Black beauty: Rebuilt, reborn Ferrari F40 going under the hammer

Matthew Hansen
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Photos / Gas Monkey Garage, Apple Towing Company

When an American reality television show like Gas Monkey Garage takes a car and rebuilds it, then puts it up for auction — that isn't necessarily news. But when that car is a rare, sought after, Italian thoroughbred ... well, that changes things. 

Enter this black Ferrari F40. 

For those not familiar with the show, this is one of Richard Rawlings and his team's most well-known builds. They purchased the car in 2013 for US$400,000 — although at the time it was red and had a nose that was almost completely stoved in following a head-on collision at a set of traffic lights. 

It was a gnarly crash in any car, but particularly so in something like a F40 given how limited spare parts are, and how few people there are on the planet capable of restoring such a car to its factory condition. 

Ultimately this is what brought the Gas Monkey Garage F40 notoriety. Rawlings and crew were 'by the book' in their rebuild, working under the guidance of numerous Ferrari tech experts while simultaneously still managing to inject the car with a bit of 'ass monkey' spirit. 

After straightening its innards, they replaced most of the damaged pieces with OEM parts. The 2.9-litre V8 engine got gifted a couple of beefier turbochargers (blasphemy!), while other aftermarket performance modifications included a kevlar clutch pack, HRE wheels, Tubi exhaust package, Penske Racing adjustable shocks, and more. 

And after all that, it sold at auction in 2014 for US$742,500 to famed baseball player Reggie Jackson. 

Often with cars like these, the story ends there. The car gets locked in a shed somewhere never to be seen again, covered up and rarely taken out for a blat. However, it's been a bit different for this F40. 

Jackson sold the car a year later (swallowing a US$100,000 loss). He buyer was a fellow named Richard Scott — a parking lot operator in Los Angeles. 

Two years down the track in 2017, Scott was charged with bribery. It was a 15-year scheme that saw him defraud the US Department of Veterans Affairs of more than US$13m — landing him with a six-year prison sentence and leaving the F40's future up in the air. 

The devilish black Ferrari is set to return again to the auction house (in this case, Apple Towing Company's auction house) where it will no doubt attract the attention of the wealthy who watch Gas Monkey Garage. There's no posted pricing expectation, given that most Ferraris seem to be on the pricing rise it wouldn't be surprising to see this crack a cool US$1m.

Funnily enough, Rawlings himself has said he's interested in having it back — although this time, to keep. 

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