If we were to conduct a survey asking what’s the coolest Ferrari ever made, the F40 would probably claim the top spot by a gigantic margin, and that’s no small feat. With a history as rich in automobile milestones as the Prancing Horse, choosing a definitive overlord of speed is definitely a daunting task. But even the greatest machine ever engineered gets old and outdated and, at some point, ends up in the trash bin - unless that nameplate gets revived, either in real life or someplace else.
That particular ‘elsewhere’ realm is the hexadecimal universe, where car designers, car dreamers, car visualists, or plain car nuts can do anything they fantasize about with any make and model imaginable. That’s the beauty of dreaming – it’s free, uncensored, and eternal. It’s also ethereal -meaning it can’t endure for long (if at all) if it can’t find a shape to breathe life into.
Luckily, the three-dimensional side of the internet is infinitely welcoming to new ideas, and the magnificent Ferrari F40 gets a second chance at immortality with its 2024 reincarnation. Sadly, the Maranello House of Speed hasn’t decided to revive the legend – it would be so against their most profound creeds that they’d rather sell out to Ford than release a new model with an old name.
Fortunately, the Italians in the high castle can’t control what other fans of the brand wish upon a superstar, and that makes it possible for us to enjoy the digital mastery of certain artists who like to tease us with What Ifs.
What If Ferrari were to make a new F40? What would it look like? What would it sound like? What would it feel like? We can only speculate about the acoustic and tactile sensorial perceptions, but as for the visual slice, there’s already a concrete shape for it. Courtesy of an automotive designer from Volkswagen, Naoto Kobayashi (digital ID _nao.what_), the F40 roars up on the track once more (see the video below).
It is, of course, just wishful thinking, but a very appealing trance of what Ferrari could very well do but won’t. The all-familiar profile of the low-slung, twin-turbocharged carbon-fiber supercar of the 80s is well replicated by the artist (check the gallery), with all due respect to contemporary automotive trends and standards.
The cockpit is pillarless on the ‘F40 Redux’ conceptual 3D design, providing an unobstructed field of view to the front and sides. Curiously (for an automotive designer), the assessment of whatever is behind the car is left to the mercy of the two side mirrors, as the slit behind the seats is little more than a glitch in the matrix of the bodywork.
The signature rear wing of the F40 is grafted almost without any modification, and so is the transparent cover for the mid-mounted engine. Given this particular detail, we can happily rejoice that there is at least one contemporary take on a classic that’s not an EV but a proper Piston-God of Speed. The dual exhaust tips in the hollowed-out rear section are equally promising of high revs and loads of Ferrari-ness.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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