The iconic supercar has a habit of making hard rights when the turbos come on hard, and that may have led to both incidents
- This month saw not one but two examples of the iconic Ferrari F40 wiped off the roads in wild crashes
- It isn’t uncommon for these car to be rebuilt post-crash, of course, especially since just 1,300ish were made
- A lack of driver aids make these machines especially tricky to handle in any conditions
Car crashes aren’t typically fodder for news around here; after all, they literally happen every day. All the same, when not one but two Ferrari F40 supercars are involved in separate incidents across a relatively short time-frame, we’re obliged to pour one out. These wonderful pieces of machinery from the late ’80s saw a production run of just over 1,300 examples, and these days fetch between CDN$3.5 million and $5 million.
The first wreck to mention is of an F40 belonging to none other than Formula One super-star Lando Norris, though it allegedly wasn’t Norris behind the wheel during this prang. Apparently, he was not even in the country at the time, instead partying it up in Dubai for New Year’s following the end of festivities on the F1 calendar.
While road conditions look clear and dry, it seems the hapless driver was rudely introduced to the uniquely F40 concept of light-switch turbocharged power delivery, with the car hooking right and into a guardrail just before a straight stretch of road and — is that a tunnel ahead? We’ll recklessly (but probably accurately) speculate the driver intended to bounce glorious Ferrari engine noise off the tunnel walls but instead bounced the Ferrari itself off a guardrail.
This crash happened in markedly the same manner as the one involving Lando’s F40, with the video above showing the car suddenly spearing to the right in very wet conditions. These jaundiced ears hear a massive increase in engine speed just prior to the wreck, as if the driver gave it a bootful — again, on a completely straight stretch of tarmac, albeit one which was very wet. A roadside light standard was felled in the process.
We’ll repeat it a bit louder for those in the back. Lairy supercars from the ‘80s without traditional traction aids, combined with sudden turbo power delivery and cold, old tires almost certainly will end poorly — and in YouTube infamy.
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