Here's Why the Ferrari F50 is Underrated

The Ferrari F50 was the successor to the famous F40, and many criticised it for being ugly, horrible to drive and slower than it’s predecessor. Here’s why it’s a truly underrated, and very special car.

If you ask any fellow car lover which of the F50 and F40 they prefer, they will most likely reply with “the F40.” They will say that it’s not as true to Ferrari as the F40 was and that “Enzo didn’t take part in making it.” By this stage Enzo had the same amount of involvement in creating the F40 as any factory worker had, if anything even less. The F50 is very much a pure Ferrari and is part of its legendary supercar lineup consisting of the 288 GTO, F40, F50, Enzo and LaFerrari.

The F50 was created as a celebration of Ferrari’s 50th anniversary (despite coming two years early in 1995). At the time it was state of the art, and has been described by Ferrari as “the closest thing to a road-going Formula 1 car the company had ever built.” It was made with a true, high-performance approach using a 4.7 litre V12 from a Formula 1 car. The F40 has a twin-turbocharged V8 which doesn’t produce a sound even worth comparison of the F50’s V12. The car was designed with F1 technology and aerodynamics. It even had a fully electronic display which was sci-fi at the time. Even the Enzo doesn’t have that 7 years on. How can that be seen as poor?

It’s rarer than the F40. A lot rarer. Almost 4 times as rare. Ferrari claims they made only 349 F50 models (although that number is estimated to be closer to 400), which is an incredibly small amount. Yet the F40 stands at 1311 models and was clearly more of a cash grab, leaving the F40 with a small bitter taste. Some may say rarity doesn’t matter, but it certainly adds to making it a special car.

The F50 was designed by Pininfarina as was the F40 and many would say the F50 doesn’t retain its beauty from its predecessor. Yet it had beautiful curves, the wing had been given a smoother shape which crossed over beautifully with the engine cover, the body shape was supposedly designed to have more aerodynamics function than good looks, but it still comes out beautifully, like a modern smoothed version of the F40. On the rear you can even see through to the engine, a cool yet functional feature for airflow and cooling. It even had a removable hardtop, although it’s a difficult task to remove, which apparently brought an even better F1 experience and allowed you to have a beautiful coastal drive with the roof down, something the F4 couldn’t offer. Instead its special feature was a rear boot that didn’t stop when it was lifted up and so could continue to fall and smash onto the cabin of your F40. Nice.

The Ferrari F50 had a mid mounted 65 degree 4.7 litre V12. It makes a heavenly sound. The F40’s 2.9 litre twin-turbocharged V8 is impressive but the sound is disappointing next to the F50, this is personal opinion but I’m sure we can all agree they both make a great sound and is yet another reason to praise the F50 and not boo at it. The F50 boasts a 6 speed manual transmission which is very smooth and not clunky. This next part is a little controversial. The F50 produced 520hp at 8000rpm which meant it was more powerful than the F40 with 478hp at 7000rpm. This theoretically means with the F50 being only very slightly heavier (62 lbs heavier) should be faster than the F40 with the newer technology from F1 and all. However the F40 seems to win on the track, and now has been estimated to have a power output more around the 500hp mark. It’s not unusual for Ferrari to lie about things but it is unusual for them to lie about something that makes them look worse. However, the F50 still drives extremely well and is a track god like the F40, they are a close match side by side and despite being looked down on because an 8 year older car is faster, the F50 is still a great car. Remember, this isn’t why the F50 is better than the F40; it’s why it’s underrated.

The F50 may not give you a 15 inch infotainment screen, or radar cruise control, but what it does give you a pure driving-bred experience. The seats are surprisingly well upholstered, there are simple things like climate control vents, a small storage space in the central tunnel, the classic Ferrari gated shifter with a carbon fibre gear stick. There are nice carpets with the F50 logo on them. The steering wheel doesn’t have any stupid buttons with mode controls to try and not take your attention away from the road. In this car your attention is on the road because there is nothing else to distract you. The display is ultra cool with a retro electronic display and everything you need is displayed on the screen in a nice rather 90s layout, no switching between different screens to find what’s “best for you.” My favourite material - Alcantara - covers the dashboard and a nice carbon fibre strip runs across it containing the cool F50 badge. It really is good, again - what is there to shame? Some say that the ride hammers your back in, cough Jeremy Clarkson, and many people seem to follow his opinion of the F50 being a bad car. Yet there are videos of owners of F50s saying they love driving and use it weekly - I even spoke to an owner who said he drove it once a week.

So in conclusion, at first glance many may think the F50 is ugly and not worthy of Ferrari’s celebration lineup. After reading this article many will still claim the F40 is far better and I respect that. It’s someone’s opinion. And despite the fact I have never been inside, let alone driven an F50, I have found that if you delve deeper into this car and truly discover what it is, well, it’s about as much of a “true Ferrari” as you can get.

What do you think? This is only my second #blogpost so feel free to leave some feedback.