Ferrari F40 Rims – A Complete Rundown

ROSSOautomobili has already made an excellent article about the F40 race cars, but I’m going to focus on something more, let’s say, extravagantly nerdy. Today I’ll be informing about the different rims used on the F40 GT racers!

Photography: DK Engineering, Michel Giret, JCC Photos, Fernando Doménech, Racing Sports Cars

Ah the 90’s. I mean what’s not to love about them when it comes to racing? F1 had V12’s, rally had the absurdly cool Group A cars that, although not as extreme as their Group B predecessors, were still pretty rad, especially when you see one particular Scotsman throwing a certain blue Japanese car on twisty mountain roads. Sports car racing saw the demise of Group C but the end of a story marks the beginning of another one and so in 1993 we saw the return of GT cars to Le Mans.

Although the French race isn’t by far the most important aspect of this racing discipline, it is the most prestigious, and I consider the return of Gran Tourer race cars to La Sarthe as the world-wide renaissance of the former. One such car was the Ferrari F40.

Ferrari F40 GT

Let’s start from the bottom with the F40 GT, the one that most closely resembles the road going F40. This one was equipped with 5-spoke O.Z Racing Magnesio rims in white with red lettering or black without lettering and was also available in 5-spoke Speedline Corse rims more commonly found on the LM in black with white ‘Speedline’ lettering or silver with black lettering.

Ferrari F40 LM ‘IMSA GTO’

The first F40 race car was the LM ‘IMSA GTO’ that raced in the championship with the same name through 1989 and 1990. This car shares its rims with the plain F40 Competizione (which essentially is an LM without any sponsors). Curiously enough, this car could run with either the Competizione’s O.Z Racing 5-spoke rims, identifiable by the old O.Z racing logo found in black lettering over a grey surface, and for high-speed, low-drag oriented races the F40 LM ‘IMSA GTO’ could have all or just its rear rims covered in a Mazda 787B-esque TurboFan cover, which also helped with heat dissipation.

Ferrari F40 LM

Honestly, my personal favourite version of the F40 race cars is the LM, with its beautifully crafted rear wing and much more attractive front headlights, my heart just melts over that beast. The LM was mostly fitted with the aforementioned 5-spoke Speedline Corse in its respective colours. Many restored cars have been treated to one of my all-time favourite, if not absolute best looking rims in my opinion. The folks over at Enkei decided to fit the GTE with some gorgeous silver 5-spoke rims custom made for it.

My guess is that these were produced in larger quantities than most other rims used by the F40 thus many restorers have (incorrectly) fitted them to LMs, which I actually don’t mind because that’s the way that I think the F40 looks best and was what sparked my interest for the car.

Unfortunately, these Enkei rims have been found with O.Z logos (which I can’t say how much that complicated my research) and if it weren’t for a mod for GTR 2 I would’ve never found out the truth, kudos Paccianga. They come with or without Enkei logos.

Ferrari F40 GTE

And finally the GTE, the ultimate F40. This one is easy. It was fitted with the very recognizable Enkei RPF1 custom made for the F40 or the 5-spoke Enkeis. All Michelotto built cars since the F40 have been fitted with gold BBS E88 rims (pictured below) for practice and testing purposes.

Unfortunately, information on all these rims is very limited I couldn’t find their model name and if you happen to know something I’ve missed please let us know.

Written by João Graça.