Vehicle Description
Chassis No. ZFFTA46B000103495
Ferrari in the 1990s took on the monumental task of improving upon
their F40, a style and performance icon whose vision had been
guided by company founder Enzo Ferrari. The task of creating a
worthy F40 successor was made ever more difficult given that Il
Commendatore had passed away in 1988, leaving his indelible
fingerprint behind, and forcing change in Maranello. With Luca
Cordero di Montezemolo appointed as head of the company in 1991,
Ferrari sought not only to retain and develop its magic identity
and technical edge over the competition, but also to become a
profitable business enterprise. No stranger to the world of the
Scuderia, Montezemolo had been appointed Ferrari's Formula One Team
Manager in 1974, and established a record for getting results,
leading Ferrari to multiple World Championships and ultimately
leading many of Ferrari's business activities as well.
All of this Formula One experience was leaned on heavily in the
development of the F40's successor. The heart of a Ferrari is of
course its engine, and the task of bettering the F40's twin-turbo
V8 wasn't for the faint of heart. For the F50, the company looked
to its V12 roots and legacy in Formula One and developed a
4.7-liter, naturally aspirated V12 powerplant using Ferrari's
3.5-liter 641 Formula One engine from 1990 as a base. The Tipo
F130B V12 engine would produce over five hundred horsepower, a
prodigious milestone for a road car at the time, and was mated to a
six-speed manual transaxle.
By the time the F50 program began Ferrari already had a decade's
worth of experience molding carbon fiber and Kevlar designs and the
F50 was a natural outlet for this racing expertise. Notably, the
F50 featured a full carbon fiber monocoque as its chassis, however,
it wasn't just the Grand Prix composites division that helped out.
The suspension featured a pushrod system and wishbones with rod-end
heim joints, all controlled via electronics with ride-height
adjustment. The wild, instantly recognizable Pininfarina-designed
bodywork also had input from the Scuderia with a focus on light
weight and aerodynamic efficiency, all hallmarks of Formula
One.
Ferrari famously built one less car than it believed it could sell,
opting to produce 349 examples over a three-year production from
1995-1997, creating a frenzy for a car that was truly limited in
its production and could legitimately present itself as a worthy
successor to F40. Without a doubt, Ferrari could have sold many
more than 350 F50s, and it is worth mentioning that the F50 is the
rarest of Ferrari's "halo cars" of the modern era, barring only the
288 GTO which was made in slightly smaller quantities.
This F50, chassis number 103495, is a 1995 European-specification
model in the classic colors of Rosso Corsa over Nero (Black)
upholstery with red cloth seat inserts. It is an early example of
the model, evidenced by its production sequence number 30,
indicating that it was the 30th F50 produced. According to the
research of renowned Ferrari historian Marcel Massini, the factory
began building 103495 in late September 1995 and it is recorded as
having been completed on 13 December 1995. As a European
specification LHD model, it was delivered new to Ferrari dealer
Kroymans B.V. in the Netherlands later that month, and is noted to
have been displayed in their Hilversum showroom prior to delivery
to its first owner. F50 number 103495 would be delivered new to
noted Dutch Ferrari collector Sander van der Velden, who resold it
very early in his ownership through Axel Urban. It would be
purchased by Art Sports, the well-known Japanese exotic car dealer
in Osaka whose logos memorably adorned a number of significant
racing cars during the 1990s and 2000s, including no less than an
F40 LM.
By 1997 the F50 would be sold by Art Sports to its first long-term
owner, Yoshiho Matsuda of Tokyo, who already owned another F50. In
fact, Matsuda was at the time the owner of one of the world's
preeminent Ferrari collections. His Matsuda Collection was a
testament to his love for the Scuderia Ferrari. As if having two
F50s wasn't enough, his extensive collection of Ferrari road cars
was complemented by his collection of racing models, spanning the
company's history with some notable highlights being a 250
Testarossa, 250 GTO, 250 LM, F40LM, 333 SP and a trio of Formula
One machines, to name just a few. Amongst such good company, F50
number 103495 would be enjoyed by Matsuda-san for about a
decade.
Passing to only its second long-term caretaker in 2007, the F50
would remain in Japan, however, it would be rarely seen in public
in subsequent years. Sequestered in a Tokyo garage, the F50 would
emerge only on special occasions and is thought to have been driven
fewer than 200 kilometers over the past fifteen-plus years.
Appearing outside of Japan for the first time in nearly 30 years,
this F50 shows fewer than 11,500 kilometers (7,146 miles) today,
the result of living in the care of only two long-term private
owners in Japan since 1996. Furthermore, this example is understood
to have never suffered any accidents. It is offered with tools, a
luggage set including a suit bag and a briefcase bag, a tonneau
cover and rollover hoops, its hardtop, and its factory red F50
logoed flight case. Additionally, while a Tubi exhaust has been
fitted to the car, the factory exhaust components also accompany
it. Recently imported into the United States, the F50 is offered
with US import duties paid.
As the cachet of analog-era supercars goes up, so too does one of
that genre's shining stars: the Ferrari F50. It is the poster car
for a generation, and with only 349 ever produced, one of the
rarest Ferrari halo cars. It is sure to always be a blue chip
collectible.
