Ferrari F40 Competizione 1989

It all started in 1989 with the Ferrari F40 LM ‘IMSA GTO’. The IMSA is a primarily American race series. The Ferrari F40 road car was still in production, so Ferrari searched for an external company, which became Michelotto. Ferrari collaborated with them on many areas before, so it was an easy pick.

They started out with a standard F40 and modified it to a fire-spitting racing car. Modifications were an engine upgrade to 780 bhp, a weight reduction of 200 kg (440 lb), racing suspension, a fully adjustable wing with gurney flap, bigger intercoolers and waste gates in the turbochargers. More air vents and an extensive rear diffuser were also added. The interior was even more stripped-out and featured a futuristic digital dashboard.

The ‘IMSA’ versions had a black or red window net, mandatory US specific rear bumper, air extractors on the front fenders and was equipped with 5-spoke O.Z Racing rims w/ the old O.Z logo, occasionally with Turbo-fan covers on the front wheels or on all four similar to the Mazda 787B.

In 1989 the car had the stock pop-up headlights just like the F40 road car. Only in 1990 did we see the big single headlights made famous by the F40 LM and F40 GTE. Sometimes these single headlights were replaced by black covers (pictured below) for aero and weight purposes on races that didn’t require headlights.

Michelotto converted 19 F40s into LM spec race cars, but several private racing teams wanted an LM as well which resulted in an additional 27 LM spec race cars. These were not assembled by Michelotto.



Ferrari received 10 more requests from clients who were interested in getting an F40 LM. Those people didn’t necessarily wanted to race with them, so after two had been built, Ferrari changed the name from LM to Competizione because they felt the LM tag was too restrictive and not really applicable on the purpose of the Competizione.

Most of the Competizione cars ended up in private collections and were more of a collector’s item than a competition race car. The yellow example pictured is a 1993 car.