any service it receives is done to ensure that it pays out the best. It operates on a different plane compared to most cars – when it even gets to run.
Will the Iacocca F40 break five million dollars at Monterey? It’s likely to do so, as low-mileage F40s have touched four million recently (such as Alain Prost’s old, signed car), and RM Sotheby’s auctioned a 1992 F40 for $5,230,000 at ModaMiami in February.
Do you think the 320-mile odometer reading will contribute more or less than the Lee Iacocca connection to this F40’s eventual hammer price? He wasn’t just any auto exec, after all, having been involved with the iconic Ford Mustang, the original Chrysler minivan, the Chrysler-savior that was the K-Car, the Diablo, as well as Chrysler’s own halo supercar, the Viper.
Photos: RM Sotheby’s
I’d forgotten all about the Laser XE. It wasn’t a bad-looking car. I wonder if it really was as competitive as the TV add made it out to be.