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CHRIS HARRIS: You'll think this sounds
presumptuous and silly.
But I get a lot of offers to drive other
people's expensive cars.
I'm kind of lucky like that.
The trouble is almost all of those offers only allow me to
drive that expensive car in a manner that wouldn't look very
good on video, so I tend not to accept them.
I mean, who wants to watch a small brown man driving a
super car slowly?
Certainly not me.
But a few months back, a bloke said I could drive his Ferrari
F40, and his F50, and that he wanted me to drive them like I
did all the cars on my videos.
Are you sure?
I said.
I'll be disappointed if you don't, he said.
And so that's why we're now looking at two of the most
exciting Ferraris ever built, which, by definition, makes
them two of the most exciting road cars ever built.
We have the beautiful Anglesey Circuit, a few cameras, and a
ticket to drive an F40 and an F50 in a manner I hope you
haven't seen before.
Even now, I can't quite believe this
day actually happened.
Before we play, some background information.
These two cars are fascinating in their own individual ways,
but they share an uneasy relationship with each other.
Or rather, the F50 has always struggled in the shadows of
what many of us believe remains the ultimate
supercar-- the F40.
Ferrari never let journalists performance test the F50
because it was slower than it's older relative.
But nearly 20 years after the event, that doesn't seem to
matter now.
Instead, all I can see is a carbon chassis, an engine
block from a Formula One car bolted directly to it, rear
suspension sprouting from the gear box casing, and no
gearshift paddles.
The 4.7 liter V12 sends 520 horsepower to the rear wheels
through a six speed manual transmission.
Torque is 347 foot pounds at 6,000 RPM.
And this is where it struggles against the F40, which has a
massive 426 foot pounds.
It's also heavier, at 1,250 kilograms, but by modern
standards, it's still a very light car.
Up close, the F50 is just stunning.
The carbon Kevlar body panels are vast, the dish on rear
wheels plane delicious, and the details take
hours to drink in.
The seats are fantastically over-designed.
Even the rake adjuster has a little chrome cap like the one
on the oil filler.
The way you can peer through the rear mesh and see the
engine is pure Ferrari theater.
And the electronic dash must have been
sci-fi in the mid '90s.
The quality stands out, too.
The F50 is beautifully finished.
The window rubbers are neat.
The doors close with a "***."
Next to it, the F40 looks like a kit car.
Really, it does, only one made 20 years earlier.
But wasn't that always part of its charm?
It was made for driving, and nothing else seemed to matter.
The proportions of the F40 are a masterpiece.
Next to it, the F50 somehow isn't quite right.
The F40 is a tiny machine slammed into the ground and
mesmerizingly pretty.
It's 478 horsepower is a little down on the F50's
claimed output, but most experts now agree that the
cars always have over 500 horsepower from launch.
And the twin turbocharged 2.9 liter V8 was a torque monster.
As we said, 426 foot pounds.
And it only had to shunt 1,100 kilograms down the road.
No wonder Ferrari didn't want people testing it
next to the new F50.
The fit and finish are astonishingly bad, though.
Luckily, the cabin is so bare that you don't really notice.
But what you do understand is that everything that matters--
the seat, the steering wheel, the clock faces, the pedals--
are all judged to perfection.
No other car gives quite the same sense of driver
importance.
And that's what makes the F40 so special.
Now I've driven an F40 before, but I've not had the chance to
absolutely spat one on a circuit.
This is bucket list stuff.
What's it going to be like?
The F50 is a surprisingly gorgeous car.
But it's very accurate, very competent.
It feels like a little racing car.
It doesn't want to be agitated.
It wants you to treat it with respect and drive it smoothly.
What's this thing going to be like?
I'm led to believe they are quite unruly, these things.
[LAUGHS]
[YELLS]
Yes!
What have we got, 480 horsepower?
Jesus Christ, the boost.
Yes.
This is a serious car-- nothing like the noise,
nothing like the throttle response.
It's an animal.
But it's so agile.
And it just throws you up the road.
And you shouldn't be able to do that in an F40, should you?
You just think about your angle and choose it.
Look at that!
[YELLS]
Gear shift, lovely.
Not as mechanical as the F50's, but the performance,
the torque, oh, it's an animal.
It's just got so much performance.
You can see why they didn't want people figuring F50's
because this is quicker.
The old car is quicker.
I need one of these.
This is the car I've been looking for
all my life, I think.
It's a totally hooligan, but it's
connected, and it's beautiful.
And it's fast.
And it's a challenge.
And it's got a stick.
And I'm in love!
Brakes are good.
I mean, what was the performance like in 1989?
Yes.
And it just surges.
It couldn't be more different to the F50.
You pin the throttle, wait for the boost to arrive, And
because it's so mechanical the way it boosts, if you hold the
throttle steady, it still adds boost, which is moderately
terrifying.
Wow.
What a car.
What did they think when they made this?
They must have looked around and gone, we might
as well give up.
[LAUGH]
This is the one.
