Broken Dreams: Ferrari 408 4RM. Forghieri’s last “Cavallino”

When Mauro Forghieri, the famous engineer who, since the mid-60s was Technical Director of what is known in Maranello as “Gestione Sportiva” [Ed: Sports Management] that included Formula 1, Formula 2 and Sports Prototype cars - left his position in 1986, he began work on the creation of an 8-cylinder model - a second-tier product therefore, with a much wider audience - capable of responding to the needs of an international public looking for cars to use on the road.

Forghieri applied the same approach he had always used for racing: innovation, simplicity “because the things that aren’t there don’t break” and lightness. As a result, two prototypes were produced between 1987 and 1988, apparently the same, but in reality each with very different technical and construction solutions: one painted red, chassis number 70183, and the other yellow, chassis number 78610. The two cars differ in the materials used for the chassis: an all-steel welded chassis in the first, an aluminium frame bonded with adhesives in the second. Ferrari only introduced this solution at the beginning of the 2000s. In both cases, fibreglass and other composite materials were used for the bodywork.