Why This $3 Million Ferrari Is One of the Greatest Supercars Ever

The super-rare F50 is among the most badass rides to ever emerge from the ’90s.

There is nothing so mean that it can’t be made meaner by an obsidian finish. Just ask Darth Vader. 

So it is with the incredible 1995 Ferrari F50. A 520-horsepower, 4,698 cc V12 engine and six-speed manual transmission with old-school gated shifter are plenty mean. But pour Ferrari’s “Nero” black paint over the F50’s menacing lines, and it gets that much more interesting. Just take a look in the gallery here:

Ferrari only built four such F50s, from a production run of 349 cars, and only two of them came to America. RM Auctions is now offering one of these super-rare beauties for sale, and the winning bid is predicted to be between $3 million and $3.5 million.

The F50’s 4.7-liter V12 spins at a lofty 10,000 rpm, producing a sound reminiscent of the company’s Formula One racers of the time. In fact, the F50’s engine borrows directly from the technology Ferrari was using in its race cars at the time, with an uncommon five-valve-per-cylinder design.

Two decades ago, the F50 was producing 0-60 acceleration times of 3.5 seconds and it had a very contemporary 202 mph top speed. More importantly, the F50’s V12 makes it sound amazing while doing it.

And the Nero black paint doesn’t look half bad either. It will take some careful planning to ever pass yourself going the other way in this one, since there is only one other such car in the country.