The phalanx of scarlet red F40s led a glittering parade of marques, models and car clubs celebrating special milestones in the sun at the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival.

On Saturday it had been the turn of hundreds of BMW’s Z1, Z3, Z4 and Z8 sports cars to lap the famous grand prix track as part of the UK’s first ‘Z-fest’, before the Sunday programme saw the F40 take centre stage.

The F40 was the world’s first 200mph road car when it appeared in 1987 and is still rated by many to be the finest supercar in history. It was also the legendary Enzo Ferrari’s ‘supercar swansong’ before his death in 1988.

Powered by a 2.9 litre twin turbo V8 engine developing 352 kW combined with a weight of just 1.1 tonnes, the F40 offers performance that even today is of a true supercar level, with a 0-100 time of 3.8 seconds and it was the first road legal car to breach the 200 mph (320 km/h) barrier. Launched in 1987 and in production until 1992, a total of 1315 F40s were eventually produced by Ferrari.

In total more than 400 rare and exotic cars joined in the parade, notably iconic British sports cars such as TVRs, Lotus Elans, Triumph Spitfires, Austin Healeys and MGBs – 2012 is the MGB’s golden anniversary year – plus Lamborghini and Mercedes-Benz car club members.