Watch Japanese Gentlemen Honor The Ferrari 288 GTO Evo And F40 Lm

There are a few formulas in the world of car reporting that are pretty much guaranteed wins every time. The Ferrari F40 is one of them, but when you add in the F40's dad – specifically the 288 GTO Evoluzione – you know it's going to be drool worthy. Seriously, you could shoot a video of these car sliding around on horse manure and it would still be awesome.

Fortunately, the gentlemen over at Gentlemen Drivers Japan are, well, gentlemen. They would never consider something so uncouth as piloting a Ferrari on anything other than proper tarmac. That holds especially true for the 288 GTO Evoluzione, of which only five were built, and the 17 F40 LM Competizione models ultimately built due in no small part to demands from customers.

Gentlemen Drivers Japan was fortunate enough to get behind the wheel of both ultra-rare models for a feature on Enzo Ferrari's swan song – the last factory cars he personally signed off on and the machines many people still regard as the greatest Ferrari supercars of all time. And we'll say this, the formula is most decidedly a win – both for the video above and this narrated studio version.

Many people outside the Ferrari fold aren't aware of the deep connection between the F40 and its predecessor, the 288 GTO. The above video does a nice job of explaining the creation of the GTO's Evoluzione model, which certainly bears an uncanny resemblance to the F40. Enzo Ferrari had envisioned the F40 as a proper road-going variant of the race-spec Evo model, which led to the F40 we know and love today. Of course, there are always those who want something a bit more. Though never designed to race, a few F40s were modified for track use which ultimately led Ferrari to develop LM Competizione models from the factory.

With the 1980's Ferrari history lesson complete, we'll now get back to watching these cars strut their stuff on the track.