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Ferrari 458 Speciale speeds toward Frankfurt

When the doors open at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a few weeks, there'll be loads of new cars and new versions of existing ones. And as far as the latter category goes at least, this will undoubtedly be what show-goers will look forward to most.
What we have here is the Ferrari 458 Speciale - the successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia, and the hard-core version of the 458 Italia. It was expected to carry the name Monte Carlo, but then Ferrari has never been fond of letting the press dictate what it would call its cars. But forget the nameplate: what really matters is what it's got to offer.
For starters, the award-winning, high-revving 4.5-liter V8 has been retuned to deliver 605 cv (596 hp by our standards), up from 562 hp in the standard 458, while torque remains the same at 398 lb-ft. But the other side of the power-to-weight ratio (quoted at 2.13 kg/cv) is the extra mass Ferrari has cut out of the equation: the 458 Speciale's dry weight is quoted at 1,290 kg (2,844 lbs), representing a significant drop from the 458 Italia's 1,485 kg (3,274 lb) curb weight.

Ferrari to stop supplying Maserati with its engines

The Ferrari Q1 earnings call was full of information, and perhaps the biggest revelation was that Ferrari is going to stop supplying engines to Maserati. CEO Louis Camilleri broke the news, and The Motley Fool posted a transcript of the whole call online. "Eventually, we will no longer supply engines to Maserati, which actually from our perspective is actually a good thing, both from a margin perspective, but also the fact that we can transfer a lot of the labor that's been focused on the engines to the car side of the business," Camilleri says. Maserati has used Ferrari engines (arguably, one of the most compelling reasons to buy a Maserati) in its vehicles since 2002, a little while after Fiat passed Maserati off to the prancing horse. The partnership continued as both Ferrari and Maserati were under the same house at FCA. Then when Ferrari was spun off from FCA in 2015, they kept the supply steady to Maserati. Those engines include a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 and a 4.7-liter naturally aspirated V8. Camilleri said Ferrari will officially stop in 2021 or 2022, with no intention of supplying anybody with engines beyond that. Of course, this leaves Maserati high and dry with no engines for its growing lineup. Maserati will have to reach into the FCA parts bin, find a new outside supplier or develop its own engines. Battery electric sounds out of the question. As of now, there doesn't appear to be a clear plan going forward. We've reached out to Maserati to see if they have any comment on the situation as it stands.

Classic Ferraris fight currency rates for bragging rights

Which is the most expensive car ever sold at auction? That should be a fairly straightforward question to answer, only it isn't. Due to currency fluctuations, we're actually dealing with two contenders, both of which have legitimate claims to the crown. The contenders are both classic Ferraris, each of them worth in excess of $30 million. In one corner is the 250 GTO sold at Pebble Beach in 2014 for $38 million. In the other is the 335 S sold in Paris just the other day for ˆ32 million. Resolving the bragging rights should come down to a simple matter of currency conversion, but the problem is that the rates don't stay constant. So the $38 million for which Bonhams sold the 250 GTO worked out to ˆ28 million at the exchange rates of the day. At that rate, the GTO was worth a good four million euros less than what the 335 S sold for, even though today's rates value the 335 S at "only" $35 million, or a good few million dollars short of the GTO. The answer, then, may be subject to which market you're in. But if you're looking for the tie-breaker, consider the British Pound: in Sterling, the 335 S sold for the equivalent of GBP24.7 million, which is more than the GBP22.8 million that the GTO's $38 million worked out to at the time – but less than the GBP26.5 million it would be worth today. And so we're back to where we started. But we're sure the confusion won't last (or be relevant) for too long, as there's bound to be another highly sought-after classic automobile on the auction block before too long. And it'll probably be another Ferrari. WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A MOTOR CAR SOLD AT AUCTION* 32.1 Mˆ / 24.7 MGBP / 35.7 M$ INCLUDING PREMIUM LOT 170 • 1957 FERRARI 335 SPORT SCAGLIETTI DE 1957 • CHASSIS N°0674 FROM THE PIERRE BARDINON COLLECTION Lot 170. 1957 Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti • Chassis n°0674 • From the Pierre Bardinon Collection WORLD RECORD FOR A COLLECTORS' CAR AT AUCTION* Sold : 32,1 Mˆ / 24,7 MGBP / 35,7 M$ including premium (estimate : 28 – 32 Mˆ / 21,5 – 24,6 MGBP / 30 – 34 M$ ) *World record price for a car sold at auction, in euros and sterling. Previous record : 28,5 Mˆ / 38 M$, in 2014, in the US Paris – Friday 5 February 2016, shortly after 18h50, at the Retromobile Salon, Artcurial Motorcars, the collectors' car department at Artcurial achieved the world record for a car sold at auction, under the gavel of Maitre Herve Poulain.