1990 Ferrari F40

Tony’s Take: Car & Driver called the Ferrari F40 “a mix of sheer terror and raw excitement.” Motor Sport Magazine agreed, labelling it “brutal, ballistic and a bit scary.” Race car designer Gordon Murray was less flattering, slamming the F40 as “a big go-kart with a plastic body.” Olde school technology (steel tube chassis), excruciating ergonomics, zero side and rear visibility and . . . it’s the Holy Grail.

Think of it this way: the next-out-of-the-box carbon fiber tub Ferrari F50 was the more powerful, better-handling and rarer bird (359 vs. 1311 units). Yet the F50 hammers for “only” a million dollars more. Why? The F50 is raw, but the F40 is demented. (The F40’s purity of form also helps account for the difference.) Could the F40 overtake the F50 pricewise? Will a low-mileage F40 someday crest the $10m mark? Stranger things have happened. Downside: death.