Ferrari Portofino, page #15

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Race Recap: 2014 US Grand Prix goes the English way yet again

Thankfully, the weekend's Formula One dramas all concerned events that happened off the track, with both Caterham and Marussia going into administration, after which a rumored boycott by the small teams was avoided. That gave the 18 drivers left on the grid freedom to focus on making the most of the Texas sunshine for Sunday's US Grand Prix.
Having finished two Free Practices behind teammate Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton, the second one just .003 behind, Nico Rosberg said he had speed in hand and proved it during qualifying, beating Hamilton to the top spot by four-tenths of a second. Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa came behind, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Räikkönen in the second Ferrari, and little-team Sauber bursting out of the storm clouds into tenth, Adrian Sutil making the team's first-time Q3 appearance all year.
When it came time to race, the carbon-fiber fisticuffs began on the first lap.

NHTSA fines Ferrari $3.5 million for missing reports

Ferrari will pay a $3.5 million penalty for family to comply with oversight requirements set forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The federal agency that oversees road safety in the United States announced Friday morning that Ferrari had not submitted early warning reports for the past three years. These reports help the agency identify potential or existing safety threats.
In the wake of the rolling recalls for defective General Motors ignition switches, there has been considerable scrutiny of NHTSA's handling - or mishandling - of these early warning reports. Friday's fine is an indication the agency is taking its enforcement mandates more seriously, albeit against a manufacturer that has no large-scale presence on American roads.

Ferrari to be spun off from Fiat Chrysler

The recently merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire has ambitious plans for growth, and it's going to need some big bucks in its coffers in order to enact them. Part of that cash injection is coming from the floating of its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, but now FCA has announced a further capital campaign to be based on the enormous asset that is Ferrari.
FCA's board of directors has just approved the separation of Ferrari from the rest of the group as a separate entity. Once that separation is complete, Ferrari will put 10 percent of its shares on the stock market "in the United States and possibly a European exchange" as well.
This isn't the first time that the idea of a Ferrari IPO has been raised. Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Chrysler, Fiat and Ferrari (pictured above), first raised the idea four years ago. Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo nixed the idea, but now that he's been discharged, it appears there's nothing to get in the way of Marchionne's desires.

1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 is a love letter to Steve McQueen

There have been plenty of movie stars who've been into cars, but few genuine aficionados like Steve McQueen. The legendary King of Cool was known for driving his green Mustang and Porsche prototypes on the big screen, but in his private life, he loved his Ferrari.
There was, of course, his iconic 250 GT Lusso, but back in 1967, the actor and sometimes racer also bought a rare 275 NART Spyder. Sadly, that car was totaled a mere two days after he took possession, and there were no replacements available. So he bought this hardtop 275 GTB/4 instead.
Ferrari's Classiche department recently restored the car to pristine condition and RM Auctions sold it for over $10 million, but there's more to its story than its celebrity provenance and high hammer price. Listen to the guys who worked on it for McQueen tell the car's story in this latest video from the Aficionauto.

Ferrari Testarossa featured in retrospective by owner Harry Metcalfe

Harry Metcalfe, of Evo fame, got our attention earlier this week with a review of the 1954 Series I Land Rover. Today, he's gone a bit more... '80s.
Yes, this is a 1987 Ferrari Testarossa, one of the most vulgar cars from a decade synonymous with vulgar design. While your author might not be keen on its square rear end and cheese-grater doors and fenders, Metcalfe seems to like it quite a bit, giving a detailed walkthrough of his Rosso Corsa subject. That walkthrough includes some time on a subject we can certainly get behind - the TR's flat-12 engine.
Take a look at the latest from Harry's Garage.

Five awesome Lego car creations

Lego cars are among our favorite toys. They're fun for play, and if built properly, great to display. With that in mind, we've crafted a list of some of the best creations we've seen. Some are on sale now, while others are merely the work of fanciful enthusiasts. There are even a couple that you definitely cannot buy (we'll explain).
Our choices are diverse, including everything from a diminutive 1969 Chevy Corvette to a fullsize Ferrari Formula One racecar. These are just five projects that caught our eye - there are many more out there - so if you don't see your favorite Lego car on the list (or if you have your own creation), please tell us about it, in Comments.

