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Listen to the Ferrari F40 LM

Published: 26 Mar 2012

Perhaps in honour of Ferrari's weekend triumph (what with Alonso and the Ferrari-powered Sauber scoring a 1-2), or perhaps because it's just ruddy amazing, a loyal TopGear.commer has sent us this natty video.

It contains old and blurry moving imagery of Monsieur Jacques Laffite speaking French at a racetrack, and accompanying him within these images is none other than a Ferrari F40 LM.

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Both have provenance; Monsieur Laffite is a former Formula One driver who raced to six GP wins and 32 podium finishes, racing with the likes of Iso Marlboro, Williams and Ligier.

And the Ferrari F40 LM? Well, it's a bit of a monster. A couple of years after the road car made its debut (an anniversary present for old man Enzo, no less), a French importer requested a racing F40 be built to compete at Le Mans, hence the ‘LM' tag.

As such, it featured revised suspension, bigger brakes, a reinforced chassis and a more powerful engine. How powerful? 700bhp (up from 478bhp) using that 2.9-litre twin turbocharged V8. Ferrari hasn't quoted a 0-62mph time - the road-going car did it in 4.1 seconds - but does claim a top speed of 228mph, which is plenty.

All these stats are fine and dandy, but something you can't factor into a spec sheet is noise. The sheer soul-awakening, brain-frying terror of a twin-turbo Ferrari V8 turned up to 11. Oh, the noise.

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