Ferrari's F40 and Enzo are going to go down in history as two of the prancing horse's finest moments. And chances are the current LaFerrari will do the same in years to come.
But what of the F50?
The F50 is perhaps the most Marmite car that Ferrari have ever made. You either love and embrace that swooping, scoop ridden, undeniably supercar-themed design matched to an equally dramatic V12 noise, or you detested it for its bone-hard ride quality, heavy controls, and how it was reportedly slower than the car it replaced — the F40.
But in today's tech MySpace Tinder world there's a renaissance for the F50. Its painstaking dedication to the analogue now sets it apart, and those young boys who had posters of it on their bedroom walls and raced it in video games are now slowly injecting themselves into the automotive world's influencing elite.
All this means that when one comes up for sale, anywhere in the world, it's an event. And this one in the US listed by RM Sotheby's has another ace up its sleeve — it was once the vehicle of choice for former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson.
Born in 1966, it was the ’90s that made Tyson a household name, and helped him earn the finances needed to buy into the Ferrari dream with an F50 of his own. Tyson bought this car new, and owned it for several years before he sold it, perhaps at a point where his finances took a downhill turn. Indeed, the boxer drove 4,900 of the 5,694 miles that this car and its Formula 1 derived normally aspirated V12 engine have driven in its lifetime.
With its auction less than a month away, RM Sotheby's are expecting the F50 to sell for between $2.2–2.4 million US dollars ($3–3.3 million NZD), which isn't far off what mint condition F50s sell for these days anyway. That makes this a bargain, maybe?
In some ways Tyson and his F50 were two stars that met in the middle, while travelling in opposing directions. One was destined for loss and struggle after their period of fame, while the other might just become one of the most hallowed supercars in motoring folklore.
