upcoming sale of F40 80761

The auctioneers say: "This F40 benefited from an overhaul at Ferrari in Monaco in 2015 when it had covered 13,219 km. Today, it totals only 13,284 km and offers a rare state of preservation" so it. There are none of the usual signs of wear on the doorsills and the upholstery has been perfectly preserved, as has the bodywork. The car still has its tool kit and the wallet containing its manuals. Kept protected from light for most of its life, at a stable temperature, never used in the rain and always driven by the same careful driver, this F40 is certainly one of the best preserved examples"

So it has been driven 65 miles in the last 7 years when it was fully serviced, in my experience I think all it'll require is fresh fluids, fresh tires, and fresh cam-belts which can be done with the engine in situ. Assuming the tanks were done in 2015 they should be good till 2025.

Looking at the images, I can see that this F40 appears to be largely unmodified down to its original exhaust, which is always a good sign. It has both Sabelt harnesses and original belts in place, the throttle kick plate plastic covering is still in place, the steering wheel rim and the seats are in exceptionally good condition, al of which speaks to good care & preservation. The Mohair dashboard covering seems in really nice condition, the gauges seem clear and the mounting fascia seems un-messed with. The windscreen appears original with it's Pirelli tire sticker in place. On balance the entire chassis and engine could do with a good detailing to rid the water splashes and grime, but that's a simple task.

The suggestion is that this F40 has original paint and if checking it out reveals that to be mostly so then overall this is quite a nice F40 comparable to the Mecum car because 80761 has 8,254 miles (13,284 kilometers).

My thoughts are this car could possibly end up in the USA simply because as I have posted elsewhere, the USA currently happens to be buying a significant percentage of the supply of Eu/ROW F40s and importing them.

 

In this car's case as I mentioned above, I recommend a service to include new cam-belts, fresh fluids, and new tires at least, this assuming the tanks were done in 2015. I also recommend the entire chassis and engine could use a good detailing.

The key here is that the car was mechanically overhauled just 65 miles ago, and has been so the 7 year lay-off should not require more than the aforementioned. Meanwhile we've had some experience with a couple of F40s in similar situations and lot comes down to how the car was stored in the interim. In this car's case, it has been "kept for virtually all its life out of direct light and at a constant temperature, never used in the rain and always by the same careful driver, this F40 is certainly among the best preserved examples to be found". Even if we take the auction text with a pinch of salt, the images and in-person inspection show that it's not a bad example and servicing should be routine.

 

All of which would only need carrying out if the new buyer intends to actually use it, if its just a place to store money for now, it will simply roll back into another storage location, so it would make no sense to do the time critical elements until such time as it is used again in anger.

 

This is also true.

 

Wasnt this car supposed to sell cheap?

 

The F40 was $2.262m after fees, a really good result, but still, a bit of a step backwards from the similar-miles Mecum Kissimmee F40 which is said to have sold for $2.75m after fees just a few months ago.

Artcurial often ascribe conservative estimates, personally I simply thought it would bring significantly less than the Mecum car with the same miles, which is what happened.

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The Mecum car was also a '92, already in the US with duties paid, etc. The process of importing can be enough of a dissuasion that some US buyers still place an outsized premium on a car being on US soil.

 

Correct but I don't believe the model year difference and import duty equals a $500k difference, meanwhile I find that USA buyers are often not dissuaded from importing an F40, it's becoming more popular.

 

All of this guessing the car is headed for the US, and it very well could be heading somewhere else instead.

 

The Mecum car still seemed like an outlier. That said, I think US and non cat cars are at par today.

 

The Gooding USA F40 chassis number 90000 sold on March 4th for $2,452,500 including fees, if you're using all-in prices for Eu cars for value inflation, then the all-in price should be used here too.

Chassis 90000 with 3,779 miles was purchased by our Supercar collector client to join a 288 GTO and F50 we also sold him, it does not require anything near $50 - 100k spent on it, not all F40s require this type of expenditure, there are many cars whose maintenance has not been deferred.

It was purchased by our client because it is a well-kept example which incidentally belonged to another client of ours whom we sold a 275 GTB/4 to, so we happen to know the ownership and maintenance details of this particular F40. It has been Ferrari North America authorized dealer serviced from new, and the invoices that accompany the car reflect the impressive maintenance done over the years. In the last few years it has had a major service, and it was supplied with Classiche Certification, all it's original books, tools, and window sticker. Our client waited a long time [years] for an F40 of this one's quality, and any service work will be both minor & routine.

Perhaps the new owner will come on here and share the location of it's new home.

 

The car is heading to Germany.

 

It looked the part. Very nice car.

 

The last 3 USA F40s auctioned have brought $2,452,500, $2,892,500 and $2,425,000 respectively for an average sales price of $2,590,000.

The last 3 Eu F40s auctioned have brought 2,262,777, $2,725,000 (the widely-accepted outlier result) and $2,036,000 respectively for a sales average sales price of $2,329,066. If you take the outlier result out of the equation as I do when I'm consulted upon about F40 values, then the average sales price for an Eu F40 is $2,149,388. If you add 2.5% duty plus shipping on any of these cars then an Eu F40 on-the-ground in the USA still comes out significantly below USA F40 average prices.

The thing many are missing in the market today is not all F40s are in the condition that warrants top prices, therefore there are some obviously uninitiated buyers who are overpaying for cars IMO. In my experience, many of the Eu F40s have had particularly hard lives ('rode hard and put away wet' as they say) with much deferred maintenance, whereas the USA cars I've encountered are more likely to have been babied and regularly maintained at the authorized dealer. So to say "F40s are worth" xyz isn't a working formula for the astute or discriminating buyer because it doesn't apply to all cars, even those within the mileage parameters you've set. If you're a prudent buyer, you value F40s on a car-by-car basis.

 

This.
And even more important: ALWAYS inspect a car personally, even if you first have to fly to the other end of the planet. Do not buy on the telephone, do not buy on the internet.
And don't forget to do the homework first (due diligence), check the individual history.

Marcel Massini

 

The 10 % you talk about is 100 % not correct in the UK market .. 3k examples would generate near 1.8million GBP, where as a 15 K would be closer to 1.2 GBP.. so a 40 % difference.. this is based on both outstanding examples and like for like owners and servicing, all the Ferrari Super Car linage are super mileage sensitive.

 

Incorrect.