You're about to get hit by your teenager dream-car poster… hard!
So yes, the F40 is coming tomorrow, but do you think you know how to drive it?
Think about it. It has only 5 long gears. To give you an example 2nd gear is doing over 160km/h and the 3rd well over 200km/h…
It weights just around 1200kg and the engine power is enough to make it go on any straight, as fast as the 458 or the McLaren…
Problem is, that after a straight, you need to stop the damn thing… and you don't have carbon-ceramic brakes… actually scrap that, you don't even have ABS! Oh yes and you're on old 90s tyres with an old 80s suspension. State of the art suspension late 80s, but still 80s style.
Then you've got this engine. 478bhp they say. Not a single F40 came out with that low figure, but go figure (pun intended). Most of them did almost 500bhp. Doesn't make things easy for you, that's for sure. You press the accelerator and almost nothing happens, you step on it, the rpm goes over 3500 and you better be FAST to countersteer with the "slow" wheel A LOT.
People usually say that the Lotus 49 is the hardest car to drive, but the Lotus 49 is linear. Hard, but linear and sincere. The F40 is explosive, and not in a "3,2,1 boom" way, but in a "three, twBAAAAAANG!" kind of way.
So what I'm describing is a bad car? Where's the magic? Where's the myth that surrounds the F40?
The thing is, that the F40 is a bully, deriding you and making fun of you… still it leaves you just a tiny hint that you could do it, if only you could be a better driver than what you are. It challenges you all the time and asks from you just a bit more than what you can give… all the time. Sometimes you get it just right and you do those majestic drifts in 2nd and 3rd gear, just like Chris Harris. After the initial shock, you start to appreciate again the car on the poster over your bed, that you once loved and dreamed every night… and you ask for more. Luckily we have the factory option of "more", but that's another story