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Ferrari unwraps radical new F12 TdF

The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta has never been in need of a performance boost, but Maranello has given it one just the same. Feast your eyes on the new F12 TdF. The latest Prancing Horse recalls the legendary Tour de France (for automobiles, not bicycles) that Ferrari dominated nine years running from 1956 through 1964 – and the elegant long-wheelbase 250 GT named in its honor. But the F12 TdF is much more about forward momentum than looking back. Power is up, weight is down, and everything's been tightened up, with new systems on board to keep it all together. For starters, the screaming 6.3-liter V12 from the existing F12 Berlinetta has been upgraded from 730 horsepower to 769. Torque has been increased from 509 pound-feet to 520. Although the engine will wail all the way up to 8,900 rpm, 80 percent of that torque is available as low as just 2,500 revs. Of course, Ferrari being Ferrari, it didn't just tinker with the engine and call it a day. It also returned the seven-speed dual-clutch transmissions to deliver upshifts 30 percent faster, downshifts 40 percent faster, and with ratios six percent shorter. The track is wider, the wheels larger, and the one-piece brakes are lifted out of the even more extreme LaFerrari. Ferrari has also fitted the TdF with a new Virtual Short Wheelbase system – Modenese for four-wheel steering – that sharpens turn-in, increases high-speed stability, and keeps the tail from spinning around to fast on the wider front tires. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. As you can see, the bodywork has been substantially redone as well, to be both lighter and more aerodynamically efficient. As a result, the TdF produces 87 percent more downforce than the stock Berlinetta. And thanks to its more extensive use of carbon fiber – not to mention the stripped-out cabin – the whole thing weighs a good 240 pounds less. The result of all these enhancements, Ferrari says, is a 0-62 time of just 2.9 seconds. Keep the throttle pegged (as you would most certainly be tempted to do) and it'll reach 124 miles per hour after 7.9 seconds, topping out at over 211 mph. It's also been clocked around the company's private, on-site Fiorano test track in 1 minute and 21 seconds, which is a good two seconds faster than the Berlinetta or the 488 GTB – and barely more than a second adrift of LaFerrari, the fastest road car ever to lap the circuit.

LaFerrari design secrets explored at Ferrari museum

For every finished vehicle design we see, there are probably hundreds of drawings and models that have long since been discarded. Housed in its own room inside the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, the LaFerrari has a unique exhibit that shows off some of the car's design evolution, and Autocar caught up with Ferrari design director Flavio Manzoni for an even deeper look at what went into creating this hybrid supercar.
In addition to the final product, the LaFerrari exhibit also reveals some of the designs that didn't make the cut - two of which made it to the full-size scale model phase, though. The display shows off five different designs (three from Ferrari and two from Pininfarina) that were in the running to become the final LaFerrari.
The interview with Manzoni even adds in some juicy bits of info, including news that one of the potential LaFerrari designs has been locked away and could resurface as a special, one-off model. Manzoni gets in a couple of good quotes while voicing his opposition of the current retro design language currently being used by some automakers, as well. Check it all out in the video below.

Race Recap: 2014 Spanish Grand Prix is boom and bust [spoilers]

The Spanish Grand Prix's 2.892-mile Circuit de Catalunya is considered a preview for the rest of the season, since it's a combination of long front straight and twisting middle sectors mimic sections from every other Formula One track to follow. After the long break following the flyaway races to open the season, teams and fans have also been looking forward to this race to see if anyone had a realistic hope of catching Mercedes AMG Petronas; Infiniti Red Bull Racing honcho Christian Horner boiled his team's outlook for the season down to the line, "We've got to [beat them in Spain] if we're going to make a championship of it."
If we take that as our starting point then the weekend began as a bust. Lewis Hamilton only just beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for pole, the Brit's final effort getting him 0.178 seconds clear of the German. Daniel Ricciardo, proving Red Bull is at least the best of the rest, took third but did so more than a second behind Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas of Williams lined up fourth, almost 1.5 second behind and Romain Grosjean delivered overdue good news for Lotus by taking fifth on the grid, more than 1.7 seconds behind pole. Kimi Räikkönen in sixth outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso in seventh, but he couldn't be happy about it because the Ferraris were nearly two seconds behind, and Jenson Button in eighth in the McLaren was more than two second behind. Felipe Massa put the second Williams in ninth, and Sebastian Vettel overcame a terrible start to the weekend to make it into Q3, then didn't set a time when his gearbox failed, then got dropped five places to 15th on the grid when the gearbox had to be changed.
When the lights went out, then came the boom...