This is the one This is the one.
I've never driven a Ferrari F50 before today.
Let's try an debunk some of the myths about a car that
considered too slow, and uninteresting, and ugly after
the F40, and not even worthy of comparison
with a McLaren F1.
I think some of that is complete cobblers.
That noise!
Wow!
Is all I can say.
Wow.
Manual gear change.
I don't want to talk.
I just want to enjoy the thing.
But I have to talk, so first things first, the engine, or
the block, is from a Formula One car.
I rips at 85,000 RPM, and it's a V12.
It's a carbon tub, and the rear suspension is hanging
from the back of the engine gearbox case.
This is just--
this is why we love cars, boys and girls.
Why didn't people love this in the day.
It's extraordinary.
Oh!
No ABS, no nothing.
Sportscars should be like this.
The chassis, well, quite a bit of atmosphere, I have to say.
I'm sure you can dull some of that with some setup changes.
The steering is quite slow.
It's unassisted.
It's heavy.
But it is a little bit slow-witted for me.
But I just love it-- the pedals close together.
Just roll off the break and onto the throttle.
And I watch this [INAUDIBLE] ahead of me, the needle
flicking up to 85,000 RPM, and that noise!
Wow!
Just wow!
God knows how fast we're going, I'm not looking.
It's like a racing car.
It feels like a racing car.
The engine is from a racing car.
I wish it didn't have this sort of low and medium speed
under steer, but I'm sure some tires, or some setup, you'll
get rid of that.
You just have to not hurry the car too much.
Get it into the turn.
Use that amazing traction on the way out.
It's a real challenge to drive.
But as you can see, I [BLEEP]
love it.
This car is why I love cars.
It's extraordinary.
It's alive.
Now, as you can see, I got rather carried away in the
moment with both of these cars.
I did my best to try and break down the way they drove.
But there's more I need to add without,
sort of, wetting myself.
The F50 is a stunner.
It has the most desirable power train of any supercar.
Really, it does.
It's not the fastest.
But the way it revs, the noise it makes, and the gear shift,
the best of the best.
You could see I was struggling in the middle of second gear,
but that was as much my fault as the need to do a little
adjustment to the linkage.
On the road, I thought the F50 was slightly less impressive
because the engine only really comes alive above 5,000 RPM.
And you just can't use it properly.
It also feels vast around the hips.
But I'm so glad I've driven one hard now, and can promise
you, it's a truly, truly great car.
In many ways it's more satisfying than the F40--
but not greater.
The F40 is the supercar to end all supercars.
It isn't normally aspirated.
And yet it's turbocharging adds to the excitement.
The only thing it really lacks is noise, But you have to
believe me when I say that it sounds miles better in real
life than it does on this film, even if the F50 is in
another league for musical quality.
I could go on about this car all day.
I really could.
Quite simply, to me.
It's the one--
on road, on track, frankly, anywhere.
There's on aspect of the F40 that I've always found
absolutely fascinating.
And that is it feels outrageously fast now.
But what did it feel like in 1989.
And there's only one man who I want to ask that.
He's a bloke that I used to read when I was younger.
He's someone that inspired me to do this for a living.
He's called Mark Hales.
What he doesn't know about these sorts of cars isn't
worth knowing.
And he's driving the F50 at the moment.
So what are the fundamental differences-- well, they are ,
one is normally aspirated.
One is turbocharged, heavily turbocharged.
They are quite different vehicles.
but they are a celebration of everything
that's right about Ferrari.
And I love the fact that he gets me on the entry phase of
the corner.
And then, when I'm accelerating out, I've got all
this boost.
And I can just fly up behind him.
This is so much faster in a straight line.
It's basically holding me up when we get going.
I'm following an F50, and I'm oversteering in an F40.
I'm off!
So once we've stopped having some fun here, which could go
on for some time, I want to sit and talk to Mark about
what it was like.
MARK HALES: Utter privilege.
CHRIS HARRIS: So Mark, when did you first drive an F40?
And just tell me what it was like, the sensation of this
vehicle the first time you got in it because it's an
extraordinary car now.
I can't even begin to think what it was like in '88, '89?
MARK HALES: It was completely extraordinary.
And I didn't really know what to expect.
And it was Nick Mason's car.
And it was about it was about '88.
And he'd just got it.
He got one of the very first ones.
And we made an audio tape.
That shows you how long it ago.
It was a cassette tape for "Fastlane" magazine.
And I just rang him up and said, can I drive your car.
And he went, uh, yes.
And he brought it to Donington with a mate.
And he said, well, there you are, off you go.
And I said, don't you want to watch?
And he said, no, no, I'm going off to get some coffee.
Let me know when you're done.
And it was brand new.
But on track, it was just extraordinary.
And it's the way it delivers the performance.
Because you could just drive it down to the shops.
And as long as you don't prod the gas and make it go on
boost, it's just like driving, you know, pretty much an
ordinary car.
But when it lit up, and you could get wheel spin in third,
and occasionally even in fourth gear, it was just
absolutely extraordinary.
