Why isn’t the F50 adored like the F40? People forget the V12 heart in a F50 is a detuned Formula 1 motor. Would people feel the same about a sharper F50?
Ferrari did exactly that. In 1992, the World Sportscar Championship ended, & there wasn’t a factory GT race series. In 1994, the BPR Global GT Series began and Ferrari decided to sharpen the successor to the fabled F40 racing. It was time for the F50 to have its moment.
Ferrari took the F50 street car, added more aero, and bumped the output of the 4.7L V12 motor from 514hp to 740hp with an eye watering red line of 10,500 rpm. No manual transmission, opting for a 6 speed sequential gearbox with a triple disc carbon clutch. Top speed of 236 mph.
The interior was devoid of anything, but the bare necessities. An alcantara steering wheel, a recessed carbon fiber dash, a digital gauge providing the necessary telemetry, no center console, a shift knob for the sequential box, carbon fiber floor, and one solitary racing seat . Talk about purpose built.
Unfortunately, Porsche ruined Ferrari’s party. See, Ferrari took a streetcar & turned it into a race car. Porsche found a loophole. They homologated a race car into a streetcar.
It was a huge advantage in having a race car that was converted into a street car, not vice versa.
Unfortunately, Porsche ruined Ferrari’s party. See, Ferrari took a streetcar and made it into a race car for the BPR Global GT and the upcoming FIA GT Championship series. Porsche had found a loophole. The rules did not say that purpose built race cars that were converted into street cars (homologated cars) couldn’t race in the series. Enter the Porsche GT1.
Ferrari didn’t like the loophole that Porsche found and protested their entry to the FIA. Having lost their appeal, they decided to abandon their project.
6 cars total were planned to be built. 3 of them - chassis # 001, 002, and 003 - made it out alive and were sold to private parties. The other 3 were just shells and were destroyed as Ferrari didn’t want anyone stealing their R&D.
When tested, the F50 GT was faster than Ferrari’s 333SP prototype LeMans car around their test track at Fiorano, so its fair to say that the F50GT could definitely have been a capable contender to the GT1 and the McLaren F1 GTR, but we’ll never know.
The Ferrari F50 GT could have been one of the greatest Ferraris ever, but unfortunately, it never had the chance to prove itself.