F40 LM Restoration

These are some of the photos I was referring to, you can see the indents and change in material where both the original road car headlights were located and where the front section has been filled in to form the LM style front scoop in the area where the Hamann one was opened up.

To me this suggests that the front clam was the original one as fitted when it was first a road car, which was then converted by Hamann its its own unique spec, then changed once again by whoever, to the LM type spec before finally all being revealed by MT when they restored the car.
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You are very observant @PAUL500! Amazing it has lived on!

I recall at the time of the conversion at Hamann's in 1993-4, it was clear that the front clam had to be modified to deal with cooling needs and aerodynamics. For cost/complexity reasons, Ferrari didn't use carbon fibre for the exterior body panels on the F40 (to my knowledge) but instead were formed from a sandwich construction of glass fibre outer/honeycomb center/kevlar cloth inner which was easier to make in complex shapes at the time but still expensive (I'm not an engineer, so this could be off). Give the small budget, making a new clam from scratch was out of the question. Besides, there were no manufacturers of an equivalent type in Germany at the time and cutting out the vent was the only way to go, and there was no room for error. Everyone was holding their breath as one brave soul set to work! Apart from a few chips it went fine. The distinctive flat blade separator was made of glass fibre I think, and was glued on. Also the front bumper was the one from the standard car, and the brake intakes on either were filled in and two circular holes were created to match the flexible ducting that carried the air into the brakes - another visually distinctive feature.

I think the Michelotto clam may well have been designed as a one piece - do you know?

 

Definitely. Raced twice under GT1 In BPR at Spa and the 'Ring in 1996, against the F40GTEs (the official Michelotto cars), but sadly one was a DNF and the other was poor finish. Unfortunately reliability issues, and a small team budget meant it never attained its potential.

See my post https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/145798492/ for more history.

It was an F40 conversion done by Hamann of Germany in period to GT1 specs. I posted a link to magazine article from 1994 when the car was unveiled for more info: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/145798506/

 

Exactly.

For whatever reason, he seems to be reluctant to acknowledge that the car was an F40 Hamann conversion in period, and not an F40 LM/GTE conversion as he claims, despite available evidence (discussed in detail above) showing that the car was never converted to an F40LM/GTE.

 

Hartmann Motorsport called their Ferrari: F40 Competizione

Barry, there is no F40 GTE unless someone shows me the paperwork for a GTE

 

I should have probably asked this before, but is it Hamann or Hartmann? I've seen both listed now several times. I'm familiar with Hamann as they do a lot of BMW tuning in addition to other brands, but I'm not familiar with Hartmann.

 

Hartmann Motorsport did some mods to the Hamann Motorsport F40

 

Could you please clarify/expand on this? The GTE is mentioned on Michelotto's website along with the CSAI GT and the IMSA LM. The 'GTE' also appears in the list of eligible cars for the 'Solo Michelotto' events. There's clearly something I'm missing, so pardon my ignorance. Thank you.

 

After sitting on the sidelines for a long time and watching the turn this conversation has taken, I feel a bit compelled to check in before some of this gets out of hand.

First I'll say that I've known a lot about this car early on (when it was for sale) and I've watching Traveller purchase it and do an incredibly good job with a pretty difficult mission. I see a lot of nitpicking going on here by some very knowledgeable people and some people who are less so. Here are my thoughts on some of this.

When someone buys an F40 that's not completely original as it left the factory, we all have a choice as to what to do with it. It's usually one of two ways: convert it back to a completely stock and "as original" car or, conversely, to honor its history and to keep the car a certain way in the context as to which it was intended to be. As an F40 owner who's done his own deep dive into his own car and its own unique history, I've have to deal with this very thing. I can tell you first hand that to put a special car with a special history back to stock is a difficult decision to make. It's the automotive equivalent of wiping all of the equations and calculations and problem solving off the white board and looking at a clean board with nothing on it, and realizing that all of the special unique individual keynotes of your car's story are gone. Now maybe a lot of people feel that's how things should be. I don't.

Traveller bought an F40 with an interesting past. He never said it was an LM car or a GTE car. As more history became known, it became clear that the car had race history. Anyone who has spent any time with Nicola Materazzi, Franco Meiners, or either of the Michelotto's (but especially Giuliano) knows that the whole F40 race program was kind of a cobbled together batch of tiles that ultimately created a beautiful mosiac but it was by no means a well planned, well backed affair. Between the wide spread of various race series that the cars were used in, the huge spread of chassis that were used (79890 all the way to 94362), the various groups campaigning the cars, and ongoing updates and conversions, other than a few chassis numbers with special history, many of these cars that were raced ended up like the car here (I believe it's 84326 but someone can correct me) - a odd mix of parts from career in racing with no especially notable results and so was kind of put away wet and needed a complete redo.

