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The 24 Hour War: Adam Carolla's new documentary brings the Ford-Ferrari battle back to life

Long before the GoPro or even videotape, races were filmed by guys standing next to the track with 16-millimeter cameras. The images kind of shook, they didn't always hold focus, and over the years all the color has faded out of the film. It all conspires to make the endurance racing battle between Ferrari and Ford in the 1960s seem like ancient history. What Adam Carolla and Nate Adams' new documentary The 24 Hour War does best is make that inter-corporate battle feel as if it happened yesterday. Yeah, if you're an obsessive you've likely seen most of the shaky-cam race footage used here before. But what you haven't seen are the interviews that frame the war and explain the egos and engineering behind the legends. It's not a perfect movie, but it's the sort of movie only fanatics could make. And it's easier to appreciate if you're a fanatic too. The first 25-or-so minutes of the documentary are taken up with histories of both Ford and Ferrari and an overview of how ridiculously deadly motorsports were in the Sixties and earlier. It's all interesting (if familiar) stuff, that could have been handled in about a third the time with some brutal editing. Still, the two protagonists in the story are well drawn: the racing-crazed Enzo Ferrari, who only builds road cars to stay solvent; and Henry Ford II, who after being thrown into the deep end of the Ford Motor Company management in 1943 at the age of 25, wasn't going to be humiliated after Ferrari pulled out of a deal to sell him the sports car maker. With one notable exception, the filmmakers were successful in rounding up practically everyone involved who is still alive for an interview. That includes Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, Pete Brock, Bob Bondurant, Piero Ferrari, Mauro Forghieri, Carlo Tazzioli, and even Ralph Nader. There are good archival insights from the late Carroll Shelby. But where's A.J. Foyt? After all, he co-drove the stupendous Ford GT40 Mark IV with Dan Gurney to victory at Le Mans in 1967. The interviews make the movie worthwhile, but it cries out for more technical depth about the cars themselves. Yes, the GT40 was complex and engineered practically like a production car, but there's no mention of how the Lola Mk VI and Eric Broadley kicked off the development. There's only a superficial explanation of what made the American-built Mark IV such a leap forward.

Watch Chris Harris drive the Ferrari 458 Spider like an "idiot"

Chris Harris gets to abuse his fair share of cars that we can only dream about driving, so why not add the Ferrari 458 Spider to that list. After somehow borrowing the keys to a Ferrari-owned 458 Spider, Harris spends about five minutes driving the 570-horsepower, open-air supercar like an "idiot" (his words, not ours).
In reality, it's impressive to watch the $257,000 (base price) 458 Spider being drifted and pushed hard into every turn. Not surprisingly, the car handles the "bad behavior" very well, but what is amazing is how easy it is for Harris to talk to the camera despite the top being down and the engine being at full throttle almost the entire time.
If you like watching Ferraris get sideways, you will most certainly enjoy Harris' video, which is posted below.

F1's Raikkonen to race for Sauber as Leclerc brings youth to Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen will not be going out of Formula One at the top, or even with a top team. The announcement on Tuesday that the 2007 world champion is leaving Ferrari, the sport's oldest, most glamorous and successful team, at the end of the season was only to be expected. Less so was the subsequent revelation that the 38-year-old "Iceman" had agreed a two-year deal to continue with Ferrari-powered Sauber in a swap with that team's Monegasque rookie Charles Leclerc. That will close a circle at least, the Swiss team being the ones who gave Raikkonen his debut in 2001 despite the powers-that-be fearing he was too inexperienced. And it will keep the Finn racing on into his 40s. It will also please Formula One's owners, already facing the retirement of double world champion Fernando Alonso, by keeping one of the best known and most popular drivers on the starting grid. But the days when Raikkonen could hope for poles and wins, already scarce even at Ferrari where Sebastian Vettel is the main contender and team orders have been applied, are surely over now. Sauber was last in 2017 and is ninth of 10 teams now, even if the signs are more encouraging than they were, and there is a likelihood that Raikkonen will now be simply making up the numbers. The Finn will still relish racing with less media attention and more freedom, while for Ferrari there are also clear benefits. For the first time in four years, they now have a new benchmark for four-time champion Vettel and a (very) young driver who represents the future rather than the past. Vettel has outperformed Raikkonen consistently since the pairing started in 2015 with the German's move from Red Bull, and the Finn is already 62 points adrift this season with seven races remaining. Raikkonen has been more competitive this year, taking nine podium finishes and pole at Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix with Formula One's fastest ever lap, but there are those who question whether Vettel is being pushed hard enough. Some even wonder just how quick the German really is. Ferrari will hope that 20-year-old Leclerc, unless told to adopt a subservient role, can apply a bit more pressure and help answer those questions. The gamble is that the youngster's relative inexperience could impact, in the short-term at least, Ferrari's constructors' championship hopes as he finds his way under considerable scrutiny.