355 Spider, Fully Serviced, Tubi Exhaust, Ready To Go on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Topiary Joe sculpts the ultimate in green cars

Efficient cars are all the rage these days, but Joe Kyte has made a business of crafting some of the coolest green cars around – literally. Kyte is better known by his nickname Topiary Joe, and in addition to being a talented artist, he is also a real gearhead. Kyte has been creating topiaries for the last 20 years. It began when he was marketing greenhouse products to Walt Disney World and saw their plant sculptures. He realized that he could do that and since then, has done around 3,400 pieces. His most intriguing creations are the rolling sculptures that move and turn. Prices for those start at about $18,000 and can be as high as $30,000. While, the wheels are machine-bent, Kyte said all the other parts are done with a table vice and a Lincoln Electric arc welder. Topiary Joe is taking the Porsche (pictured above) to Palm Beach later this year to sell or says he may donate it to Porsche North America. If you really want it, the sculpture is currently on Craigslist for sale for $24,000. Topiary Joe has also had a life-long love of cars. "I was driving my first MG Midget before I was 14," he told Autoblog. He grew up in Oak Ridge, TN, where the Manhattan Project was partially developed. He says the town was full of recent college grads driving Mercedes, and he caught the bug. His automotive mentor was a nuclear physicist who taught him to repair and restore the Mercs. Kyte has completed commissions for Sandals Resort, Dreamworks, Absolut, and many more. Among his favorite creations is the Ferrari that he created at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that is now exhibited at the airport each year before the race. Check out his website for a wider look at his work.

Pininfarina Ferrari Sergio updated for very limited production [w/video]

We first met the Pininfarina Sergio concept at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. And while we figured it'd just be a purely conceptual creation, the Italian design house, in collaboration with Ferrari, have worked to bring it into production, albeit with a very, very, very limited run. The road-going version of the car, now called the Pininfarina Ferrari Sergio, makes its debut here at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, with things like, you know, a windscreen, and other necessary elements for use on the road. The car is meant to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Pininfarina working with Ferrari, and only six examples will be produced for private customers. With the Prancing Horse tie-in, it'll come as no surprise to learn that the Sergio is based on the 458 Spider, though we aren't sure if we like the custom Pininfarina body work as much as the standard Ferrari on which its based. Still, it's a unique creation, and you can check it out for yourself in the gallery above. Featured Gallery Pininfarina Ferrari Sergio: Geneva 2015 View 15 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Geneva Motor Show Ferrari Convertible Performance Videos 2015 Geneva Motor Show pininfarina sergio

LaFerrari XX prototype pushed so hard that its suspension fails

Ferrari has a real challenge on its hands. It made the new LaFerrari hybrid hypercar so extreme already that it left little room to crank it up to 11 and turn it into an XX development prototype like it did with the Enzo and the 599 before it. So it's really going to have to push the envelop to take it that extra step.
That's what it has apparently set out to do with this LaFerrari prototype at Monza, where the Prancing Horse marque was spotted preparing the upcoming LaFerrari XX. In fact, testers ran the prototype so hard that they broke the car's right rear suspension. Which is bound to happen, we guess, when you try to find that extra bit of performance in a vehicle that's already one of the most capable ever devised, but only goes to show how much deeper Ferrari will have to dig to find that even sharper edge.
Either that or Ferrari's working on some sort of four-wheel steering system with automatic camber adjustment... See for yourself in the video below.