This is the body cover, or the upper part of the body from the legendary Ferrari 641 (Ferrari F1-90) Formula 1 car from 1990.
This would be the car that Alain Prost very nearly won the Driver’s World Championship in, he was neck-and-neck with Ayrton Senna in the standings until the famous crash between Prost and Senna at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1990.
The Ferrari 641 was essentially a development of the earlier John Barnard-designed Ferrari 640. Barnard is a British designer who was famously headhunted away from McLaren by Enzo Ferrari on the condition that he be allowed to work remotely from a new Ferrari head design office based in Shalford, England.
The work of Barnard and his team resulted in a car capable winning races and challenging for the championship. After the Ferrari 641 it would be a long seven years until Ferrari were once again able to battle for the championship.
Today the Ferrari 641 remains one of very few cars on display in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Above Image: The original livery is all intact with a little patina due to the time passed, it’s important to note that the “Marlboro” cigarette logos have been blurred in the images due to cigarette advertising legislation.
This body cover measures in at 62 cm (24 1/2 in) high, 328 cm (129 in) long, and 142 cm (56 in) wide. The weight isn’t listed however it will be exceedingly light.
The auction listing mentions that it’s made of fiberglass which seems unusual, you’d expect it to be made from some blend of carbon fibre and Kevlar. It may be worth checking into this before placing any bids.
If you’d like to read more about this interesting piece of Formula 1 history you can click here to visit the listing on Artcurial. It’s due to cross the auction block in February with a price estimate of €20,000 to €30,000 – it’s likely going to make some well-heeled bidder an eye-catching wall feature.
Images courtesy of Artcurial
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
