This modified Ferrari F40 broke every rule at auction, here's how

Classic Driver Market Insights is our new format taking you behind the scenes of the collector car world. In the first episode, JP Rathgen asks why a modified Ferrari F40 just sold for £3.6 million ($4.82 million), and what it tells us about where the market is heading.

Conventional wisdom in the collector car market is simple: you do not modify a blue-chip Ferrari. Touch the engine, alter the bodywork, and you have turned a collectible into, at best, a car with an interesting story.

On 8 July at RM Sotheby's inaugural Woodcote Park sale, that rule was broken. A 1990 Ferrari F40 with real miles, a rebuilt engine and non-original bodywork sold for £3,605,000, comfortably over estimate, and walked away as the most expensive lot of the entire auction.

So what made this particular F40 different? The answer lies in its history: who owned it, who modified it, and why the name Michelotto changes everything. It is a story that cuts to the heart of how the collector market really assigns value in 2026, and why provenance has never mattered more.

In the first episode of Classic Driver Market Insights, JP Rathgen breaks it all down. He examines the car, the result, and what the nine F40s currently listed on the Classic Driver market tell us about where prices are heading next.