1986 Ferrari 328 Gts Excellent Driver on 2040-cars

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Ferrari Lusso ownership will add some time to your morning commute

If you've ever driven a vintage vehicle on a regular basis, you know the process from getting from point A to point B is a bit more convoluted than simply hopping in and going. There are rituals to observe, checklists to run through and processes to address before ever touching the ignition. Neglect any one of a number of small tasks and you're likely to find yourself on the side of the road. James Chen, the owner of Axis Wheels, knows all about that. You see, he owns a gorgeous Ferrari Lusso, and coaxing the V12 under the hood to life requires a certain amount of procedure.
Once it's rolling, of course, all that premeditation seems entirely worth the effort. Chen does his best to keep the machine out of traffic, but refuses to keep the coupe sealed away in a museum, so he gets up early and takes to the canyon roads around LA before anyone else is awake. Atta boy.
Check out the latest video from Petrolicious below.

What I learned after 5,600 miles in a Ferrari F355 Spider

I'm paraphrasing, but Autoblog reader Paul Dyer asked me one day, "Want to drive my 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider from San Jose, California, to me in Newfoundland?" I'm also paraphrasing and leaving out some colorful but unpublishable language, but essentially I said, "Yes." That's how I ended up on a two-week, 5,600-mile road trip, getting an extensive and intimate look at one of the most spectacular cars of our generation. Here's what I discovered. To paraphrase, you don't even know how badly you want an F355. The F355 Spider is the last beautiful Ferrari. Subsequent stallions are modern and dramatic, the F355 is eternally gorgeous, like Brunelleschi's doors and sunsets in Viareggio. The Iliad would still make sense if you said the Greeks took to ship after a Trojan keyed Menelaus' F355. You cannot say the same about the 348, or even the 458 (though we do love it so). This car began the era in which mid-engined Ferraris sell out for years in advance. That said, F355 upkeep is the equivalent of giving your bank account a flesh-eating disease. This car's most recent engine-out service was $28,000: $12,000 in labor, $16,000 in parts. Dropping the Propulsore Completo is recommended every three years for routine service and runs $7,000 or more if no other work is required. Gooey valve guides, melting exhaust manifolds, and cranky seat sensors are among the fickle components that will guarantee the bill will exceed that amount. A single bolt is $45. One F355 owner, asked if he'd recommend the model, replied without hesitation "Absolutely not." But the F355 began a whole new game for The Prancing Horse. One of Luca de Montezemolo's first marks on the company as president, the F355 was intended to rectify the sins of the 348 and deal with the Acura NSX. The F355's design resulted from 1,800 wind tunnel hours. It introduced Ferrari's five-valve V8 engine – at 107.3-horsepower-per-liter, the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated car at the time. It had an 8,500-rpm redline. The engine was so important that Ferrari changed its naming convention to highlight it. The F355 introduced a six-speed manual transmission to the V8 range. It introduced the paddle-shifted sequential gearboxes to consumers, previously the purview of top-tier race cars. This Spider was the brand's first semi-automatic droptop. This car began the era in which mid-engined Ferraris sell out for years in advance. Some of the trademark features take getting used to.

2016 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix recap: another wild show on and off track

Normally we use this space to provide a lengthy recap of the weekend's Formula 1 race, but we're going to try something different since most folks reading this know what happened at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday. Instead, we'll alight on what we saw as the big issues in and around the race. Let us know what you think in Comments. Proper qualifying is back. Thank goodness. It only took a month of embarrassment to fix it. And so is passing! For the third race in a row, big performance improvements at the ten teams behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a wider tire selection at this race graced us with opening stints filled with dicing cars. Seeing the McLarens on screen doesn't make us cringe. Manor doesn't only make the global feed when it's being lapped. We've been complaining about parade races for so long that we forgot excitement was possible without rain or wholesale regulation changes. Yes, Mercedes is still the king of the jungle, but there are some other proper midfield beasts on the hunt, too. Malfunctions up and down the grid did help the show in Shanghai, like Lewis Hamilton suffering perpetual troubles, Nico Hulkenberg's runaway front wheel which red-flagged Q2, and Sebastian Vettel's and Kimi Raikkonen's flubbed hot laps in Q3 that let Daniel Ricciardo slip by into second on the grid. Come race day things went all Grand Theft Auto at Turn 1 on the opening lap, sending some of the best cars to the pits. Then came Ricciardo's puncture while leading, then came the Safety Car – all by Lap 5. Nico Rosberg got 38 seconds of airtime on the way to victory – at the start and the finish, and that happened to be his margin of victory, too – otherwise he was a ghost. Everyone else was struggling and juggling. Rosberg's win at the Bahrain Grand Prix put the German at five consecutive victories going back to last year's Mexican Grand Prix. The history books show that any driver who's won five straight contests has gone on to win the championship. With his triumph in China, the German has won the season's first three races, the history books again show that the other nine drivers who've pulled that off have gone on to win the championship. Rosberg, 36 points ahead of his teammate in the standings, is having none of it. He said of the other victors, "But they didn't have Lewis Hamilton as their team-mate." Perhaps Mercedes was right not to make an engine deal with Red Bull last season.