When Ferrari signed Alain Prost for the 1990 season, the timing couldn’t have been more momentous. The four-time World Champion was joining Scuderia Ferrari as its first new driver following Enzo Ferrari’s death, having replaced Gerhard Berger as lead driver. For a reigning world champion taking the lead for F1’s most storied race team, there could be only one car fitting for his personal road use. Ferrari delivered chassis 83249, a brand new F40, to Prost’s home in France.
This particular F40 is special even beyond its famous first owner. Built in late 1989, the car left Maranello in a highly desirable specification without catalytic converters or adjustable suspension, features that would become the most desirable on later cars. The specification makes it one of the purest examples of what Enzo Ferrari intended his final supercar to be.
Prost’s ownership proved very brief, however. He never actually used the car; in fact, he sold it shortly after delivery in February 1990. The F40 passed to another owner, and before collection, Prost signed the roof. That signature remains visible today under a thick clearcoat layer, making this F40 truly one of a kind.
The second owner kept the car through the mid-1990s, relocating with it to the United States, where Motor Sport magazine featured it in April 1997. Motoring journalist Andrew Frankel tested it alongside the owner’s Ferrari 288 GTO and Ferrari F50. The car passed through several notable British collectors before returning to France, where it currently resides.
The car earned its Ferrari Classiche certification in 2016, confirming that it retains its original chassis, engine, gearbox and bodywork. That same year, it returned home to Maranello for Ferrari’s 70th anniversary concours at Fiorano, taking second in class. Major service work completed at Ferrari Lyon in 2019 included new fuel bladders valid until 2028.
The odometer shows barely 2,900 miles. The car comes with comprehensive history documentation, original tools, its first front spoiler and a fitted Schedoni suitcase. More than that, this F40 carries the provenance of a four-time F1 world champion with it, and that’s a specification that can’t be replicated. Accordingly, early RM Sotheby’s auction estimates place it around the $3.5 million mark.
