Ferrari F40 How do I make this car any good?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SleazyBig slim
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Your first mistake is to think a car from the late 80´s is going to stand against cars from the 21st century. The F40 is a beautiful and legendary purist machine from the past, and you have to look at it like that. Imagine all the other cars you have, like the Corvette, in the past. Do you think a 90´s ZR1 would beat the F40? No... But if you want to make it a little bit faster, change the gear box. The extra long first gear only makes the turbo lag worst. Although for me, a stock F40 with all its flaws is pure beauty.
 
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HuskyGT
Your first mistake is to think a car from the late 80´s is going to stand against cars from the 20th century.
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I remember Top Gear episode where ancient full metal 6 cylinders Jaguar XJ220 raped carbon V12 modern Zonda on quarter mile. LOL

You know, modern car is getting heavier and heavier with each generations, and bigger, which was never good for races.

Heard of new plans for Lotus Elise like 1400-1500 kg? That's what I'm talking about.
 
otago
I remember Top Gear episode where ancient full metal 6 cylinders Jaguar XJ220 raped carbon V12 modern Zonda on quarter mile. LOL

You know, modern car is getting heavier and heavier with each generations, and bigger, which was never good for races.

Heard of new plans for Lotus Elise like 1400-1500 kg? That's what I'm talking about.
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That was only a drag race though, the Zonda would win around a circuit
 
I bought the F40 just for the sound !! It's also a pretty fun car to drive because it handles really well with racing tires and would smoke most 450 HP cars from the 80s.
 
You have to keep the revs up to avoid the turbo lag,once the turbos kick in they do just that and kick in! It accelerates quicker than you think and you arrive at corners faster than expected and it`s brakes aren`t bad but not as good as they need to be and it will catch you out. This makes it a hard car to drive fast,with these items sorted it can be a handy car but it is 23 yrs old and technology and cars have evolved.
 
otago
I remember Top Gear episode where ancient full metal 6 cylinders Jaguar XJ220 raped carbon V12 modern Zonda on quarter mile. LOL

You know, modern car is getting heavier and heavier with each generations, and bigger, which was never good for races.

Heard of new plans for Lotus Elise like 1400-1500 kg? That's what I'm talking about.
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True... I have that episode. Still, the Zonda was an overall better performer. I remember how the XJ220´s brakes and steering were highly criticized.

But still, the XJ220 holds a special place in my heart. Nothing like the oldschool European supercars.
 
Found some data about acceleration 0-100 km/h

F40 - 3.8 s
Audi R8 4.2 FSI V8 - 4.6
Audi R8 5.2 FSI V10 - 3.9

HuskyGT
But still, the XJ220 holds a special place in my heart. Nothing like the oldschool European supercars.
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Yeah, I always buy XJ220 in every game. Beautiful car with a lot of character, though in real life performance was compromised by relatively weak for such car brakes
 
RC45
The reason the F40 as it shows up in game is "slow" is because of the stupid transmission ratios they gave it.

They are not correct.
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Those are, indeed, the right gear ratios.
 
otago
962 was produced since 1984. In 1994 Dauer 962 Le Mans won 24 Hours of Le Mans
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Ah my bad, thank you good sir. My apologies.

Back on topic.. I wouldnt really call the F40 slow either. I still think it's a damn fast car considering it has less then 500 horses. Although my one experience with it was in an online race with a friend. I remember it handling a little differently in Prologue. For some reason I figured it would behave the same way in GT5. The rear end is a little more 'active' in GT5. As others have said though, it could use better tires.
 
Fix the F40? Ntohing's wrong with that car, it's absolutely fine ;)


All the cars you mentioned have more power than the F40 off the bat, and of course are newer, so they will be faster. Speed isn't everything anyway.
 
Peter
All the cars you mentioned have more power than the F40 off the bat, and of course are newer, so they will be faster.
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Ever heard of power to weight ratio? F40 is just slightly heavier than Lotus Elise and has freaking 475 hp.

Do the math: 475 hp per 1100 kg and 414 hp per 1560 kg (Audi R8). Which one is faster?

