The Ferrari F40 is a legend among supercars – the yardstick against which all other supercars are measured. Imagine then what would happen if you took what was essentially a racing car for the road and re-tuned it for the track. Now open your eyes and gaze upon the Ferrari F40 GTE by Michelotto.
Long before Prodrive ran race-prepped 550 Maranellos in endurance races and Mercedes co-opted AMG as their in-house performance division, Michelotto was the tuning house to which Ferrari looked to prepare its road cars for competition. Michelotto, then, was (and remains) far more than an ordinary aftermarket tuner – they are the go-fast consultants for the fastest in the business. To help develop their first supercar, the 288 GTO, Ferrari turned to Michelotto, who in turn prepared the ultra-rare 288 GTO Evoluzione, the F40's precursor. Ferrari called on Michelotto again to help develop the F40 a few years later. Who better, then, to prep the supercar for the track than its creators? The resulting GTE (along with the F40 GT and LM variants) was to the F40 what the FXX and the Maserati MC12 are to the Enzo: the pinnacle of performance, pumped up with steroids.
This example from Germany failed to sell on eBay Motors with a buy-it-now price of $658,300, and didn't meet the reserve price after getting a top bid of $325,300. While the buy-it-now price seems a tad steep, the top bid comes up a little short for the $400,000 minimum these cars usually fetch, depending on their racing history.
