Dealer employee smashes Ferrari F40 en route to car show

A 24-year-old employee of German luxury car dealer Mechatronik has reportedly crashed a pristine Ferrari F40 on the way to a car show last week.

As initially reported by German publication Bild and later picked up by Road and Track, the F40 was being driven to a Motorworld car show in Böblingen, Germany.

With almost 18km left of the journey the dealer employee reportedly lost control of the F40 in the middle of the Engelberg Tunnel near Stuttgart.

“It is currently unknown whether this was due to a technical defect or excessive speed,” said a police spokesperson to Bild.

The driver of the F40 reportedly didn’t suffer any injuries, though the car received extensive damage.

At this stage it’s unclear if this example will be repaired, though given the limited number of F40s still around it wouldn’t be surprising if it is.

Prior to this crash in the tunnel, this particular F40 was listed for sale with an asking price of more than US$3.2 million (~A$4.93 million).

The Ferrari F40 is one of the Prancing Horse’s most iconic and desirable supercars of all time as it was the last Ferrari personally approved by the late Enzo Ferrari. It was built between 1987 and 1992 with just over 1300 examples built in totality.

The F40 is powered by a 2.9-litre turbocharged V8 engine producing 352kW of power and 577Nm of torque. Drive is sent to the rear wheels only through a five-speed manual transmission.

Back when it was new the F40 was the fastest street-legal car on sale with a top speed of 324km/h. It was able to do the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.1 seconds.