Though you need to keep F40 at higher revs cause maximum power available at 7000 rpm
 
Ferrari F40 is awesome, dunno what you been smoking! its a bit slidy if you've just come from a car with racing tyres thats for sure, and compared to planted cars like the GT-R it is more lively.

Put some softer tyres on it, or some racing tyres and you should be good to go. Not sure what you're on about with speed, the car will go over 200mph with decent acceleration, not many stock cars in the power range can match that, if any.
 
I have an F40 fully tuned to 696 BHP.... And I must say it is the nicest car to drive in my garage... I've tuned it to perfection and going full on the ring with sports soft tires is a rush in itself.... :) Also 2nd gear is great for pulling burnouts because as soon as the boost kicks in from the spooled up turbos it just accelerates while burning up the back tires... AWESOME! :)
 
I'd say one reason for its poor performance is the weight stat screws up and it becomes 252kg heavier when you acquire it.

1352kg is a big difference from 1100kg.
 
Max911
Those are, indeed, the right gear ratios.
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Sorry but they used popular incorrect internet data.

The stofck F40 did not ship with a 2.90 differential, but rather a 3.90. The 2.90 is the LM race diff. from what I recall.

From riding shotgun in an F40 and speaking with owners over the years, the F40 does not quite get to 60mph in 1st.

The rev limiter should be 7750rpm and the max speed in 1st should be 58mph.
 
fully tuned my F40 is a pretty nice ride...
and dunno if all of you bought it for 450.000 cause its a prize car at
b-spec professional : la Festa Cavillino!!
just saying, as i was about to buy it when I won it...
450.000 still is a lot of credits even for this classic!
 
CrashEndburn
fully tuned my F40 is a pretty nice ride...
and dunno if all of you bought it for 450.000 cause its a prize car at
b-spec professional : la Festa Cavillino!!
just saying, as i was about to buy it when I won it...
450.000 still is a lot of credits even for this classic!
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Its quite cheap when you consider it would cost you well over a million to buy one in real life now.
 
Is this thread a joke LOL op you dont need to turn it into a 200mph car it already is one. So far iv only managed to race with it in arcade mode and i wouldnt say its slow but as mentioned the newer cars could be faster overall which is inevitable with the time difference between them. I cant wait to get this in a spec mode as its one of my favourites also. Having said about the technology the real life version actually had the underneath designed to direct the airflow for better aerodynamics how many modern cars have this?
 
Something is definitely wrong with the the F40 in GT5 i think

Try this little experiment: stop the car, and leave it on first gear. Then mash the accelerator. Then end result is that you'll get ZERO wheel spin and you'll be crawling along from 0-30 until the turbo kicks in. I even tried this on grass and couldn't get any wheelspin either. I mean, i know this car has turbo lag, but this just feels ridiculous. Now try this experiment again with any car that has more power than a Prius and you will probably get the wheel to chirp atleast.

Anyways, to answer your question, if you plan on racing the F40 be sure to turn off traction control and then you'll want mash the accelerator at the start. Trust me because you want to have the wheel spin because if the wheels hook up too soon, then the RPM will dip and youll be cruisin to 30mph like a Prius while you watch all the other cars pass you. And while you race, you have to keep the RPM above 3000rpm as much as possible, because anything below that is weaksauce. And also the car could def use better tires. I know it has Sports: hard tires, but it feels like it is using comfort tires. Also buy the adjustable transmission upgrade and see if that fixes the acceleration issue i described above.
 
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mkygod
Something is definitely wrong with the the F40 in GT5 i think

Try this little experiment: stop the car, and leave it on first gear. Then mash the accelerator. Then end result is that you'll get ZERO wheel spin and you'll be crawling along from 0-30 until the turbo kicks in. I even tried this on grass and couldn't get any wheelspin either. I mean, i know this car has turbo lag, but this just feels ridiculous. Now try this experiment again with any car that has more power than a Prius and you will probably get the wheel to chirp atleast.

