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Track lapping in Ferrari's new 488 GTB

With the floodgates opening on impressions about Ferrari's latest 488 GTB, Chris Harris is the latest person to climb into the driver's seat and give his initial opinions on the Prancing Horse's latest turbocharged effort. The 488 GTB is a hard vehicle to pin down, though. It looks vaguely like the naturally aspirated 458 but practically every component is thoroughly revised. While the headline-grabber is the 660-horsepower, 3.9-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 that's positioned behind the driver, the coupe also benefits from new adjustable dampers, upgraded brakes, and more. To figure things out, Harris laps the Prancing Horse around the track and eventually moves to some tight, Italian backroads. Of course being a video from Chris Harris on Cars, you can expect some big, smoky slides in addition to erudite thoughts on this Ferrari with forced induction.

LaFerrari XX to pack 1,050 hp

With 949 horsepower on tap, it would be hard to imagine Ferrari getting much more juice out of the 6.3-liter V12 hybrid powering its LaFerrari. But apparently, it's possible, as reports suggest that the forthcoming LaFerrari XX will pack somewhere closer to 1,050 hp.
This according to Top Gear, which reports that the successor to the Enzo-based FXX and the subsequent 599XX will be revealed next month in Abu Dhabi at the company's year-end Finale Mondiali extravaganza - the same event where, in years past, Ferrari has presented such extreme machines as the 458 Challenge Evoluzione, the aforementioned 599XX and the FXX Evoluzione.
When the subject of a LaFerrari XX first came up several months ago, Antonello Coletta - head of the department responsible for the XX program - said he couldn't picture the track version of the company's flagship hybrid hypercar being much faster or more powerful than the existing version. But where there's a will, there's a way. TG reports that the extra hundred horses have been corralled in the V12 and not in the electric motor, which will reportedly carry over essentially unchanged from the road-going model.

1955 Belgian GP movie tells the story of Spa

With the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix happening this weekend, Shell reminded a few guests what the Spa-Francorchamps track and Belgian countryside were like in 1955. That year the petroleum company made a 30-minute movie about the grand prix - this is back when the track was called the Francorchamps National Circuit, near the town of Spa, and a list of its important corners didn't include a mention of Eau Rouge - where it was doing the same thing it still does today: working on fuels and lubricants via its technical partnership with Ferrari.
To create the mood, journalists were invited to a vintage cinema where they mingled with Ferrari F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and other extras in period fifties gear, and watched a screening of 1955 Belgian Grand Prix. You can scroll down for a screening of your own, as well as the press release, minus the petits-fours and pinups.