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Ferrari 250 GTO could fetch as much as $75 million at auction

Last month we reported on a Ferrari 250 GTO heading for the auction block at Pebble Beach. We knew at the time it would break records and bring in tens of millions of dollars. But now that the gavel is about to drop, it looks like even our projections could fall short.
According to a report on Bloomberg, citing the classic car authorities at Hagerty Insurance, the GTO in question (pictured above) could fetch upwards of $60 million and as much as $75 million when the auction takes place two days from now in Monterey, CA.
Hagerty's reported estimate would not only blow the previous records out of the water, but would eclipse the pre-sale estimate attributed to Bonhams, the auction house handling its sale, which placed its value between $30 million and $40 million.

2016 Ferrari FF mule sounds super snarly in Fiorano testing

There are innumerable advantages to a company having its own test track on premises like Ferrari has with Fiorano. The Scuderia may not be able to test its Formula One machinery much on the track these days, what with the limitations placed by the FIA, but the factory can still use the circuit to wring out the road-going machinery it has under development – to say nothing of opportunities for visiting customers, journalists and VIPs. But it also means that the paparazzi know where to look to see what the company has in the works. In this case, supercar videographer extraordinaire Marchettino caught a Ferrari FF prototype running some hot laps around Fiorano. But to what end, exactly, we don't know. With the 458 expected to be updated shortly, the twelve-cylinder, four-seat, all-wheel-drive FF will soon be the oldest model in the company's lineup (introduced as it was in 2011), which would ostensibly put it next in line for a refresh. There've been rumors of a more elegant roofline to replace the hatchback, and even an eight-cylinder version to bring the model down-market slightly – although that might bring it too close to the California T. We'll have to wait and see what Ferrari has in store for its first and only all-wheel-drive model. But as you can hear for yourself in the video above, the exhaust sounds pretty raunchy, even by Maranello standards.

Ferrari posts record profits on restricted volume

Most automakers are after one thing and one thing only: selling more cars. Because, after all, selling more cars means making more money. Right? Well that's usually the case, but Ferrari has taken a different approach. Rather than try and sell more cars, Ferrari intentionally sold fewer models in 2013, yet it made more money.
The move was implemented after 2012 emerged as the strongest year in the company's history. Instead of pushing to sell even more cars, it opted to maintain a level of exclusivity by selling fewer - 5.4 percent fewer than the year before, to be specific - thereby ensuring that those it did sell were worth more. As a result, in 2013, Ferrari logged record turnover, profits and finances: on 2.3-billion euros of revenue (up 5 percent from the previous year), Ferrari recorded 363.5 million euros in profit last year - that's roughly $500M USD.
Before you go jumping to conclusions, though, bear a few factors in mind. For one, Ferrari's stakeholders aren't pocketing all that cash - they're reinvesting it into the company: over the course of the same year, Ferrari invested some 337 million euros - 464 million dollars - in research and development. And while the company's extensive merchandizing efforts continue to bring in more cash, at 54 million euros ($74M) raised last year, the branding operation still doesn't account for a sixth of overall revenues. Still, it's little wonder that the experts at Brand Finance have named Ferrari the world's most powerful brand for the second year running.