Check vehicle information with Ferrari VIN
Looking for the VIN?
Here is there you’ll find it:
Before Ferrari was a car company, they were a successful racing team. Enzo Ferrari only got into manufacturing to fund his efforts on the track. This attitude has never left the company, even as sales have climbed from a few hundred cars per year to a few thousand. This racing focus carries over to their production cars, making some of the most focused, capable and driver-focused vehicles on the market. From the FF grand touring car to the exotic La Ferrari, every car they produce offers world-class performance.
There’s nothing worse than buying your dream car and finding out it’s a lemon. How can you protect yourself? You can start by using our site to decode the VIN number. A quick VIN check will tell you how the car came equipped from the factory, letting you weed out cars with obvious listing errors. Once you’ve settled on a few candidates, you can order a VIN report to learn about a car’s history, including accidents and title issues. Spending a few dollars now can save you from a mistake that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
While we’re past the era when people would cut the roof off of a 308 to sell it as a “Magnum P.I.” model, faking vehicle provenance is still profitable. This can range from adding badges from a more desirable model, to doing a full manual transmission swap to raise sale prices. However, it’s all but impossible to fake a VIN. This factory-issued code includes information on the build, including the model, trim and standard equipment. The VIN is placed in several spots on the vehicle, making it hard to modify. If you notice discrepancies between what the seller tells you and the results you get from your decoder, you’ll know you should walk away before you make a costly mistake.
Ferrari places the VIN on several components, but they’re not always in the spots you expect to find them on other cars. Here’s where to look for this number.
Look for a metal plate attached to the steering column. The VIN number is etched or printed on the bottom of this plate. This plate is used on all Ferrari models.
Look at the dashboard from outside the car. You may see a metal plate through the windshield with the VIN printed on it. Racing models do not have this plate.
Check the engine compartment for a metal plate attached to one of the fenders or the firewall.
Open the doors. Look for a metal plate on the side of the door that faces the B pillar.
The VIN number is etched into the engine block. Look for a 17 digit code. Shorter codes are engine serial numbers and model identifiers.
The characters that make up the VIN aren’t random. Most of them are specific to vehicle configurations, including the model, engine and date of production. Here’s what you’ll learn when you decode this string of characters.
The first three characters are the World Manufacturer Identifier. All Ferraris aside from a handful of of vehicles sold in the UK use the identifier “ZFF”. These characters represent the country of Italy, the manufacturer Ferrari, and Ferrari’s Maranello assembly plant, in that order.
The fourth character is the engine. The company reassigns these characters every few years for new models. Here are some of the engine codes use on Ferraris built after 2001:
| Code | ENGINE |
|---|---|
| A | F133F |
| B | F133E |
| J | F140B |
| D | F131F |
| E | F136E |
| F | F140C |
| G | F133G |
| H | F140DA |
| J | F133H |
| K | F136ED |
| L | F136IB with a DCT transmission |
| M | F136IB with a manual transmission |
| N | F136FB |
| R | F140CE |
| S | F140EB |
| T | F136IH |
| U | F140FC |
Character 5 is the safety system:
| Code | EQUIPMENT |
|---|---|
| A, B | Front airbags and LATCH for rear seats |
| C, F | Front airbag and tether anchor on passenger seats |
| H | Front and side airbags with no passenger airbag on/off switch |
| J | Front and side airbags, two lower belt anchorages for each rear seat, and no passenger airbag on/off switch |
| K | Front and side airbags, LATCH mounts and no passenger airbag on/off switch |
| X | Racing model |
LATCH is a mounting system for baby seats. Tether anchors serve the same purpose, but don’t meet LATCH requirements.
Characters 6 and 7 are the model. Here are a few examples:
| Code | MODEL |
|---|---|
| 17 | Testarossa |
| 43 | 348 Spider |
| 44 | 456 GT |
| 49 | 550 Maranello |
| 50 | 456 GTA |
| 51 | 360 Modena |
| 52 | 550 Barchetta Pininfarina |
| 53 | 360 Spider |
| 54 | 612 Scaglietti |
| 55 | 575 M Maranello |
| 57 | Challenge Stradale |
| 58 | F430 |
| 59 | F430 Spider |
| 60 | 599 GTB Fiorano |
| 64 | 430 Scuderia |
| 65 | California |
| 67 | 458 Italia |
| 68 | 458 Spider |
| 69 | 599 XX |
| 70 | 599 GTO |
| 71 | 458 Challenge |
| 73 | FF |
| 74 | F12 Berlinetta |
| 75 | 458 Speciale |
| 77 | California T |
Character 8 is the market. “A” is used on left hand drive North American models, as well as some Middle Eastern cars from 1996 to 2007.
Character 9 is the check digit. It’s chosen using a mathematical formula that uses other characters in the VIN, reducing errors when entering this code into databases.
Character 10 is the model year. This alternates between letters and numbers. Some letters aren’t used to avoid confusion with similar-shaped numbers:
| Code | YEAR |
|---|---|
| 1-9 | 2001 to 2009 |
| A-H | 2010-2017 |
| J-N | 2018-2022 |
| P | 2023 |
Character 11 is the plant code, which is always “0” for Maranello.
The rest of the VIN is the serial number. Numbers 1-300 are usually reserved for Formula 1 cars.
What can you learn by entering the VIN number for a Ferrari into our website? Here are a few examples:
Locations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. However, there are three places you can find the code on most vehicles:
- Look through the windshield at the dashboard. On the driver’s side, you should see a small metal plate with the number stamped into it.
- Open the driver’s door. Look at the front and side of the door pillar for an I.D. sticker. It usually has the manufacturer’s logo on it. The code should be on this sticker.
- Open the hood. You may see a sticker on the firewall or near the passenger’s side strut tower. Some cars have the number engraved in one of these areas.
Since this number is used to identify the vehicle on official documents, you can also find it on the title, the window sticker, and on insurance policies.
We also decode numbers for RVs, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles. If you need to decode an RV number, make sure it’s the one issued by the chassis manufacturer, not the RV outfitter.
No. Canadian and Mexican cars usually use the same format. Other countries use their own formats.
It’s up to the manufacturer to determine what they want to include for some parts of the number. For example, some companies don’t include information about transmissions or trim levels.
Usually, no. A few manufacturers stamp the code into the engine. If the VINs on the engine and car match, then it’s the original engine. On most vehicles, there isn’t anything that ties an engine to a specific vehicle. At most, looking up the vehicle on our website will tell you if a different type of engine was installed. For example, if someone swaps a V8 into a Ford Mustang, our site will tell you it originally came with a V6.
Discover expert tips, news and advice on buying and maintaining used vehicles
Check out how to find out what's the best metrics to compare cars
Read more
Read this article to discover how to protect the car from rodents
Read more
Learn how to locate and use your car's paint code for accurate color matching...
Read moreLooking for the VIN?
Here is there you’ll find it:
