A black 1996 Ferrari F50 will go under the hammer with RM Sotheby’s during its July Sealed session, with an estimate between £5 million and £6 million, equal to around €6 million to €7 million. The auction will take place without reserve, adding further interest to an example that already stands out for its rarity.
The car carries chassis number ZFFTA46B000106715 and is the 244th of the 349 examples produced. Ferrari completed it in 1996 and delivered it new to Japan in January 1998 through Cornes Motors in Tokyo. However, the current colour does not match the original factory specification. The car left Maranello in Rosso Corsa and received its black finish in 2016 at Carrozzeria Zanasi, the Maranello-based company also connected to Ferrari Tailor Made work. Only four F50s originally left the factory in Nero DS, which makes any black example, even a repainted one, particularly desirable among collectors.
Rare black Ferrari F50 goes up for auction with no reserve
This F50 has a rather eventful history. After its early years in Japan, the car entered a phase in which it received a white repaint and Liberty Walk modifications. According to the auction house, those changes did not affect the carbon-fibre bodywork and remained reversible. The car later returned to Rosso Corsa and, in 2016, obtained Ferrari Classiche certification, confirming that the chassis, engine, gearbox and bodywork matched the original specifications. The black repaint followed shortly after that certification.
The example has covered just under 26,200 km since first registration, with its latest annual service carried out by Maranello Egham in May 2026. The car comes with its flight case, soft top, roll hoop, tools and manuals, although the future buyer will need to consider replacing the tyres and fuel tanks before regular use.
The F50 uses a naturally aspirated 4.7-litre V12 derived from Formula 1, producing 520 hp. Ferrari mounted the engine directly to the carbon-fibre monocoque as a structural element, creating an extreme layout much closer to a racing single-seater than to a conventional road car. The result was a top speed of 325 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of less than 4 seconds.
For years, the F50 lived in the shadow of the F40 in the collective imagination. Today, collectors increasingly reassess it as one of the most involving Ferraris ever built, thanks to its combination of naturally aspirated engine, manual gearbox and open-air driving. This black example may not be one of the four factory Nero DS cars, but it still represents a highly interesting proposition for anyone looking for a Ferrari Classiche-certified, matching-numbers F50 with a fully documented history.
