When Ferrari introduced the F50 in 1995, it did something almost unheard of in the American market. Rather than selling the cars outright, Ferrari North America required buyers of all 55 US-market examples to lease them for two years before ownership was transferred, a calculated move to suppress speculation after the F40 and reassert the idea that Ferrari’s most important road cars were built to be experienced, not traded.
Chassis 106715, now offered in RM Sotheby’s Sealed sale, is one of just 349 examples built. Rarity, however, is only part of its appeal. More remarkable is the fact that it now wears a deep black finish, a colour Ferrari never offered for the F50.
Between leaving Maranello in Rosso Corsa and arriving at auction, the car has lived several distinct lives: first as a Japanese collector’s showpiece, later as an eye-catching Liberty Walk project, and finally as a restored example finished in black. Rather than diminishing its standing, this layered history positions it within a growing category of collector cars where narrative, craftsmanship and documentation now stand alongside factory purity as measures of value.
A Formula One Car for the Road
The idea began with a challenge rather than a specification. At the time, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo commissioned the F50 to mark Ferrari’s fiftieth anniversary, with a brief unlike any previous road car project: to deliver the closest possible analogue to a Formula One car for the road, not merely in appearance, but in architecture and sensation.
At Maranello, engineers built the road car around the Formula One engine itself, rather than adapting an engine to fit a pre-designed chassis. Pininfarina then ran the car through 2,000 hours of wind-tunnel testing to settle the styling.
At its heart is a naturally aspirated 4.7-litre V12 derived from the 3.5-litre engine used in Ferrari’s 1990 641 Formula One car. It remains a fully stressed member of the chassis, bolted directly to the carbon fibre monocoque rather than isolated within a subframe, a solution that places structural integrity and feedback above refinement.
The same Formula One-inspired logic runs through the suspension: pushrod-actuated dampers, mounted inboard and operated via rockers, paired with a carbon fibre floor and a functional rear diffuser, generating measurable aerodynamic downforce. The six-speed manual gearbox, mounted directly to the engine block, was chosen for rigidity over ease of use and demands deliberate inputs; there are no driving modes, torque-vectoring algorithms or battery-assisted bursts of acceleration. By contemporary standards, 513bhp is no longer extraordinary. Yet to reduce the F50 to output figures is to misunderstand it entirely. Its appeal lies in the absence of mediation, with no filters, no algorithms, only mechanical response, qualities that have become increasingly scarce and correspondingly valuable.
Inside, the carbon fibre tub extends into the cabin itself, its weave left exposed across the dashboard, with the upper section trimmed in Alcantara. An exposed metal gear gate, topped with a carbon fibre gear knob, sits in the centre tunnel. Ferrari fitted magnesium five-spoke wheels rather than anything more decorative, and omitted power steering, power-assisted brakes and ABS entirely, decisions that prioritise fidelity over comfort, and intent over convenience.
The Zanasi Repaint
The black finish is not the product of an anonymous body shop. The work was carried out by Zanasi, the Modena-based coachbuilder whose relationship with Ferrari stretches back decades and whose craftsmanship now underpins much of the marque’s Tailor Made programme. Although Ferrari never offered the F50 in black, the standard of the repaint is difficult to fault. Executed to a level indistinguishable from factory application, it reframes the car rather than simply altering it.
In this context, the colour becomes less a deviation and more a curatorial decision, one that aligns the car with contemporary tastes without severing its link to Maranello.
From Tokyo to Goodwood
Delivered through Ferrari’s Japanese importer, Cornes, in Tokyo in January 1998, chassis 106715 spent much of its early life in Japan, where it appeared at enthusiast gatherings organised by collector Yoshido Matsuda. During this period, it underwent perhaps its most controversial transformation.
The original Rosso Corsa paint gave way to white, while Liberty Walk fitted black Enkei wheels, a modified rear grille, and a painted rear diffuser, briefly repositioning the F50 within Japan’s highly expressive custom car culture. Although unconventional by Ferrari standards, the changes proved almost entirely reversible, leaving the underlying carbon fibre structure untouched.
When the car returned to Britain in 2015, it was restored to Rosso Corsa. It also received Ferrari Classiche certification confirming its matching chassis, engine, gearbox and body before ultimately adopting its current black finish. Since then, it has appeared at Salon Privé and the Goodwood Festival of Speed while being maintained by Maranello Egham, with servicing recorded as recently as 2026. Rather than erasing its previous identities, each stage has become part of a remarkably well-documented history. Its evolution is not only extensive but fully documented, a factor that carries increasing weight in top-tier collector evaluation.
A Different Kind of Originality
Chassis 106715 will cross the block in RM Sotheby’s Sealed sale on 16 July 2026, with an estimate of £5,000,000 to £6,000,000 ($6,300,000 to $7,600,000), offered without reserve.
Within the current market, concours-correct F50s have traded in a broadly similar range, making this example less an outlier and more a test case: how far narrative and execution can offset deviation from factory specification.
Buyers should also factor in ongoing maintenance: the tyres are now a decade old, and the fuel cells will need replacing for anyone intending to drive the car.
A non-original colour would traditionally have been viewed as a disadvantage for a car of this calibre. Today, that hierarchy is less absolute. Increasingly, collectors are weighing originality against provenance, craftsmanship, and the credibility of the interventions made.
Chassis 106715 does not present itself as an untouched time capsule. Instead, it embodies a more contemporary form of collectability, one shaped as much by its journey as by its point of origin.
The Case for the F50
Writing for Evo, longtime writer Jethro Bovingdon rated it above the 288 GTO, F40, Enzo and LaFerrari for sheer physical and emotional engagement, calling it the most complete supercar Ferrari has ever built.
As modern hypercars lean further into digital assistance, that kind of connection has only become harder to find. In that context, the F50’s uncompromising character is being reassessed rather than overlooked. This particular example, with its departures from orthodoxy, may ultimately prove reflective of how the collector market is evolving.
After nearly three decades, three repaints, and a journey spanning Japan and Britain, chassis 106715 heads to auction carrying a story unlike any other F50.
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