THE UNLOVED

THEY'VE LIVED FOR DECADES IN THE SHADOW OF MORE POPULAR SIBLINGS. IT'S TIME TO GIVE THESE THREE SPORTS CARS A SHOT AT REDEMPTION.

- TRAVIS OKULSKI, LAWRENCE ULRICH, MICHAEL SCHNABEL

THE FERRARI F50 WAS PANNED WHEN IT DEBUTED. NOW IT REPRESENTS EVERYTHING WE DESIRE.

The Ferrari F40 is the definitive supercar, a 471-hp twin-turbocharged V-8-powered middle finger that overshadowed every thing else of its era. It’s the final road car that Enzo Ferrari personally approved and the first mass-produced car with a claimed top speed of over 200 mph. F40s were listed for $280,000 in 1987. Demand was so high, dealers could command triple that or more.

In 1995, Ferrari followed the F40 with the F50, a naturally aspirated V-12-powered F1 car for the road. Ferrari didn’t let the press drive the F50 until two years after its release and barred owners from loaning cars to journalists. It was heavier and less elegant, and even though Ferrari said the F50 could hit 202 mph—conveniently one more than the F40— our 1997 test revealed that the gearing would only let it reach the mid-190s. Unforgivable. While the McLaren F1 hit 240 mph and claimed superlatives for power, acceleration, and exclusivity, the F50 became a punching bag.

Even though as a kid I had pinned above my bed an extremely Nineties poster of an F50 parked in shallow water, I maligned the car online, parroted negative reviews, and called it an ugly disappointment and the wrong car to follow the F40—ridiculous things for a teenager without a driver’s license to say.

The F50 ended up being the final analog Ferrari supercar. Its successors—Enzo, LaFerrari, and SF90—embraced complex driver-assist systems, electrification, and turbocharging in pursuit of insane performance. I couldn’t care less about stats that are irrelevant in the real world. I want to be involved. I want to drive. Perhaps the F50 was judged unfairly.