Ferrari F40 vs Ferrari F50. Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before
Ferrari set the supercar bar with the F40. The problem is, they did such a good job that even their own follow up, the F50, was unable to top what they’d done with the F40. While the F50 is certainly an amazing car, it was never able to step out of the shadow cast by the car some consider to be the perfect supercar. /DRIVE’s Chris Harris had the amazing opportunity to drive both cars on the same track on the same day, and was not only allowed, but encouraged to drive both cars as hard as he felt comfortable on the road course.
Harris took to the track in the F40 first and immediately you can see and hear the combination of awe and pure joy in his voice as he navigates the course in what amounts to a 1980’s Formula 1 car thinly disguised as a street car. If you’ve watched any of of Harris’ other videos, he just doesn’t get giddy over much of anything, and this is a man who’s driven basically everything under the sun. To see a car elicit these kinds of reactions is impressive, especially when you consider the car is coming up on it’s 30th birthday. But that is part of what makes the car so special; the lack of traction control and anti-lock brakes and really anything in the way of technology. The car relied instead on perfect balance and an amazing twin turbo engine to be what can only be described as amazing.
Sliding into the F50, Chris does his best to try to keep up the excitement, but you can tell the car just doesn’t thill him like it’s older brother. Of course, the F50 is a spectacular car, but when faced with following up one of the most heralded cars to ever roll out of any factory, there’s not much to so but list the ways it comes up short. Luckily, that list is fairly short, and the car does have some ways it excels over the F40, but that list is even shorter.
After tackling the track in both cars, Harris spends some time chatting with one of his inspirations, fellow test driver and journalist Mark Hales, who echoes his love for the F40 and also puts it in his list of all-time favorite cars.