Video proof that LaFerrari has a pure electric mode

Typically, a hybrid car, with its gas engine and an electric motor/battery pack is able to run on both forms of propulsion independently of each other. That means you can sip gas, run on pure electricity or some variation there of. The Ferrari LaFerrari is not like other hybrids.
See, the successor to the Enzo has batteries, an electric motor and a great, thumping V12 engine, but unlike its rivals from McLaren and Porsche, it has no standalone electric mode. That's been Ferrari's party line since day one. But have the Italians been exaggerating a bit? Judging by this video, it seems like a real possibility.
The video comes from what we're guessing is a European track day. It shows a black LaFerrari stealthily sailing through a tunnel on pure electric power, which it shouldn't be able to do, before its 789-horsepower V12 fires to life.

Corvette gets slidey with Britain's best performance cars

Autocar wants to find Britain's best driver's car, and it's challenging a murderers' row of some of the world's best performance vehicles to find out, including the latest Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. All of them were therefore assembled at the Castle Combe Circuit to find a winner.
If it wants to take the crown from this pack of mostly European competitors, the 'Vette has to beat some steep competition. Its challengers include monsters like the Ferrari 458 Speciale, Ariel Atom 3.5R and Jaguar F-Type Coupe. As a further hurdle for the winner to clear, Autocar also has last year's champ among the fighters - the Porsche 911 GT3.
Even if you're not at all interested in the C7, there's still something here for practically any fan of fast cars. The competitors include relative oddities among the pack like the Renault Mégane RS Trophy and Alfa Romeo 4C. Plus, Autocar has some well-positioned microphones that let you hear the Atom wailing like a banshee and the roar of the 458 Speciale. Check out the video to see which one of these all-stars takes home the award this year.

Petrolicious documents the motorsport-changing Ferrari 512M

Petrolicious has had plenty of beautiful cars and big-time personalities in its videos, but today's interview is sees one of the series' most well known subjects - US Formula 1 commentator David Hobbs.
Hobbs is an accomplished racer, capturing a number of podiums and a pair of class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in addition to short stints in F1 and at the Indianapolis 500. One of his Le Mans runs was behind the wheel of this, the Ferrari 512M, a car that's notable for two things - running a 1971 season that included the 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen 6 Hour races. The other thing it's known for? Failing to win a single one of those enduros.
Still, the Ferrari 512 is one of the Italian marques most iconic 1970s racers and Hobbs' example is a proud member of that breed, delivering a delicious 5.0-liter V12 exhaust note that makes this an easy video to sit through.

Nigel Mansell's Ferrari F40 sells for $870k

If you look at the $1.35 million price tag on the new LaFerrari and wonder how Ferrari can possibly charge that much for a single car, you could look at the prices of its competitors like the McLaren P1 that lists for almost as much at $1.15 million, you could look to the $2.5 million which Ferrari is said to have charged for the exclusive F60 America - or you could look at the prices at which LaFerrari's predecessors are still trading. Take, for example, this Ferrari F40 which, 25 years since it was built, just sold for nearly $870,000 at auction.
The F40 in question, a 1989 model, may be just one of 1,315 examples made, but it has a rather noteworthy provenance: the car once belonged to Nigel Mansell, the only driver ever to hold both the Formula One and Indy titles at the same time. That Mansell - a man who had access to some of the fastest and most capable racing cars ever made - selected the F40 as his personal ride of choice speaks volumes about the car's abilities and appeal. But then he did, after all, drive for the Scuderia that season, winning the Brazilian and Hungarian grands prix.
The celebrity provenance, however, may not have actually jacked the price up at all. While it may rank towards the top of the list, this was hardly the highest price paid for an F40 at auction. According to Sports Car Market, which tracks such sales, the record currently belongs to a 1993 Ferrari F40 LM that Bonhams also sold for $2.2 million at Monterey. The highest price for a standard, non-LM model was recorded at the same event at $1.43 million.