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Ferrari launches F14 T and yet another Formula One nose

Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo said of the 2014 Formula One season, "It's time to win." This is the chassis that's meant to do it, and it is also Exhibit C in this wild, function-over-form F1 pre-season: the Ferrari F14 T. The low, trunk-like snout is another imagining of the year's regulations, after the probing proboscides found on the McLaren and in the image of the coming Williams. The public name of the chassis internally called 665 was chosen by Ferrari's social media fans, F14 T referring to the brand, the year and the turbocharged powerplant, not the McDonnell-Douglas F14 Tomcat.
The 60th Ferrari to contest an F1 season, it keeps the pull-rod front and rear suspensions of cars from the last two years but little else. The narrower front wing, having to package and cool the additional power unit equipment, reworking the rear wing and even moving to brake-by-wire has changed every other aspect of the car.
Fernando Alonso is hoping the F14 T will make the fifth time the charm; in his fifth year with the team, he wants to win the championship this year instead of coming in second again, just like Michael Schumacher won his first title with Ferrari after five years with the team. Our guess is that Kimi Räikkönen has no opinion on anything other than winning races and getting paid for it. A press release below offers a number of details, while the high-res gallery above to can help prepare you for what's coming.

LaFerrari XX may have lapped N?rburgring in 6:35

Enthusiasts around the world - ourselves included - have been anxiously awaiting the ultimate supercar showdown. After all, we seldom see three of the world's preeminent exotic automakers come out with such closely matched machinery in such close proximity as we have with the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. That showdown could occur on no better a playing field than the Nürburgring, but the automakers haven't exactly been playing ball.
Porsche set down a lap time of 6:57, staking its claim as the fastest street-legal production car ever to lap the vaunted Nordschleife. Rather than challenge Zuffenhausen head-on, though, McLaren has only said that the P1 has clocked a time of under seven minutes, and though Ferrari has been testing the new LaFerrari at the Ring, it hasn't released any official time at all. Maranello may, however, be preparing to announce an even faster time.
According to word we're receiving from across the pond, Ferrari has clocked a lap time of 6:35 - only it wasn't achieved in the road-going LaFerrari, but in the upcoming track-bound LaFerrari XX. That model, which was just confirmed and spied last week, will follow in the footsteps of the Enzo-based FXX and the 599XX, which itself recorded a lap time of 6:58 in 2010. Because it's not street-legal, it didn't contend for the same honors, and within a couple of months was pipped on the leaderboard for non-street-legal vehicles by the Pagani Zonda R by over ten seconds.

Ferrari reveals LaFerrari-based FXX K in Abu Dhabi

Ever since Ferrari revealed the latest evolution of its flagship hypercar series with the debut of LaFerrari at the Geneva Motor Show last year, the question on everyone's mind – aside from how it would stack up against rivals like the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder – is what it would look like in its ultimate, unhinged, track-focused iteration. But now we need wonder no more as the Prancing Horse marque has revealed the new FXX K. The what-letters-now, you ask? FXX K. The name is drawn from the Enzo-based FXX that kicked off the company's client development program the better part of a decade ago, but with an extra letter tacked on to signify the KERS hybrid system on board. In the FXX K, that system has been further optimized: the electric motor now delivers 187 horsepower (instead of 160) and the 6.3-liter V12 has been boosted to 848 hp (up from 789) for a total output of 1,035 prancing ponies – a solid increase from the 950 hp in the road-going LaFerrari, but at 664 pound-feet, it's down in the torque department by 51 lb-ft. Of course output isn't the end of the story, and as you can see the scarlet-clad engineers in Maranello have focused a considerable amount of energy on optimizing the aero package. The front end gets a two-part splitter derived from Ferrari's victorious GT racing program, with vertical fins along the flanks, side skirts extending between the wheels, a dynamic rear wing, vertical fin and a giant diffuser. All of this and more contributes to as much as 50 percent more downforce, aided by increased mechanical grip from the Pirelli racing slicks, with carbon-ceramic brake discs measuring 15 inches across (plus or minus, front to rear) to keep it all in check. Unveiled at Ferrari's Finali Mondiali event at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the FXX K also boasts a recalibrated electronic differential, traction control, ABS, Racing SSC (Side Slip Angle Control) and a four-mode Manetinno dial on the center console to switch between levels of electric boost. In short, Ferrari has pulled out all the stops, and we wouldn't be surprised to see the FXX K taking the Fiorano lap record for anything this side of an F1 car. The record is currently held by the 333 SP at 1:11, nine seconds ahead of the road-going LaFerrari's 1:20. That's roughly the same differential between the FXX and the Enzo on which it was based, or the 599XX Evoluzione and the 599 GTO.