**f1 Red/nero Red Stitching $9k In Upgrades Challenge Wheels, Exhaust, Grill** on 2040-cars

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2015 Italian Grand Prix is smoke, mirrors, stalls, and stewards

For the first day-and-a-half of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix weekend, everything went to blueprint: Mercedes in front, Ferrari lurking, everyone else scrambling in their usual orders behind. Then qualifying came, and someone stirred the pot. About the only thing we expected was for Lewis Hamilton to put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position, the 11th time he's done it this year. He did it with a brand-new specification engine, one that represents not only an evolution in components, but also in power unit philosophy. Kimi Raikkonen lines up in second. It's been a long time since we read those words; the Iceman hasn't been on the first row since the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, when he put his Lotus second on the grid behind... Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen lined up just ahead of a Ferrari at that China race, then driven by Fernando Alonso. In Italy this weekend, he lined up in front of the Ferrari driven by his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, who qualified third. Both Ferraris benefitted from an upgraded power unit, ending a front-row drought for the scuderia that goes all the way back to Monaco in 2009 Germany in 2012. Nico Rosberg has a lot of work to do from fourth in the second Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Mercedes discovered a problem with Rosberg's engine but couldn't figure out the cause, so he reverted to the previous-spec engine he used in Belgium, one that's six races old. The lack of power hurt. Williams teammates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas took fifth and sixth, with Massa seemingly given a team-ordered helping hand. Williams told Bottas to tow Massa down the front straight, giving Massa a blistering time in the first sector. Then Bottas did it again, ensuring he would line up behind Massa. The first Sahara Force India of Sergio Perez nabbed seventh, three places ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg in tenth, with Romain Grosjean in the Lotus behind Perez in eighth. Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber qualified ninth, but some clumsy driving saw him impede Hulkenberg twice. The stewards penalized Ericsson with a three-place grid penalty and two points on his superlicense, so Hulkenberg inherited ninth and Pastor Maldonado in the second Lotus inherited tenth. We hardly saw Hamilton during the race, because he led from the start, worked up a larger gap to second place on every lap, and didn't give up the lead for the whole event.

The Windsor Castle Concours d'Elegance in pictures, courtesy of Bentley

Bentley went to the Windsor Castle Concours of Elegance as the main sponsor and showed off six of its best among the gathering of "60 of the finest motor cars in the world," including the 4¼-liter Bentley 'Embiricos' Special built for a Greek shipping magnate and gentleman racer in the 1930s.
Even better, for us at least, is that when Bentley decided to capture the moment it took pictures of most of the metal on the lawn, not just the Bentleys. Thanks to that, we have a high-res gallery that's home to rarities like the Vauxhall 30-98 Type OE Boattail Wensum Tourer, beauties like the Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, long-tail Ford GT40, Maserati Tipo 60 Birdcage, Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, a sinister Ferrari 250 GTO and the even more sinister Rolls-Royce Phantom Aerodynamic Coupe, among others. All you need to do now is click and enjoy.

Ferrari California T gets sharper edge with Handling Speciale package

It's been about two years since Ferrari updated the California to T-spec with a 3.9-liter, flat-plane crank, twin-turbocharged engine, and we found it to be a suitable change – rewarding to drive, and compelling to experience. Now Ferrari has introduced a new handling option, which will debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March, which should add a sharper edge to the roadster. Like most handling packages, the springs and dampers get the most attention. The magnetorheological dampers fitted to the conventional California T get changes that increase their response time to changing road conditions. As before, damper settings are controlled via the steering wheel manettino, and the most aggressive change is to be found in the Sport setting. The front springs are stiffer – 16 percent up front, 19 percent in the rear – which will aid body control in all axes. Ferrari claims that, overall, the setup only marginally reduces the ride comfort. It'll take driving a Handling Speciale-equipped car to find out. The changes go beyond just handling hardware. Shifts are faster in Sport mode, both in automatic and manual modes, thanks to recalibrated transmission logic. Ferrari's engineers also found some additional corner exit speed by tweaking the F1-Trac stability control system's programming. The company claims this tweak also helps with acceleration on bumpy surfaces. Cosmetically, the California Ts with the Handling Speciale package will feature a matte grille, a rear diffuser with matte-painted fences, and matte black tailpipes. A special-edition plaque, located in the cabin, is also standard, Finally, in a very Italian move, the exhaust note has been recalibrated "to underline the performance gains." That is to say, if you don't happen to have a skidpad handy to do a direct measurement of the increase in cornering capability – which, it should be noted, Ferrari doesn't quantify – the sportier sound will serve as a psychological reminder. There's no claim that the new exhaust system changes the engine's output – cars so equipped make the same 553 hp at 7500 RPM as the model we tested back in 2014. Look for the Handling Speciale package to debut at the Geneva Motor Show.