Fast forward to when Traveller purchased the car and decided to bring the car up to a seriously nice level. Does he wipe the board clean or does he do something that honors the history of his car. Like many of us would do, he chose the latter. Now unlike many of us, he chose to share his journey publicly and if not for that, most people never get a chance to get on their soapboxes and talk about what this car is or isn't but that's another story. Anyways, he could have brought it back to a nicer version of exactly how it was configured, most experts would agree, is neither fish nor fowl. Instead, he chose to honor its race history and completely redo it in the right way with the best parts that were intended to be on a racing F40, namely LM and GTE parts

People can argue all they want about what to call the car. Call it whatever you want to; it's so besides the point of this exceptional car. Arguing about what to call a car like this is like two grown men who still live in their parents' basements arguing about whether or not Heidi Klum's boobs are too small. Whether or not it should be called an LM (even though it's an F40 race car with race history that's now built to LM specs with the right parts from the right people) is so far removed from the overall beauty, substance, and spirit of this car. If anyone ever wants to know exactly what this car is or isn't, they can read every bit of this thread from the start to the finish and make their own judgment. Traveller has never hidden on iota of it. There's no confusion as to what it is and I don't see the point of all of this nitpicking about the name and bringing up all of its various configurations over the years.

Just my opinion but I can't sit by idly and watch a great car and great project get unreasonably belittled. The owner doesn't deserve it, the people who put all the time and effort into making it great don't deserve it, and above all, the car doesn't deserve it. There is no better way to honor the car and its history other than what has been done and the way it's been done and that deserves serious kudos.

 

Please identify yourself

 

Are you requesting my name and surname? Sorry, I'm not going to post private informations on a public forum.
Anyway, to clarify my own doubts, I did a quick search in this forum section. On page #2 of the results, I came across this thread and this list, written by You, which includes nineteen LM, seven GTE (incl. an ex-LM) and seven GT models (one turned into a GTE). Very helpful, so thanks for writing it.

 

The term GTE is not official; F40 LM and F40 Corsa

 

F40 LM and the rarely used, F40 Competizione as referenced by http://auto.ferrari.com/en_EN/sports-cars-models/past-models/f40-competizione/

 

I don't disagree with any of that. I'm just trying to add some perspective to a meaningless, baseless argument before things get out of hand.

 

I agree. It appears GTE became a collective name for following chassis numbers built by Michelotto, even though the Michelotto build sheets make no reference to that acronym:

74045
90001
82404
94362
85015
88779
84503

I refer to your post with the Michelotto F40s list:
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/145338494/

 

Well said @sherpa23.

+1000

 

Rob -

First of all

Point well taken.

I think everyone here has always been in full agreement that the car is not an original F40LM. Similarly we agree that it has a race history, eg. BPR 96. I certainly agree he has every right to restore his car in whatever way he sees fit, and I for one think it looks very nice in it's current form.

However, the issue in a nutshell is this:

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The current owners profile today is as above. Says F40LM plain and simple, even though we all agree that it is not an original car. OK, this is not a 250GTO where leaving out the word "conversion, replica etc" would cause an uproar but it is still a historically important and valuable car, to your point @sherpa23.

Secondly, if the car had just been a no-race history standard road car, converted to an LM in the past 5 years, we would probably just call it an "LM replica" or "LM-replica of an F40" and be done with it.

On the other hand, if you take this car, which is:
1) an F40 that raced in period Hamann/Hartmann F40 (with no link by design or history to the Michelotto's F40LM or GTE cars)
2) and a recent conversion from Hamann/Hartmann F40 to F40LM-style

and then claim it was a historic (yet unofficial) conversion to F40 LM/GTE (a claim he makes) that is wrong.

To keep incorrectly calling it a "in period F40LM/GTE" denies recognition of the work of Harmann/Hartmann to create that car independently of Micholotto.

And, as an aside, even if the car had raced as an (even unofficial) F40LM/GTE it would be valued by the market quite differently to one that was an in-period F40 conversion by a relatively lesser known German tuner and racing outfit (Harmann/Hartmann). On the spectrum of original F40LM to modern day F40LM replica of an F40, it would sit in a different place.

So, a suggestion: if @Traveller wants to continue to be transparent, and clarify the current situation:

1) He could stop referring to the car as an F40LM without some qualification around it (starting from his Fchat profile page)
2) He could consider changing the name he uses for it to include Hamann/Hartmann to properly recognize its history.

 

The step change in definition from memory was when the Sheehan article started being referenced, which was some time later into the refurbishment of the car, as that appeared to then give legitimacy for the car being of actual LM heritage, then from that point on it seemed to be used as a rubber stamp approval for the car to be labelled LM, and the magazines also then ran with that, once the car was completed.

I don't see it as any attempt to hide from the cars past, more just to align the finished article to the higher profile LM cars, which it is now much closer to.

Given the power of the internet, had the car been marketed as an LM at any point in the future, such claims would then have been quashed, but until that time an owner can call their possessions whatever they like, regardless of what anyone else thinks, but they also have to accept that by putting their head above the parapet, it is likely to be the target of snipers, just look at Jim G and his car.

 

Agree Paul, and as I have said several times before, all I was pointing out was that the Sheehan article was erroneous, which consequently casts a different light on the work of Hamann/Hartmann i.e. they didn't just pull together the car with Michelotto F40LM parts, but was of their own design.

 

Interesting point, and hopefully, if and when that does happen, there is enough info here now for people to make up their minds up about the extent of its LM heritage.

 

......one of the seven deadly sins: ENVY.........

 

I don't agree, Barry let slip when I mentioned the car probably still having the original clam that he was a actually there when Hamann cut open the road car one to make the race version, so he obviously has quite an affinity to the car in period, and it seems he felt that part of its life may have been getting brushed under the carpet to a degree.

Guessing that english may not be his first language and that the sentiment may have got lost in translation somewhat?

I have yet to see or read anyone badmouth the car in its current guise, everyone loves it.