The Ferrari F50 is a mid-engined range-topping sports car made by Ferrari. The F50 was introduced in 1995. The car is a two-door, two seat roadster with a removable hardtop. It has a 4.7 L naturally aspirated 60-valve V12 engine that was developed from the 3.5 L V12 used in the 1990 Ferrari 641 Formula One car.
Only 349 cars were made. The last F50 was produced in Maranello, Italy, in July 1997.
The F50's engine predated the car; it was used in the Ferrari 333 SP for the American IMSA series in 1994, allowing it to become eligible for the stock engine WSC category.Following the motorsport theme, Ferrari developed the F50 GT, a prototype based on the F50 that was built to compete in GT1-class racing. The car had a fixed roof, large rear spoiler, new front spoiler and many other adjustments. The 4.7 litre V12 engine was tuned to generate around 750 bhp (559 kW). In testing in 1996 the car proved to be quicker even than the 333SP, but this went unnoticed as Ferrari cancelled the F50 GT project, instead focusing on Formula One. Ferrari sold off the three complete chassis that were built–the test car 001, 002 and 003. Chassis 002 and 003 had bodies fitted before being sold. The remaining three tubs were apparently destroyed.
A custom-made F50 variant named the Bolide was commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei in 1998 and delivered in the same year.[citation needed] It used the F1 derived V12 engine and the same chassis, but was completely redesigned due to the monocoque construction of the body on the F50.[citation needed] One car was produced in the coupe configuration. Very few images and no official performance statistics of this car are available. At least one car was produced in RHD for the sultan, and was subsequently bought by a collector in Ireland.