Ferrari F50

The idea for the Ferrari F50 can be found in the roots of Ferrari and the company that created it. When Ferrari first started to build cars, they were intended to be racetrack competitive. As time passed, Ferrari built cars either for the racetrack or the road, as it was impractical to make dual-purpose automobiles. The F50 was introduced in 1995 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary and is a continuation of the concept of the F40.

The Ferrari F50 was a mid-engined range-topping sports car. The car is a two-door, two-seat convertible with a removable hardtop. It has a 4.7-liter, naturally aspirated 60-valve V-12 engine that was developed from the 3.5-liter V-12 used in the 1992 Ferrari F 92 A Formula One car.

The F50's engine predated the car: It was used in the Ferrari 333 SP for the American IMSA series in 1994 allowing it to become eligible for the stock engine WSC category. The Ferrari F50 has a maximum power of 513 horsepower at 8,000 rpm and a max torque of 347 lb.-ft. at 6,500 rpm. It goes from 0-60 mph in only 3.7 seconds with a top speed of 202 mph.

Only 349 cars were made, one fewer than Ferrari estimated they could sell. This was, in the words of Ferrari spokesman Antonio Ghini, because "Ferraris are something cultural, a monument. They must be hard to find, so we will produce one less car than the market." The last F50 was produced in Maranello, Italy in July 1997 to keep the ownership competition juices flowing. Others suspect that since their closest competitor, the McLaren F1 was scheduled to build 350 units, 349 would give the Ferrari a slight edge. In the supercar games, no quarter is given. 55 are scheduled for US customers, where the car is legal for sale in all 50 states.

The F50 might be legal to sell in all 50 states, but they were available by lease only even if you were in a position to cough up the $240,000 down payment. They were leased only to individuals who were approved by the factory. The intent was to weed out speculators, who had driven the price of the F40 to nearly $1,000,000 even though 1200 were made.