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Ferrari 458 Speciale A trots out its 597 sun-drenched ponies [w/video]

To say that Ferrari has made some powerful drop-tops over the years would be like saying the Pope has been known to make a couple of blessings here and there. There was the F50, the 575 Superamerica and the 599 SA Aperta, to name just a few. But this is the most powerful Spider it has ever made. Taking its curtain call at the Paris Motor Show today is the new Ferrari 458 Speciale A – successor to the F430-based 16M Scuderia Spider and lovechild of the 458 Spider and 458 Speciale. That means it's got the same 4.5-liter V8 – all 597 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of it – as the Speciale coupe, but with the folding aluminum roof from the Spider. Best of both worlds, as they say - especially with a 0-62 time quoted at three seconds flat. But since Maranello will only produce less than 500 of them, you'd better check it out in our gallery of live shots above. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Ferrari 488 Spider configurator is just in time for summer

The weather is just starting to show signs of being nice enough for open-top driving, which makes it a perfect time to configure a Ferrari 488 Spider. The configurator lets you select every aspect of your future Ferrari, and that means this Prancing Horse will fully let you express your own personality. In this case, you can spec out the 488 Spider as a track monster with a plethora of carbon fiber parts, or if you want more of a grand tourer, there are options like electric seats and the choice to alter practically every part's color. Unfortunately, none of the selections come with a price, so there's no way to know how much the gold metallic paint for the brake calipers adds to the bottom line. It's fun to dream, though. Mechanically, the 488 Spider is identical to its coupe sibling. The engine is a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 with 661 horsepower and 560 pound-feet of torque. A seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox sends that muscle to the rear wheels. The droptop can reach 62 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds, just a few tenths off the coupe, and the Spider's top speed is 203 miles per hour. As for the final number for those who love tracking every bit of performance with a stopwatch: the roof hides away in a scant 14 seconds. Related Video:

Ferrari wants to provide Red Bull with its own engines

Ferrari is proposing a different sort of arrangement that could provide Red Bull with the engines it needs to continue competing in Formula One. Rather than sell the team the same engines its own competition department uses, the Maranello outfit suggests creating a separate engineering program for Red Bull to get its own engine package. The issue of where Red Bull will get its engines has been looming over the paddock for several months. Though its current partnership with Renault yielded four straight world championships, the relationship has gone sour over the last couple of years as performance has dropped off. That has left Red Bull looking for a new engine supplier, but with Ferrari, Mercedes, and Honda all powering their own entries, none have been particularly keen to motivate Red Bull. A proposal to bring Volkswagen into the sport in partnership with the team fell apart in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal. And while the FIA may be moving ahead to bring an independent engine supplier into the series, that doesn't look likely to take shape in time for next season. Ferrari – like Mercedes and McLaren-Honda – says it won't simply hand one of its chief rivals the same engine package as it uses itself. But speaking to Motorsport.com at Ferrari's Finali Mondiali event at Mugello this weekend, Sergio Marchionne proposed a different course of action. That would involve making the building blocks of Ferrari's power unit, along with the wealth of its engineering talent, available to Red Bull for the team to plot its own engine development program in parallel to Maranello's own. The Ferrari chairman (and Fiat Chrysler chief) says he has already raised the idea with Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz and his racing adviser Helmut Marko. If it does work out, we could potentially see Ferrari setting up similar programs with its other customer teams. Those currently include Sauber and Marussia, and Haas and Toro Rosso could soon join the mix as well. Adding Red Bull would mean that over half of the grid would be powered by Ferrari engines as soon as next season. Related Video: News Source: Motorsport.comImage Credit: Red Bull Motorsports Ferrari F1