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Ferrari 488 GTB among the best car designs of 2016 [UPDATE]

Can't decide whether the Ferrari 488 GTB looks better than the 458 Italia it replaces? A design jury has make up its mind. The 2016 Red Dot design awards are being announced today, and Maranello's latest eight-cylinder, mid-engined supercar won top honors. The Red Dot Awards for Product Design recognize the best new products on the market across an array of categories and industries, including automobiles. This year's panel of 41 experts, including Chris Bangle and Ken Okuyama, evaluated some 5,200 designs. From those, they selected 1,304 for a Red Dot award, and only 79 as the "Best of the Best" – among them the new Ferrari. This is the second year in a row the Prancing Horse marque has been awarded the honor, having been earned an award for the FXX K last year. A full list of this year's honorees isn't yet available, and it's uncertain that other automakers will earn awards. Last year's list also included the Mazda MX-5, Mercedes-AMG GT, and Volvo XC90. The Peugeot 308 SW, if you can believe it, was the only car awarded Best of the Best in 2014, the Audi R8 in 2013, and the Renault Twizy in 2012. UPDATE: The Red Dot organization has released the full list of this year's product design honorees, with the McLaren 570S and Kia Optima also awarded among the Best of the Best. Red Dots were also awarded to the Audi A4, R8, and Q7, BMW 7 Series, M2, and X1, Fiat Toro, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Sportage, Mercedes C-Class, Skoda Superb Estate, and Volvo S90. The jurists also gave Honorable Mentions to the Borgward BX 7, Genesis G90, Mini Clubman, Qoros 3 City SUV, and Smart Fortwo Cabriolet. The 488 GTB wins the Red Dot award The V8 sports car named "Best of the Best" Maranello, 30 March 2016 – The 488 GTB has won the Red Dot Best of the Best award for its design and innovative lines. This is the latest in string of plaudits garnered by the Ferrari Style Centre which also picked up several IF Design Awards in Munich, Germany, at the start of the month. On the latter occasion, the big winner was the FXX K (Red Dot Best of the Best 2015) which took home the Gold Award, the Hannover institute's top prize. However, the 488 GTB and 488 Spider also scored a double whammy at the same event with a Design Excellence Award apiece.

LaFerrari XX coming early next year with F1 engine

With the embargo up on early reviews, the repetitively named Ferrari LaFerrari has become the supercar du jour. It has already been put through its paces by Top Gear and Evo. However, we know that Ferrari isn't done with development of its current halo model just yet. News continues to leak out about the even more hardcore LaFerrari XX track car.
Ferrari already confirmed directly to Autoblog that the XX is under development. There are even spy photos of it testing at the Nürburgring (pictured above). It reportedly clocked an astonishingly fast six-minute, 35-second lap at the historic track. The latest scuttlebutt about the track-focused supercar, according to Top Gear, is that it ditches standard car's hybrid 6.3-liter V12 engine with a combined output of 949 horsepower and 663 pound-feet of torque in favor of a Formula One-derived V6 turbo hybrid. That would be a huge change but would likely cut weight. The more insane LaFerrari could debut as soon as January or February of next year.
Ferrari says it's difficult to make the XX accelerate much quicker than a standard LaFerrari, but slick tires, revised suspension and aero changes should cut lap times. A version that doesn't have to worry about road car laws and just focuses on being fast could be truly mental.

Ferrari 458 Speciale is our Frankfurt fantasy [w/video]

This is the Ferrari 458 Speciale, and while its name might underwhelm, its performance and lineage more than make up for it. The successor to the proud line of hot, higher-performance, mid-engined Ferraris like the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia, the 458 Speciale is blessed with a 596-horsepower, 4.5-liter V8 and the ability to skip to 62 miles per hour in three seconds. It also comes with a not-so-subtle racing stripe, which we like.
Thanks to a scarcely believable curb weight of 2,844 pounds, special Michelin Pilot Sport cup 2 tires, and a few tweaks to the electronic diff, the Speciale is quite a dancer as well. Naturally, Ferrari is showing off the newest member of the scuderia at Frankfurt, and we made it a priority to see it in person. We've got a full gallery of live images above, a video and stock photography from Ferrari down below, and our original coverage of the car, from August, right here.