Forty gleaming examples of the Ferrari F40 took to the Silverstone race track yesterday during Ferrari Racing Days 2007 event as the 20th anniversary of this legendary supercar was honoured in style. While Ferrari is busy celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a series of high-profile events around the globe, including the weekend's world record breaking extravaganza at the Northamptonshire F1 circuit, the F40 - which was itself unveiled twenty years ago to commemorate the Maranello sportscar maker's 40th anniversary - is now commemorating its own 20th birthday.

The F40 - a no-compromise lightweight high performance supercar is famously remembered as the last road-going machine to be commissioned by Enzo Ferrari - has already been honoured at a series of events around Europe and in the US this year, and yesterday it was the turn of the Grand Prix circuit which was the scene of Ferrari's first F1 race win in 1951 to reverberate to the scream of its glorious 3.0-litre V8. Just after lunchtime, on a very hot and sunny Sunday afternoon, forty examples, all in red - the only colour the car could be specified in when built - took to the track.

Designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of Ferrari, the F40 was first revealed to the world at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1987. It was designed and engineered to be the nearest thing to a race car on the road, and offered a performance to match its heritage.

The engine and chassis were very loosely based on those of the 288GTO. The former was a 2936cc development of the V8, still with four valves per cylinder and twin IHI turbos, but now generating 478bhp.
 

The compression ratio was a modest 7.8:1 but the boost pressure used was a less than modest 16psi. The chassis retained the wheelbase and basic suspension arrangement, double wishbones front and rear, of the 288GTO but featured wider tracks front and rear. The wheels were 17 inch Cromodara units, 13 inches wide at the rear and shed with 335/35 Pirelli P-Zero tyres (8 in at the front with 245/40). Due to the extremely small ground clearance on some cars the suspension featured a switchable height control.

The body which hid the tubular steel frame was a completely new design, as usual by Pininfarina. Using carbon-fibre, kevlar, aluminium and honeycomb parts it was aerodynamic, functional and light. These aims were further aided by the use of plastic for all the windows bar the windscreen, early cars with fixed side windows and later ones with manually wound items. Numerous ducts and vents were provided to cool the brakes and engine, and feed the turbos, as well as keep the car on the road, the latter also being helped by the large rear aerofoil. It was assembled by hand, the resulting quality of the construction being one of the few (or only!) areas of the car which was sometimes criticised.

Few compromises were made, with no power steering and pull-cords to open the door from the inside, everything was done to keep it light. Initial plans to build just 400 were modified several times, until a total of 1,315 cars had been built.