F50: 149 in 1995 and 200 in 1997?

So none were made in '96?

 

Yes. Exactly approximately about 349, give or take, or likely give, were made, not including the prototypes, the 2 GT's and 1 GT from parts.

 

There were none produced in 1996?

 

Of course they were produced in 1996. Why would they stop production for a year and then begin it again in 1997? That makes no sense. Here is a 1996 F50 that was for sale:

http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/93224/index.html?no_cache=1&ret=63&request[filter][offset]=0&request[filter][rowcount]=30

 

I could be off here, so please correct me if I am wrong however:

I believe the reason for 149 cars in 1995 and 200 in 1997 was because of the OBD II requirement. I believe that "All cars and light trucks built and sold in the United States after January 1, 1996 were required to be OBD II equipped."

Thus, Ferrari rushed to get the the 149 cars out as 1995's to beat the OBD II requirement (although 1996 would have been the true 50th anniversary.)

However, I am not sure about the 1997 cars regarding ODB II. I am not sure if those were compliant and had the new port or if the regulations later changed to allow them to have an exemption.

This is simply what I gathered from a couple years of reading Fchat. Take it with a grain of salt since I am far from an expert like many other members here.

 

Not an expert, but as I understand it there were only 55-60 original US-spec F50s out of the entire production run which were all built in 1995. Those would be the only cars of the entire production run that would have needed to conform to the US EPA's OBD-I standard, in place prior to 1996.

There were zero F50's produced for the USA after 1995 and none that conform to the EPA's OBD-II standards. Cars sold in other markets don't have to meet our silly standards. I believe the reason they launched the F50 earlier than the actual anniversary date was to allow them to build cars for the US market under the outgoing standards which were far less stringent. That is just speculation on my part - someone else may be able to confirm?

F50 production began in 1995 and commenced in 1997 with a fairly even pace along the way.

Also, Ferrari's 50th anniversary was 1997 as the company was founded by Enzo in 1947.

>8^)
ER

 

Well, I asked the same question earlier, about any cars built in '96. Because in the very first post it is asked if it is correct that 149 were made in 1995 and 200 in 1997. This makes for a total of 349 cars, which is the official number produced and leaves nothing for 1996.
So if there were cars produced in '96, then either in '95 there were less than 149 made or less than 200 left the factory in '97.

 

That's what I assumed. I believe the OP was asking if there were any cars produced in 1996 as he had been led to believe that 149 were built in 1995 and 200 were built in 1997. The post I was responding to appeared to confirm this but, after reading it again, I think he may have just been confirming that the total number of cars produced was 349 (officially, anyway) and he was not addressing the actual question which is whether any were produced in 1996.

I agree, it makes no sense that they would stop production for a year. I had never heard of anything like this before. I had to ask as I found it hard to believe.

 

This is correct.
Side bar: the numbers I have reflect that there are 56 US spec cars. There was a total production of more than 380+ cars. Interestingly, not all of the cars that came to the US ended up with the wine that was intended to come with the car. There are some really interesting stories of the wine being hidden in the cars going through customs in 95.

 

There were far fewer 1995 cars produced than either in 96 or 97.

 

They made in total about 378 production cars, 95-96-97, excluding prototypes.

 

The 'firm' number I've heard is 387. Do you exactly how many prototypes were produced?

 

I believe they made far fewer cars in 1995 than 149. I personally delivered #115/349 new in April 1996 and I know #101/349 was delivered March 1996. Logic say less than a hundred cars produced in 1995.

 

Thank you for the info. Just out of curiosity, how were they numbered? It would be silly to have number 365 of 349. LOL. So is it safe to assume that a nearly 40 cars had already existing numbers?

 

No, Ferrari did something much simpler, most cars have a plaque, some do not.

 

I see. Doesn't this basically make the plaques in the cars that have them senseless?