Anyways, to answer your question, if you plan on racing the F40 be sure to turn off traction control and then you'll want mash the accelerator at the start. Trust me because you want to have the wheel spin because if the wheels hook up too soon, then the RPM will dip and youll be cruisin to 30mph like a Prius while you watch all the other cars pass you. And while you race, you have to keep the RPM above 3000rpm as much as possible, because anything below that is weaksauce. And also the car could def use better tires. I know it has Sports: hard tires, but it feels like it is using comfort tires. Also buy the adjustable transmission upgrade and see if that fixes the acceleration issue i described above.
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Have you ever driven an old school turbo from the 80's? That's what they were like... no power until the boost comes along around 3k+, then BANG!

When turbo's 1st came on the scene, the only way they could get the super high specific outputs out of them and stop the engines grenading was to lower the compression ratios massively... which contributed to the cars having virtually no go off boost. You absolutely HAD to keep them on boost or you'd get blown away by a shopping trolley.

The F40 is over 20 years old and produces 478bhp from 2.9l... not a massive specific output for a turbo nowadays, but a very high figure for a road car of that era... no wonder it has a lot of lag!

It's not about how much power something produces, but where it produces that power.
 
There's so many more reasons than just power to weight ratio that explain why the F40 can't keep up with modern, similar cars. Stotty mentioned one, epic turbo lag. There are many more reasons, such as aerodynamics; yeah, the F40 looks slippery, but is it? The placement of components within the car affect this, too, like radiators and intercoolers, for example, if you have a low-drag NACA duct with a big, flat radiator behind it acting like an air brake, then yeah, the air flow through the car will take a hit, and the technology behind this has changed a lot since the F40 was designed with the advent of bigger, more powerful computers and so on.

Tyres, too. I don't know a lot about tyres but it's not hard to imagine that with recent advances in tyre compounds, a 255-section tyre in 1980 would have substantially less grip than a 255-section tyre today.

Transmission technology, too; How fast can a 458 Italia shift now? is it 80 milliseconds? I was reading Evo magazine a while back and they showed the acceleration traces of a 6 speed manual compared to a 6 speed DSG gearbox, and it's stunning, DSG is more or less a smooth curve whereas the manual has big canyons between gears (as you'd expect), which is another reason why you can't compare an F40 to a modern supercar with all it's electronics.

As far as I'm concerned, the F40 is in a league of it's own. Only the Porsche 959 came close at the time, and I can't think of anything even similar to either of them from the 80's... Can anyone else?
 
neema_t
There's so many more reasons than just power to weight ratio that explain why the F40 can't keep up with modern, similar cars. Stotty mentioned one, epic turbo lag. There are many more reasons, such as aerodynamics; yeah, the F40 looks slippery, but is it? The placement of components within the car affect this, too, like radiators and intercoolers, for example, if you have a low-drag NACA duct with a big, flat radiator behind it acting like an air brake, then yeah, the air flow through the car will take a hit, and the technology behind this has changed a lot since the F40 was designed with the advent of bigger, more powerful computers and so on.

Tyres, too. I don't know a lot about tyres but it's not hard to imagine that with recent advances in tyre compounds, a 255-section tyre in 1980 would have substantially less grip than a 255-section tyre today.

Transmission technology, too; How fast can a 458 Italia shift now? is it 80 milliseconds? I was reading Evo magazine a while back and they showed the acceleration traces of a 6 speed manual compared to a 6 speed DSG gearbox, and it's stunning, DSG is more or less a smooth curve whereas the manual has big canyons between gears (as you'd expect), which is another reason why you can't compare an F40 to a modern supercar with all it's electronics.

As far as I'm concerned, the F40 is in a league of it's own. Only the Porsche 959 came close at the time, and I can't think of anything even similar to either of them from the 80's... Can anyone else?
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What I love about the F40, is that there were no electronic gizmos like traction control and launch control, and boost control, and any other sort of control. It was pure mechanics, not electronics, that made it a beast in its day. It forced the driver to drive better because no aids were going to help them.

My brother said it best for the F40: The race setting is how much you press the gas pedal.
 
neema_t
As far as I'm concerned, the F40 is in a league of it's own. Only the Porsche 959 came close at the time, and I can't think of anything even similar to either of them from the 80's... Can anyone else?
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Class of 2 as far as I'm concerned... though the 288GTO is right up there.
 
Wasn't the F40 the first Supercar to crack 200mph? (has that been mentioned yet?)
 

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