F40 ONLY STRIPS PRE SERIES F40 NUMBER 2 DOWN TO PARTS

Ferrari F40 pre series number 2 has been taken apart, and F40 Only is inspecting each component on its own before the restoration moves to the next stage. According to F40 Only, as relayed by Italpassion, the car is the third F40 assembled in Maranello and sits on the tenth chassis built. The goal is to finish in 2027, which is the year the F40 turns 40.

That date matters because 2026 was not the F40's anniversary year, and Ferrari used the car anyway. Ferrari's F40 anchored three separate marketing moments in 2026 without any round number to justify it. The round number arrives next year, and a pre series car is being readied for it.

Third Built, Tenth Chassis

Pre series number 2 was the third F40 put together at Maranello, yet its chassis is the tenth one built. F40 Only says the pre series number and the assembly order do not line up with the chassis number, so three separate figures describe three different things on one car.

The owner is a collector named Thierry, who already has an F40 that F40 Only restored. He bought this second car, the pre series one, and handed it to that shop. F40 Only presents itself as a garage that restores and maintains F40s and supplies replacement parts for them, so the car sits with a specialist, not a general restorer.

F40 Only describes the work in one line: every component has been carefully disassembled, ready to be inspected and prepared for the next stage, one piece at a time. Each part is checked individually before anything goes back on the car.

Eleven Cars Put the Fog Lights in the Grille

Pre series number 2 is one of only eleven F40s with the fog lights built into the rear grille instead of the bumper. F40 Only lists that detail among the features that mark the car as an early build.

The second marker is glass. The Plexiglas windows are still the originals, according to that account. Both details are early production features, so the teardown has to preserve them.

Nothing in the reporting says what condition the car was in when it arrived, what mileage it shows, or how far the work has progressed beyond the teardown. F40 Only describes the restoration as having just begun.

Nobody Agrees How Many Development Cars Exist

Counts of the F40's earliest cars run from eight to about ten, and no source settles it. Talacrest describes chassis 75052 as one of only eight F40 prototypes, Classic Driver cites Michelotto as believing it built around ten, and DK Engineering says no firm figure exists. Forza Magazine lists at least eight, with chassis 73015 the first.

Those cars did not all look like the one customers bought. Accounts of the prototypes mention extra vents, mirrors, a thinner rear wing, a different Kevlar weave in the tub and a quilted headlining. One prototype carries twenty small slots in the engine cover where production cars have eleven larger ones. Forza notes that one prototype was used to test the suspension, another to work on noise, emissions equipment and brakes, and one for promotional use.

The F40 itself was unveiled in July 1987 for Ferrari's 40th anniversary as a manufacturer, was the last car Enzo Ferrari signed off before his death in 1988, and reached 201 mph at the top end. Production ran to roughly 1,300 cars through 1992, with sources giving totals between 1,311 and 1,315.

Ferrari Fixed Hamilton's F40 Inside Its Own Walls. This One Went to a Specialist

Lewis Hamilton's F40 took the factory route this year. He announced on August 31 that he had bought a car "covered in dust after being sat in a garage for over thirty years," and that Ferrari's engineers and mechanics at Maranello "worked for weeks to bring her back to life." He called F40s "works of art and incredibly rare."

Pre series number 2 is taking the independent route, through a shop that has already restored one F40 for Thierry. Two restorations of rare F40s, one inside Ferrari and one outside it, have surfaced this season, with the specialist job aimed at the 2027 anniversary.

The numbers on Thierry's car are the ones to hold onto. Third car built, tenth chassis, one of eleven with the fog lights in the grille, and a finish line set for 2027, the F40's 40th year.