Ferrari Was Technically The First Automaker To Fit An F1 Engine In A Road-Legal Car

For years, automakers have relied on bringing technology from Formula One to their road cars. It’s a good marketing strategy. Like the Mercedes-AMG ONE, Formula One tech is taken straight from the race car and stuffed into a road car. A handful of automakers have done this in the past, either for marketing or to create truly impressive machinery.

However, while many cars available today have some degree of motorsport-derived technology beneath their sultry frames, Ferrari was technically the first automaker to take an F1 engine and stuff it into a road car.

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A Formula 1 Car For The Road

The Ferrari F40 is considered one of the greatest cars of all time. Whether that be because of its significance in Ferrari’s history or its era-defining performance, the fact is that the F40 is an amazing car. The follow-up act had some big shoes to fill, and although it did lack in some areas compared to its predecessor, the Ferrari F50 has one thing that the F40 doesn’t: a Formula One pedigree baked into its DNA.

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Eight years after the debut of the Ferrari F40, Ferrari unveiled its successor, which, even by the F40’s standards, was a ludicrous machine more race car than road car. Production began in 1995 and ran until 1997, one of the shortest production runs of any Ferrari model, but was one of the models from the ’90s that represented a significant advancement in road car technology. Ferrari’s toils resulted in a two-seater, Targa-top Ferrari that represented a massive step forward in technological and engineering prowess.

The Ferrari F50 was the closest Ferrari got to transferring Formula One tech into a road car at the time. Three components were directly transferred from Formula One to the Ferrari F50: engine, suspension, and composite tub. A carbon-fiber passenger cell was directly connected to the front suspension system, and the tubular substructure to support the radiator and ancillary components.

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Speaking of suspension, the Ferrari F50 featured four-wheel independent suspension that utilized wishbones with levers connected to springs and dampers, like the systems seen on Formula One cars then. The engine was a stressed member, aiding in chassis rigidity. It was hard-bolted to the bulkhead without rubber mounts and served as a load-bearing component for the transmission and the rear suspension system, similar to the Formula One cars of the era. A carbon fiber chassis developed by Cytec Aerospace underpinned every component, and like the F50’s predecessor, all the body panels of the Pininfarina-sculpted physique were made of composite material. Without exaggeration, it embodied half a century of Ferrari’s competitive spirit in road car form, but was it good enough to break free from its predecessor’s giant-killer reputation?

A Worthy Successor To The Ferrari F40?

Armchair experts and F40 cultists always despised the Ferrari F50. In their eyes, it was uglier and less appealing than its predecessor. Some even said that the performance wasn’t as great as that of the F40, which is complete hogwash. The Ferrari F50 had a high power output, and although torque was down in comparison, it was still quicker. Beyond the witchcraft that Ferrari called the F50’s suspension system and chassis, the riveting performance could be mostly attributed to the screaming V12 engine behind the occupants’ heads.

That Tipo F130B V12 engine is one of the focal points of the Ferrari F50, being closely related to the 3.5-liter V12 engine used in the 1990 Ferrari 641 Formula One car. Though it was derived from the Formula One engine, it was still a fairly conventional 65-degree V12 design, unlike the flat-12 engine Ferrari introduced in the ’60s and kept alive till the late ’90s. Some of its distinguishing features included twin overhead camshafts for each cylinder bank, a dry sump lubrication system, and five valves per cylinder. It was paired with a differential unit integrated to the engine’s rear with a rear-mounted six-speed all-synchromesh transmission to conduct the sonorous naturally aspirated V12 engine that propelled the F50 forward quicker and to higher speeds than the Ferrari F40.

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It was a hardcore machine, living up to its claim as a car with zero compromise, so much so that the Ferrari F50 didn’t rely on ABS, power steering, or servo brakes. It was a thoroughbred race car that could be driven at illegal speeds with its roof off on a sunny day. However, it was much less forgiving from a comfort standpoint than the F50, which was prone to vibration transferred to the cabin because of aspects like its engine being a stressed member bolted straight to the structure with no vibration-absorbing rubber mounts.

It was also a pain to maintain, and the entire car had to be split in half, removing the entire rear subframe, transaxle, and wheels as a unit to perform a major service. You can learn more about this, about the engine as a stressed member, and about the motorsport-derived pushrod suspension in DK Engineering TV’s YouTube video above.

The Other Prancing Horse With A Formula 1 Engine

Decades before the arrival of either the Ferrari F40 or the Ferrari F50, another Ferrari model truly utilized a Formula 1 engine. That Ferrari was the Ferrari 250 Europe Viganle, and it didn’t use the Columbo V12 engine offered in the “regular” Ferrari 250 Europa. Instead, it sourced a surprising 200 hp from a Lampredi V12 derived from Ferrari’s Formula One engines at the time.

Only two examples of the Lampredi V12-powered 250 Europa were ever created. It debuted at the 1954 New York Auto Show, and one was sold to its first owner in Massachusetts. That example received a supercharged Chevrolet V8 engine. Sacrilegious. However, another number of years later, it would be fully restored to its original state. It was a unique offering that would remain one of the handful of Ferrari models powered by a Formula One engine. However, the Ferrari F50 remains the first attempt by Ferrari to utilize a Formula One engine in its road cars because the 250 Europa Vignale was the work of coachbuilder Alfredo Vignale.

A Rare Prancing Horse

With less than five years of production, it should come as no surprise that the Ferrari F50 was a low-volume supercar, even more so than its predecessor. Only 349 cars were produced, with the final example leaving the production line midway through 1997. It is one of the rarest Ferraris ever created, trumped only by limited-edition models like the Ferrari J50.

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According to the resources available on Classic.com, the average selling price for a Ferrari F50 is roughly $4.6 million, which is significantly more than its cost brand new with an MSRP of $475,000. The exorbitant increase in selling price is the result of its extremely low production numbers, its significance in Ferrari’s history, and the fact that a Formula One-derived V12 engine powers it, which has a few cylinders more than some of the odd Ferrari engines that you may have never heard of. Some examples of low-mileage Ferrari F50s have sold for up to $5.5 million, while others have even been offered at $6.5 million. The Ferrari F50 is one of the most underappreciated Ferrari models ever created and one of the best Ferrari models with a naturally aspirated engine, stuck in the shadow of its predecessor and succeeded by one of the best-looking Ferrari models ever, which was created as an homage to the automaker’s founder.

Sources: Ferrari, Classic.com, RM Sotheby’s, DK Engineering TV.