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Top Gear names BMW i8 Car of the Year, Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes also win big

The lads at Top Gear have released their listing of the finest cars of the past year, handing the ultimate honor to BMW's revolutionary i8 plug-in-hybrid supercar. "The i8 is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers - and then some," the British mag wrote. The i8, though, was far from the only hybridized car to take victories. James May and Richard Hammond both highlighted hybrids as their personal cars of the year, with May saluting the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Hamster, unsurprisingly, heaping praise on the Porsche 918 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, opted to shock many by selecting not only an American car as his best of 2014, but giving the honor to of all things, a Corvette. Clarkson wasn't the only person to honor the USA's iconic sports car, with the new, 650-horsepower Z06 variant being named TG's Muscle Car of the Year. Other big winners include Mercedes-Benz, which TG honored for S-Class Coupe (Luxury Car of the Year), the new AMG GT (Sports Car of the Year) and the not-for-US C-Class Estate (Family Car of the Year). The 458 Italia Speciale A snagged a second win for Ferrari. The best of the rest include the Citroen C4 Cactus, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Golf R, Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT. Take a look below for the celebratory press blast from BMW. The BMW i8 wins Top Gear Car of the Year The BMW i8 has been named as Top Gear magazine's global Car of the Year 2014. The plug-in hybrid performance vehicle beat off some stiff competition from a host of other premium and luxury manufacturers to win the overall award. The editorial team of Top Gear commended the BMW i8 for its breadth of abilities. Its 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor gives searing acceleration and driver enjoyment but all wrapped in a package that takes BMW's EfficientDynamics philosophy to the extreme courtesy of CO2 emissions less than 49g/km and a 135mpg combined cycle figure. Charlie Turner, Editor in Chief at Top Gear magazine, said: "The BMW is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers – and then some. It's the kind of car we should celebrate, a beautiful vision of the future, delivered now.

Ferrari celebrates its founder's birthday

Buon cumpleanno, Commendatore! That's what we'd be saying today to Enzo Ferrari if he were still alive. But the founder of the Prancing Horse marque passed away at the ripe old age of 90 way back in 1988. If he were still with us today, he'd be 118 years old. And we can't help but wonder what he'd think of his legacy if he were still around to see it. Enzo Anselmo Ferrari was born in Modena before the turn of the century – no, the previous century – way back in 1898. He started out as a racing driver, but soon found his real talents laid in preparing the racecars, not driving them. After achieving success running Alfa Romeo's factory team, Enzo struck out on his own - initially under the name Auto Avio Costruzioni (due to the terms of his previous contract) and then under the Scuderia Ferrari name. Under Enzo's leadership and those that followed, Ferrari emerged as one of the most successful teams in motor racing. The Scuderia has scored more championships, checkered flags, podiums, pole positions, and fastest laps than any other in the history of Formula One. And though it hasn't fielded a factory effort in the top tier decades, it's still among the winningest constructors at Le Mans, with nine outright wins between 1949 and 1965 – outscored only by Audi and Porsche. It also won the Targa Florio seven times, the Mille Miglia another eight, and Sebring 12 times. After famously rejecting a takeover bid from Ford, Enzo sold half his company to Fiat in 1969. He retained control until his passing in 1988 – upon which Fiat took over another 40 percent, leaving 10 to the Ferrari family. But now the company is independent again, having split off from the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire, and floated its IPO on the stock market. Though his son still serves as vice chairman, Enzo's prodigy and successor, Luca di Montezemolo, is gone. The road car division makes hybrids but no manual transmissions, the racing department hasn't won the Formula One World Championship since 2008, the theme park in Abu Dhabi welcomes more visitors than the factory museum, and the company makes a significant portion of its revenue these days from selling branded merchandise. It's a very different company, in short, from the one Enzo founded back in 1947, but it wouldn't be here without him. The factory is celebrating with a raft of social media posts. For our part down here, to il Commendatore at the big autodromo in the sky: happy birthday, Enzo.

Ferrari completes two-year restoration of fire-damaged 225E

See this classic Ferrari? It looks pretty good, right? Well it didn't a couple of years ago, having been all but destroyed in a fire. But the Ferrari Classiche department completed a comprehensive two-year restoration process that's left it looking as good as (if not better than) new. The vehicle in question is a 1952 Ferrari 225E, one of the earliest sports cars the Prancing Horse made, just five years after its founding. It was delivered new to Count Antonio Sterzi, who campaigned it first in the Mille Miglia. The car went on to win events like the Bolzano-Mendola hillclimb and the Coppa InterEuropa at Monza, but after changing hands a couple of times, it was ravaged by a fire. View 7 Photos Several attempts were made in the decades since to bring it back to proper working condition. But it wasn't until its current Argentinian owner commissioned the factory's own restoration department to completely overhaul the burnt-out shell that it regained its luster. Over the course of two years, the Classiche studio has comprehensively reconditioned the 225E inside, out, and under the hood, sourcing original documentation from the factory archives to match the interior as close as possible to how it would have originally been outfitted, and giving it a beautiful two-tone blue and white paintjob. A FERRARI RISES FROM THE ASHES A fire-damaged 225E makes a triumphant return Maranello, 15 March 2016 – After almost two years of work, restoration of the 225E chassis no. 0178 is finally complete and the car is back in its owner's hands. The project was a huge challenge for the Ferrari Classiche department as the car, which belongs to an Argentinean collector, arrived in Maranello in a terrible state of repair, having been partly-destroyed in a fire. Racing past. The 225E left the factory in May 1952 and was first owned by Count Antonio Sterzi. It quickly made its competitive debut in none other than the Mille Miglia in the hands of that gentleman and his co-driver Nino Rovelli. In June the same year, the 225E won the Coppa della Toscana with Bruno Sterzi who also raced it to victory in the Bolzano-Mendola hillclimb and the Coppa InterEuropa at Monza for which both front and rear bumpers were removed. The car changed hands a couple of times but was then involved in a fire in which it sustained severe damage. The engine, however, was almost entirely salvageable and an attempt was made during the 1980s to restore the bodywork.