And it was, then, and remains today, one of the most
exciting cars I've ever driven.
CHRIS HARRIS: That cassette tape, little did you know it,
had a profound effect on my generation.
Because we didn't have the internet.
We didn't have videos.
And suddenly, to be introduced to this new
medium to hear the car.
And I remember that tape vividly.
I have a copy still.
And I remember you getting, let's get it right-- the list
of cars, there was a Cosworth, an Audi Quattro, 911 Club
Sport, which I went on to own that particular car, so I had
your sloppy seconds there, Mark.
I just remember--
something got big on you.
Some boost comes in.
There's a girl in the seat with you.
MARK HALES: That's right, yeah.
CHRIS HARRIS: And you're describing the car.
And you say the boost comes in.
And then you hear this [CAR SOUND].
And there's silence in the car.
And she goes, ooh!
And you say, yes, that's what I mean.
MARK HALES: Yeah, well the raw tapes were pornographic
because it was Becki Adam.
And she was one of the first "Top Gear" babes.
And she was going, ooh, ooh!
And they said, Mark, what on earth were you up to?
And you couldn't leave it in, because it just sounded
ridiculous.
So all that had to be cut out.
But yeah.
And it was the sort of thing, you thought, I can drive this
and still--
I can do a march and brundle and have the thing at of some
ridiculous angle, and keep talking.
But when it lit up, you just went, ooh!
And went quiet.
CHRIS HARRIS: And the time, a fast car-- well, the club
sport you had was a Carrera with a slightly different ECU.
So that has 231 horsepower.
And it weighed 1,100 and something kilograms.
And you've got the same curb weight, and you've got 470
horsepower.
MARK HALES: But it's not just the numbers.
And I don't think Ferrari were completely
honest about the power.
I think it was always a lot more than they said.
But it's the torque.
And it's quite a big engine for a turbo,
2.8 liters or something.
And you've got two turbos.
But it's the way it comes on.
So it feels much more than 500 horsepower, or whatever it is.
And the car is quite light.
Because the thing about them is that they were completely
stripped down, and intended to be so.
And Ferrari wanted to keep it really light.
What are they?
About 1,100 kilos or something?
CHRIS HARRIS: A little bit more.
MARK HALES: 1,200, but not very much more.
Because you've got wind up windows.
You've got no power steering.
I mean, it's got air conditioning.
I'd forgotten about that, you really need that.
But there's no ABS.
There's nothing.
There's no driver aid.
So it's really, really stripped out.
So not only is fantastically powerful for the weight, but
you're intimately connected to everything.
You really feel the steering.
And it was like it was going back and boosting the power at
the same time.
So yeah, it was a tremendous experience and still is.
It still is exciting today as I remember it when I
first got in it.
CHRIS HARRIS: Did you think it was a step too far?
Did you think to yourself, I can drive this, but what's the
average punter than can afford to buy one of these going to
do in this car?
MARK HALES: Well, I do remember that, when it rained,
no matter how much I thought I could handle this, the boost
just went up too quickly.
And I drove Nick's car at Silverstone--
it was a filming session for "Into the Red," the book that
Nick and I did.
And in fourth gear, somewhere out the back, club, or stow,
or something like that, just coming out, I thought, I can
feed it in now.
And I think I must have spun about a
second time in the rain.
And it just-- and it was one of those spins where--
it wasn't a spin where, you think, oh, oh, I think, I
know, now I have it, Yes, oh no?
It just went [ZAP SOUND], and it spun like a
top down the track.
When it rained, it was just dangerous, simply because the
wheel spin built so quickly.
And if you thought, well, I'll leave it in a higher gear, so
it won't be so fierce, that made it even worse because it
would still spin up--
CHRIS HARRIS: Just at a faster speed?
MARK HALES: Yeah, the tires just spun faster.
So you went round quicker.
It's the intimacy of the thing, and the fact that
you're so connected to everything because there's no
interference.
There's the F50 over there, but the Enzo that came after
it was just like driving a computer game
compared with this.
This was just so tremendously wonderful.
It remains one of my absolute, all time favorite cars.
CHRIS HARRIS: I think today I've been blown away by it.
And I need to go away and think long and hard because
it's a magnificent driving experience.
It's intimidating, but it's accommodating.
I don't know many cars that can that, that can make you
think, right, you are with the big boys now.
And then, five minutes later, you're sitting there in third
gear near the lock stops coming out of some corner,
thinking, this shouldn't be possible.
I'm buzzing.
I'm ticking.
The onboard is ludicrous.
There's no facts in today's onboard.
Sorry about that, guys.
I'm just basically whooping like a child.
And I've loved it.
We're going to have to cut it there.
But, well, there you go.
That's what it was like to drive and F40 when
it came out it '89.
MARK HALES: Still is.
CHRIS HARRIS: Yeah, and hopefully the video will give
you an idea of what it's like to drive one in 2013 and why
it remains "the" car.