1999 Ferrari F355 Spider Base 2-door Convertible 3.5l on 2040-cars

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'Ferrari' is an oft-banned search term in China, but why?

The Internet has been a boon for car enthusiasts; after all, information about any car ever made is available at a few taps of the keyboard, whenever you'd like. Unfortunately, some Chinese motor heads are not quite as lucky because state censors have been intermittently banning searches for Ferrari on the country's micro-blogging sites, according to Time.
The problem has nothing to do with Maranello's supercars; it's what they represent. The Prancing Horse has become the symbol for so-called "princelings," wealthy young Chinese who use their parents' privileges in the Communist elite to afford luxuries.
The first bout of censorship came in 2011 when the son of then-high-ranking politician Bo Xilai was spotted cruising around Beijing in a red Ferrari, a vehicle much more expensive than he should have been able to afford. It started trending on Chinese social media, and censors began blocking searches for Ferrari in the car's red color. The Italian brand was censored again briefly in 2012 when a Chinese investor crashed his Prancing Horse into two other cars in Singapore.

These are the front-runners to take over at Ferrari

Yesterday Ferrari announced a changing of the scarlet-clad guard with the departure of longtime chairman Luca di Montezemolo. Having run the company since shortly after the passing of Enzo Ferrari himself, Montezemolo built the Prancing Horse marque up to the benchmark supercar manufacturer, victorious racing team and household name it is today. In short, Ferrari - and most crucially, its parent company Fiat - will face a most difficult challenge in filling il Advocatto's handmade loafers and putting the company back on the track which Montezemolo laid down over the course of the past two decades.
The question on everyone's mind is, to whom will that challenge fall? To quote Goose from Top Gun, the list is long, but distinguished. Join us as we run down the roster of potential assentors to the leather-clad, carbon-fiber bucket seat at the head of the big table in Maranello.

Ferrari 812 Spider leaks online, F8 Tributo Spider on the way

Social media has no intention of going quietly into the weekend, with Facebook user "Cavallino Ramparte" leaking images of the Ferrari 812 Spider. Earlier reports said Ferrari had invited VIP owners to two preview events in early September, one for the open-top 812, one for the F8 Tributo Spider. This 812 pic appears to have been taken at the respective gathering, Ferrari Chat forum members posting that the Italian automaker showed both near the beginning of the week. Official pictures are rumored to come on Monday, but as far as we can tell at the moment, the 812 barely changes. The narrow opening over the driver's head is bounded by a thick header between the A-pillars on one side, and two buttresses behind the headrests on the other, akin to the racy buttresses from the SP1 and SP2 Monza limited-editions. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We're not sure how the roof mechanism works. Mining Ferrari Chat again, one member posted that the rear fascia has been redesigned and the trunk aperture is larger. Trunk space seemed to be the same as on the standard 812 Superfast, minus the missing rear shelf. Another poster who was at the event wrote, "The spider weighs 3527 lbs dry weight. vs 3362 for coupe," and on acceleration times for 0 to 124 miles per hour wrote, "I think it was 8.3s for the spider, whereas coupe is quoted at 7.9s." No one mentioned power changes, not that the 6.5-liter V12 with 789 horsepower and 530 pound-feet needs any. According to a third poster, the F8 Tributo employs the same convertible template as the 488 Spider, with longer louvers over the 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 that can be optioned in carbon fiber. Since Ferrari's been dancing this kind of V8 two-step since the 458 Italia, we don't expect any surprises design-wise. Whispers online say we'll be able to peruse all angles on Monday, when Ferrari's expected to release high-res press shots.