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Hot Wheels loses Ferrari diecast contract to Chinese company

If you're anything like this writer, chances are you've got a diecast model or two kicking around the house. And if one of those models replicates a Ferrari, chances are it's made by Hot Wheels. The Mattel brand secured an exclusive contract from the Maranello automaker in the late 1990s, but the latest word from Hemmings has it that Ferrari has ended its partnership with Hot Wheels and awarded it instead to the May Cheong Group. Unless you're an avid diecast collector, you may not have heard of May Cheong, but you may have heard of its brands Maisto and Bburago. Both brands are longtime players in the model car market, but it's the Bburago part of the deal that's particularly interesting. Founded in Italy, Bburago made a name for itself largely due to the scale Ferrari models it made back in the day. But when the Prancing Horse marque awarded the exclusive contract to Mattel, and with increasing competition from the Far East, Bburago collapsed. May Cheong swept in and scooped it up, and now the Italian model brand, along with its onetime rival Maisto, will be producing diecast Ferraris once again. Whether Bburago will use any of its old tooling to resume production of Ferrari scale models or start from scratch with all-new equipment remains to be seen, as does the matter of whether either it or Maisto will be able to produce the same quality of models as Hot Wheels has with some of its higher-end offerings. Like most collectors, this writer's looking forward to finding out. Looks like it's time to buy another display case.

Ferrari and Bentley make your living room as luxurious as your car

Short of parking your dream car in your living room, the second best petrolhead thing to do is craft a living room table out of an engine block, or to turn a junkyard luxury car rear seat into a fancy leather couch. Some people also take a racing seat and repurpose it as a desk chair or a gaming setup. But there are automobile manufacturers that want to bypass all that, offering car-related furniture as brand new items instead of putting the seats in cars first. Regarding desk chairs, it's Ferrari this time that wants to cater to a customer's office needs. The famed upholstery house, Poltrona Frau has created interiors for Ferraris since the 1980s, and now there's a specially designed office chair called the "Cockpit", trimmed in Poltrona Frau leather. The modular chair comes in two guises, "President" and "Exclusive", and the former features a high backrest, strongly resembling a racing car seat. The Exclusive version does without the backrest. Ferrari says that the materials, including carbon fiber are the same used to make car seats, and that the seats can be customized according to the customer's needs. The second set on offer is Bentley's new Home collection of furniture. The set has been designed by the architect Carlo Colombo, and it comprises several sofas, a chaise longue, tables, chairs, beds, cabinets and lamps. There are eucalyptus and maple woods used in the furniture pieces' construction, with the quilted leather making an easy mental connection with the similarly detailed interior of, say, the Bentayga. Of course, a Bentley furniture collection would seem out of place without a Bentley in the garage. Related Video: Featured Gallery Ferrari/Bentley furniture View 9 Photos Image Credit: Ferrari, Bentley Home Bentley Ferrari auto accessories

Ferrari Driver Academy heads to Florida for the winter

Retirees and Girls Gone Wild camera crews aren't the only ones who go to Florida for the winter. So is a contingent of aspiring formula racing drivers taking part in the new Florida Winter Series being set up by the Ferrari Driver Academy.
The program is being set up in response to a lack of suitable weather at circuits in Europe, which would otherwise keep rising stars in formula racing from honing their skills during the off-season. Toyota runs an off-season series in New Zealand, but Ferrari is heading to the most southern of these United States to give its prodigies some much-needed track time.
Set up as more of a training program than a competitive championship, the FDA Florida Winter Series is based around a field of 15 aspiring drivers piloting the Formula Abarth-spec Tatuus FA010B, with a 195-horsepower engine furnished by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and an engineer for every three cars in the series.