Further investigation and new Australian and Japanese documents obtained today have revealed this: The F40 crashed by Japanese dentist Akihiro Kawanabe 21 May 1994 near Alice Springs/AUS during the Cannonball Run is 85632. The wreck was sent from AUS back to Japan. It was then repaired. 85632 was then sold to the second owner, on 19 September 2008, to Mr. S. T., in Japan, who still owns it today. I now have the paperwork for all this. Which means that the Cannonball crash car has zero to do with the 90969 of fchatter "F40-R" in AUS nor does it have anything to do with that "blue F40 recently available from UK dealer Kaaimans". The question remains what the true identity of that "blue F40 in the UK" is and why it seems to have (temporarily?) used the identity of "90969". Marcel Massini
Great update, and the cannonball car was a red herring after all! so I guess we now wait for a sighting of the blue F40 in a new guise. So we now know the cloning was not to disguise that horrific accident, which makes the matter more murky as to its original back story. It may never have even been to Aus, and the use of 90969s VIN probably happened when both examples were in Japan. Sounds like it went the same route out of Europe and into Japan that many of the lost cars followed.
Is there a list somewhere of all the stolen/missing F40s? Presumably Ferrari dealers must have a list of Vins from the factory to watch out for?
How could the car have been insured if the registration plate didn't relate to the car? and if he had instead insured the Vin number then wouldn't ANPR have picked up that the registration plate wasn't insured?
It entirely used the numbers from the Mexican road spec car from the day it hit the road after its race career was over, being a race car it had no VIN stampings so MOT testers were probably fobbed off with that reason. if they searched and could not find one. Yes it could have become sticky come any insurance claim, back then though the GTR was the runt of the F1 litter, the last long term owner had even worked for Mclaren and probably picked it up for a song when they were no longer competitive. After first being registered in the UK, the Mexican car was never correctly exported by notifying dvla so in theory it was still in the UK! Over here you can simply apply for the V55 registration document, the dept write to the last registered owner for confirmation, if they do not respond then after 4 weeks the dept issues a new V55 registration document to the applicant. Many an exported car now has a twin in the UK if the exporter did not fill out the paperwork, and just shipped it out. He would have been aware that the Mexican car was long gone though and probably just used its ID as an easy way to road register the car for a year or two, which then became 5, 10, 20. in which time they rocketed in value, In the last 12 months the car has been "first registered" by a new owner as the correct race chassis number, and the Mexican ID quietly forgotten about, until VinWiki ran a post on you tube about the Mexican car not long ago.
Check out fchat, there are at least two separate threads re stolen and/or missing F40s. You will find answers. Use the search function. Marcel Massini
so the Blue F40 had Assembly #02475 on the tag - but we don't know if that is an original or genuine assembly number to the blue car - could have been created, added, cloned at some point. We know that Assembly #02475 belongs to chassis 85397 when the car was created originally at the factory. Marcel to your knowledge is chassis 85397 is one of the 30 know lost/stolen F40s?
Guess it will re-appear with the right VIN v the build assy number, amazing no one gets busted for Fraud on this.
given the results of Marcel's investigation, i think the title of this thread should be changed so that the owner of 90969 does not have to deal with this anymore.
or we can all agree that the red 90969 is the correct and original car. Will also be chasing up Ferrari for a final resolution to this matter.
it should hopefully be finalised today... the car has been sitting with the dealer for a few weeks now.
good. this needs to be resolved once and for all for you. it is not fair to have you and your car dragged any further in this story.
20/10/2015: The warranty and handbooks belonging to 85632 were offered for sale by David Gizzi in California.
To be honest as soon as I saw this case, I just thought of the chassis of f40 that burned in Monaco and literally just get that frame and vin, put it on this blue one (that besides the shanky vin is one of cleanest better state f40s I've seen, every bit and bob is pristine) properly painted red, add perspex on it goes. As long as the price makes sense (it would be a lesser price sore if it wasn't already registred in the UK) and the frame can be bought for an equal decent value, no brainer for a usable extremely fit f40. Phoenix f40s in good state trade 15-20% lower than middle of the market, if car can be bought for 600k and frame for 25-50k it's the steal of the century (pun intended). All it will need is some vin welding, paint, inspection in Monaco et voilá.
the Monaco Car is currently in rebuild and will look pristine when done. The burned remains went wide over 25k
The Monaco car had its own thread started when it caught fire in February last year. Some photos below from a workshop in Monaco, its pickup and from the workshop where it was sent to be rebuilt. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/147252751/ https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/147269392/ https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/147275422/ (Calvatone, Cremona) Since this thread was started the 90969 F40 in Australia seems to have been proven beyond doubt to be the genuine, correct car. Maybe we will get some clarification about the Classiche certification process, initially was claimed that the blue F40 had a Red Book too.(?) What remains to be seen is what chassis number the blue car had originally, and the associated circumstances.
I remember seeing it on the transporter with another f40 (unburnt ) going to Italy last year, Zanazi I assume? I know it was one of the main ones. My comment was more based on the concept and a bit of day dreaming, that f40 had a panache about it, maybe it was the patina x the perspex x straight pipes. Was the frame more or less than 200k? Good opportunity for someone to own a brand new f40 for what I will assume not much more than a bill pending used f40