7k Miles Books Keys No Paint Car Is Like New Very Rare Low Miles Carfax Certifie on 2040-cars

Auto blog

$8.8m '58 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider highlights RM's Arizona auction

All manner of vehicles change hands at the annual auction extravaganza in Arizona, but never has one sold for as much as the Ferrari you see here. The car in question is an (obviously) eminently desirable 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider, one of only 50 ever made and purring onto the stage in flawless red over black livery with matching numbers of the coveted covered headlights straight from the factory.
When we reported on the car's consignment in anticipation of this weekend's sale, it was expected to bring in between $7 and 9 million - and it's done just that, coming in near the top of its valuation with a winning bid of $8.8 million. That makes for a lot of zeros, but while it set a new record for the Arizona auctions, it hardly makes it the most expensive in the world. That honor still belongs to the Mercedes-Benz W196 that sold last summer for nearly $30 million. Nor is it the most expensive Ferrari ever sold at auction, an honor which still belongs to the 250 Testa Rossa that sold for over $16 million in 2011. Heck, it's not even the most expensive 250 California ever sold, coming in behind the SWB example that sold for nearly $11 million in 2008. All of which only goes to show just how insane the collector classic car market has grown in recent years.
The California was undeniably the highlight of RM's two-day sale, but was joined by several other seven-dollar lots, including a 1961 Porsche 718 ($2.75 million), a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso ($2.44 million), a Duesenberg Model J convertible ($2.2 million) and several other million-dollar Ferraris, Mercedes and a '35 Hispano-Suiza. A 1961 Chaparral 1 failed to reach its reserve price despite a high bid of $1.75 million, neither did a 1966 Porsche 906 Carrera 6 at $1.18 million or a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 at $2.85 million. RM Auctions did, however, manage to sell 85 percent of those lots consigned to bring in a massive two-day total of $45.56 million in sales, details of which you can read in the press release below.

Chris Harris brings together the 918 Spyder, LaFerrari, and P1

The Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari LaFerrari, and McLaren P1 show that a hybrid powertrain can make for blistering performance despite its electric assist. This trio doesn't arrive on track together very often, but Chris Harris assembled these three stars at the Portimao circuit for a nearly hour-long demonstration of their amazing capabilities. So, which one is quickest around the track? Harris provides an answer with in-car video of all three contenders. His team also goes out of its way to even the playing field by sourcing tires independently from Pirelli for the P1 and LaFerrari. With the technical part out of the way, Harris can start having fun by doing his usual slides during the driving comparison. Tiff Needell and Marino Franchitti also eventually show up to provide the perfect recipe for a track battle in these hypercars. If you don't have the time, skip about 14:25 into the clip just to see the lap times. However, those numbers only tell a tiny part of the story. The whole video is definitely worth a watch.

Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video]

If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with further proof coming as soon as Williams showed a rendering of the FW36 challenger for this year's championship. That car earned a name that wasn't nearly so kind as "anteater."
Casual followers of the sport - or anyone who gets the feed from this site - probably don't know what's happening, except to wonder why the current year's F1 cars are led by appendages that would make Cyrano de Bergerac feel a whole lot better about himself.
The short answer to the question of ugsome F1 noses is "FIA regulations and safety." The reason there are various kinds of ugsome noses is simpler: engineers. The same boffins who have given us advances including carbon fiber monocoques, six-wheeled cars, double diffusers and Drag Reduction Systems are bred to do everything in their power to exploit every possible freedom in the regulations to make the cars they're building go faster - the caveat being that those advances have to work within the overall philosophy of the whole car.