Someone had a bad day...

[Marv]

The roads are ridiculously slick at the moment

This is true.

I took a 320hp supercharged honda s1 for an mot today and it would spin the wheels at low speed and low rpm in 4th gear which surprised me. I managed to not write it off though, which was nice.

When I first bought my 968, it was on 10 year old Bridgestone SO-1 and the rear dampers were knackered. The roads were slick and it was very cold, went to turn on the apex of a roundabout and suddenly the tyres had no grip and kept going straight...fortunately, it turned out to be a nice gentle slide off the road, onto a nice wide accommodating grass bank. Absolutely no damage to the car!

[dan]

Similar to when I bought my first elise off Paul Matty, it was on the original Pirelli tyres and had zero grip. It was hilarious fun, I posted a video on seloc and got absolutely torn to pieces because apparently elise's aren't supposed to go sideways.

[jamcg]

What we need is @SSO to pop in and tell us if they’re really that snappy or the drivers are just shite

[SSO]

What we need is @SSO to pop in and tell us if they’re really that snappy or the drivers are just shite

100% driver error.

[V8Granite]

Now I’ve never driven anything truly powerful and I think the F360 only has 275 rear tyres but what makes the F40 so spiky ?

I could enjoy the 360 and never felt scared but is it the torque peak that just takes the tyre from 30 -60 mph and ncredibly quickly or is it the wheelbase, suspension with little give etc?

I don’t think I’d have a hope in hell of catching something like that if I’d given it a bit much

Dave!

[ZedLeg]

I’d guess that if you aren’t used to 80s turbo lag (a tech in his 20s may not have driven anything that old) it’ll get you.

[integrale_evo]

F40 is lighter and has a heap more torque than a 360.

They’re not fancy sequential turbos, it’s basically two separate laggy 80s low compression big turbo 4pots stuck together.

My lancia was from the same era and could be pretty spicy when it went from about 50lb/ft to 260lb/ft over a 500 rpm range, and that was 4wd, a lot less powerful and heavier than an f40!

[integrale_evo]

F40 vs f360

F40 weighs 300kg less, has 77bhp more, 150lb/ft more, 150mm shorter wheelbase and 335 rear tyres. Also no traction control of any sort, no abs, no power steering.

[dan]

People are overthinking this, its just an inexperienced driver in a powerful rear drive car, i've seen people do this in S2000's or MX5's. Shit drivers gonna drive shit.

Crashing at that speed has nothing to do with 'spiky' handling. You're not going fast enough to worry about the handling at all.

[SSO]

F40 vs f360

F40 weighs 300kg less, has 77bhp more, 150lb/ft more, 150mm shorter wheelbase and 335 rear tyres. Also no traction control of any sort, no abs, no power steering.

F40 is 100% down to drivers skill or lack there of. While the turbo lag on a F40 is rather significant, it's also quite predictable. They really don't start spooling up until you are north of 3700 rpms and then it's actually quite progressive, if you are sensible with your right foot.

[GG.]

I would guess, as always - its a bit of 'all of the above'.

Every F40 I've seen seem to be wearing Pirellis with a tread pattern that has come off the ark. Perhaps they're new and have been re-engineered to modern spec rubber but I doubt they're even semi acceptable in 4 degrees (my current summer compound Pirellis are very much not...) on a car with a lot of turbo lag. Add a driver that is a bit overexcited to drive an icon and tragedy results.

The clip I've seen does seem to show that they weren't actually being completely OTT but squeezed the throttle, got a bit of sideways movement and then lifted off immediately which exacerbated the problem. Just like numerous turbo era BMW M3/M4 videos that all demonstrate the same issue.

One other question - do people know what LSD the F40s have in them? I wonder whether they still function as originally intended...

[mik]

I would like to thank the vehicle crasher for making me go and hunt out one of my favourite F40 clips.

> evo F40 vs Veyron test from 15yrs ago.
> very little footage - all filmed on potatoes.
> John Barker in the (borrowed and even then worth rather £alot) F40 exiting a junction on public roads. Applies full welly (which gives you a great flavour of the power delivery) and cool-as-a-mutherfuckin-cucumber winds on the perfect amount of oppo to keep it straight without the hint of a lift. <doffs cap>

edit: interestingly it looks (earlier in the vid) like the speedo may be inoperative. I can't imagine any discerning owner wanting to intentionally avoid the odometer counting all the miles covered, so I assume it's just shonky italian breaky-broken.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I would like to thank the vehicle crasher for making me go and hunt out one of my favourite F40 clips.

> evo F40 vs Veyron test from 15yrs ago.
> very little footage - all filmed on potatoes.
> John Barker in the (borrowed and even then worth rather £alot) F40 exiting a junction on public roads. Applies full welly (which gives you a great flavour of the power delivery) and cool-as-a-mutherfuckin-cucumber winds on the perfect amount of oppo to keep it straight without the hint of a lift. <doffs cap>

edit: interestingly it looks (earlier in the vid) like the speedo may be inoperative. I can't imagine any discerning owner wanting to intentionally avoid the odometer counting all the miles covered, so I assume it's just shonky italian breaky-broken.

You say exiting a junction - he was out of the junction and straight before the rear stepped out

[duncs500]

The thing I find strange is that you'd expect someone who works on F40s (no matter how young) to be enthusiastic about it and therefore be aware that it's not like driving a Tesla, has old tyres, turbo lag etc. They obviously misjudged it, but I'd be very surprised if they weren't aware of the challenges associated with driving them.

I will be forever grateful to the guy (on trade plates) that was giving the F40 plenty on the M25 in the only time I've seen one at full chat. You might not see too many others doing that now!

[Ascender]

How cool is that John Barker video

And yes, that's it stepping out of line on the straight and he's pretty quick to catch it.

I see the footage of someone doing similar in Lando Norris' F40 is also doing the rounds again. Without having ever driven one, the strange this is that both of these seem to have happened at low speeds.

I say that, fully aware that I was the person who spun his meagre 2.8l Z3 going round a corner from 0-20 mph.

[Mito Man]

What’s so strange about it happening at low speeds? The lower the speed the more acceleration/wheel spin you have.

[V8Granite]

I have a theory, so the workshop guy was setting the wastegate opening pressure, he could have done it in the workshop with a pressure regulator and 13mm spanner. Instead he would the pre-load right up and insisted that he does it on the road for a more accurate reading.

When it hit 4 bar he was wondering if he had pre-loaded the spring too much and was not concentrating on the driving.

Mechanics excuse, I crashed the F40 as someone borrowed my pressure regulator and didn’t return it.

Dave!

[Ascender]

What’s so strange about it happening at low speeds? The lower the speed the more acceleration/wheel spin you have.

Because I'm assuming the guys driving the cars are used to driving this sort of car and others like them so should know what they're doing? It's not like someone who's driving way beyond their limits or having a "watch this" moment.. or driving something like this for the first time.

... or leaving a car meet etc.

[Mito Man]

Ah, I was thinking of it purely from the perspective that flooring a lairy car at 30 mph will get it to break traction more than flooring it at say 80 mph.

No idea on what the guys driving them are thinking!

[Ascender]

Ah, I was thinking of it purely from the perspective that flooring a lairy car at 30 mph will get it to break traction more than flooring it at say 80 mph.

No idea on what the guys driving them are thinking!

Yes, that makes sense too. And I'm guessing is the common one where people hire a Lamborghini for their wedding day and total it in a hedge on the way to the church.