Like new Lee Iacocca Ferrari F40 up for bid

The Ferrari F40 pushed the envelope as far as it could be pushed – in terms of design and engineering – it is the closest you can get to a road-worthy rocket sled on wheels. Weighing just 2,240 lbs and powered by a 3-liter V8 producing 471 bhp (right behind the drivers seat) and pushing you through the speedometer’s range with heart in your throat celerity.

Testing rated the Ferrari at idle to 100 mph in 7.8 quick seconds – 140 mph in 14 seconds. Reportedly independent testing proved it to be even faster but this model, built specifically for Lee Iacocca in 1990 as number 94 of only 213 built to U.S. specs, has only 300 actual miles on it over three separate owners – the engine is not even broken in! Apparently, it’s been parked in various upscale living rooms like a coffee table.

This vehicle was built with a carbon fiber and Kevlar-reinforced steel chassis, composite body panels, a mid-mounted Evoluzione twin-turbocharged, intercooled quad-cam, port-injected V-8, controlled by a professional race-proven Weber-Marelli engine management system! That’s Behr air-to-air intercoolers, a five-speed manual transmission with rear transaxle, four-wheel independent suspension utilizing unequal-length A-arms, coil springs and anti-roll bars plus ventilated hydraulic disc brakes all around a wheelbase of 96.5inches.

We’re hoping whoever buys it intends to put a few miles on this beauty – it was meant to be driven hard and put away wet – not stashed in a vault letting its rubber harden and crumble. Granted it is an investment and a work of art, but if Enzo had envisioned Ferraris as fine art sculpture they would come encased in clear acrylic.

Of course this one has all the documentation to fetch its estimated three-quarter million-dollar auction price. These include Ferrari’s Certificate of Origin dated October 12, 1990, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency letter, Italian export paperwork, an engraved Built Especially for Lee Iacocca card, the Owner's Warranty and Service Book, the warranty card and one piece of personal correspondence signed by Enzo himself.

Personally, we’d put all the documents in a nice case in the sitting room and drive the Ferrari F40 to the mall on Sundays just to turn heads and cause a commotion. Mind you it would not be left there unattended – but it’s not just money, it’s a Ferrari. Like the rearing stallion in the famous marquee’s badge, it was born to run!

To see the RM Auctions inventory page for this vehicle, click here.

Photo Credit: Darin Schnabel © 2011 Courtesy of RM Auctions