F1 driver Lewis Hamilton restores ‘barn find’ Ferrari F40 dream car

Lewis Hamilton has taken to Instagram to announce that he has bought and restored a neglected example of his ‘dream car’, the Ferrari F40.

Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari F40

Image: lewishamilton/Instagram

Touted as his dream car, seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has announced he has acquired a “barn find” Ferrari F40. This news comes by way of the Ferrari F1 Team driver’s Instagram page, revealing that this particular example was found “collecting dust for 30 years”. As seen under the thick layer of dust, this F40 is finished in Rosso Corsa paintwork with matching red seats.

Posing next to the unrestored F40, in the social media post, some may remember Hamilton had famously posed with an F40 the day he joined the Maranello brand’s F1 outfit, signalling his adoration for both the team and the vehicle. This one, which was reportedly found in a garage, can be seen going under a thorough restoration effort with images of the drivetrain and wheels separated from the chassis itself, which wears the ’44’ designation.

“These cars are works of art and incredibly rare, so when I found this one, covered in dust after being sat in a garage for over thirty years, I knew I had to bring her home. First to Maranello, where the master engineers and mechanics at the factory worked for weeks to bring her back to life,” said Hamilton.

The future of the F40 may also include Hamilton’s say, with reports that he’d certainly like to develop a modern take on his restored supercar. Motorsport.com reported the F1 driver saying, “One of the things I really want to do is, I want to design a Ferrari. I want to do an F44. Baseline of an F40, with the actual stick shift. That’s what I’m gonna work on for the next few years.”

As a reminder, the Ferrari F40 employs a 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine, paired with a five-speed gated manual transmission, producing 352 kW and 577 N.m of torque. Upon its debut in 1987, Ferrari claimed the 1 100 kg supercar could complete the 0-100 km/h sprint in 3.8 seconds, before topping out at 324 km/h.

 

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A post shared by Lewis Hamilton (@lewishamilton)

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The post F1 driver Lewis Hamilton restores ‘barn find’ Ferrari F40 dream car appeared first on CAR Magazine.


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