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$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.

Red Bull may seek engines from Ferrari after Mercedes snub

Red Bull and Renault's fractured relationship is pushing the Austrian F1 team to find a new engine provider. But after a trip across the German border to chat with Mercedes-Benz proved fruitless, the team is apparently set to head across its home country's southern border, and into Italy. Yep, Red Bull Ferrari could be a thing next season. According to RBR boss Christian Horner, the company is just doing "necessary due diligence" in contacting other engine suppliers, although he's willfully admitted to Germany's Bild newspaper that the "idea of Mercedes is finished," BBC Sport reports. It wasn't so much that Mercedes and Red Bull couldn't come to financial agreement – Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz views throwing money into F1 in much the same way you or I toss pennies into the mall fountain – but rather that the Germans had no interest in supplying the best engines on the grid to the factory team's perennial rival. BBC Sport seems to think that fact, along with what the outlet calls Red Bull's "antagonistic" relationship with engine suppliers, killed the Mercedes deal. Honda and RBR aren't likely to happen either, thanks to McLaren (not that we think Red Bull would approach the Japanese, which have struggled mightily all season long). By process of elimination, that just leaves Ferrari. Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene confirmed that his team can accommodate Red Bull's engine needs, and that he wasn't concerned with the idea of a Ferrari engine in an Adrian Newey-designed body. "In theory they have big names, with Newey as chief designer and it is easy to think that if you give them the engine they will build a scary chassis, which means they will be really competitive," Arrivabene told BBC Sport. "Concerning my team, my engineers and aerodynamicists know their own jobs. For that reason I don't have a problem, and competition is nice when you have a stronger competitor." "This doesn't mean tomorrow morning we will give our engines to Red Bull or Toro Rosso," Arrivabene added. And it's that statement we'd suggest remembering. There are, after all, still seven races left in the 2015 season, which is quite a lot of time for new and different developments within the sport's notoriously gruesome political process. In other words, don't count on an announcement from any team or manufacturer for at least a few more races. Related Video:

Ferrari teases more specs on its Enzo successor

On its web site, Ferrari has divulged a little more info about the supercar that will succeed the Ferrari Enzo. The Ferrari magazine reported that everything the Scuderia has learned in Formula One has gone into its soon-to-be-revealed animal, and this latest disclosure shows just how much that's true. We don't know its length or width, but Ferrari says one of the targets for the car was "a reduction in height and wheelbase to match that of the 458 Italia."
Rory Byrne, the Ferrari F1 designer that's been involved in 11 world championships for the team, has spent three years contributing to chassis development. That chassis will be laid up by hand in the company's F1 composites department, each chassis composed of different kinds of carbon fiber and cured in an autoclave, F1 monocoque-style. That's part of where the lighter weight and vastly heightened torsional and beam rigidity versus the Enzo comes from. Just behind the tub - and behind the driver's back - will be the batteries and fuel tank, again, just as on an F1 car.
The cockpit will be personalized to the driver in a way that is rare among road cars, with each seat made-to-measure for the driver and then set in a fixed position in the cabin. The steering wheel and pedal box will move to accommodate pilots. What's more, we're told that "the occupant's feet are at the same level as the driving position." That, and the angle of the seatback, will provide "an extraordinarily racy feeling."