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Salute to the prancing horse

Supercar fans could bear witness to a record gathering of Ferraris as the automaker celebrates the 25th anniversary of its iconic F40 at the Silverstone Classic in Britain.

To commemorate the occasion, the Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain is organising the largest collection of F40s yet.

Nigel Chiltern-Hunt, the Ferrari club’s co-ordinator, said: “Our original aim was to get at least 25 of these Ferraris together and, as I have contacted owners, I have been gratified that so many want to be part of the celebration – so much so that we now have more than 50 F40's registered for the event with more still to come!”

“A parade of the cars is planned for the Sunday and it will undoubtedly be the largest gathering of F40s yet seen anywhere in the world and will certainly beat the club’s own record of 40 at the 2007 Silverstone Classic.”

First introduced in 1987 to honour Ferrari’s 40th anniversary, the mid-engined F40 was the final car commissioned by the legendary founder Enzo Ferrari.

Blessed with a dramatic ultra-light body designed by Pininfarina (featuring many carbon-fibre and Kevlar panels plus plastic windows) and propelled by a twin-turbo V8 developing 356kW horsepower, performance was nothing short of phenomenal. Indeed the F40 was the world’s first 320km/h production road car and has been widely hailed as "the greatest supercar of all time".

With an original price tag of close to £300 000 (R3.6m), only 1315 F40s were produced in Maranello between 1987 and 1992.

CLASSIC-CAR HERITAGE

Nick Wigley, Silverstone Classic event organiser, said: “Silverstone is the perfect place for Ferrari to celebrate this important milestone in the incredible F40’s history.

“It was at Silverstone in 1951 that Ferrari achieved its first GP win and, since then, the circuit has witnessed countless more Ferrari victories, most recently when Fernando Alonso won last year’s British F1 GP. With such a rich sporting history, it’s no surprise that so many fabulous Ferraris star in many of the major races staged at the Silverstone Classic.

"Now the promise of a record number of Ferrari F40s lining up on the infield is another major attraction. It’s a truly mouth-watering prospect that no supercar enthusiast will want to miss," he said.

As well as the Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain, a host of other car clubs have already announced their own special celebrations at the festival. These include 50th birthday celebrations for the AC Cobra, Lotus Elan and MGB along with the UK’s first BMW Z-Fest to mark 60 years of the BMW Car Club GB.

The Silverstone Classic festival will be held over July 20-22, 2012.

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