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This computer-generated Ferrari 250 GTO carved from marble rocks

The Ferrari 250 GTO ranks as perhaps the most valuable production car ever made. In just the past two years, units of the ultimate '60s sports car have sold for $32 million, $35 million and maybe as high as $52 million. With just 39 of them ever assembled, these Ferrari owners are among a rarefied class of an already top-tier class of car collectors. So once you collect the ultimate car, then what do you do? How about buy a scale model of it hewn from a single block of Arabescato marble by stone specialist Lapicida?
Interestingly, no sculptor developed a leathery callouses on his or her hands over the hundreds of man hours surely necessary to create this work of art, nor were dozens of hand tools worn to the nub in the pursuit of this homage to Italian performance. To create the 1:3.6 replica of a 1962/1963 GTO, Lapicida simply laser-scanned an actual GTO and fine-tuned the resulting data in 3D modeling software. Then, the file was sent to a computer-controlled, five-axis mill to shape the marble, which was selected because the veining gave the illusion of speed. Finally, it was hand-finished to make sure the details were as crisp as possible. The completed model measures 47.2-inches long, 18.1-inches wide and 13.4-inches tall and retails for a tidy £30,000 - over $49,000 USD.
Impressive though it may be, it seems hard to imagine spending that sort of money on a car that you can't sit in or drive down the road. Then again, if you can afford to own a real 250 GTO, it's barely pocket change. Lapicida also takes commissions, so if you want a marble model of your car, they're happy to do it. Then again, if you just need your foyer retiled or your personal chef's is demanding an upgraded kitchen, they'll do that, too. Scroll down to get the full details on the model.

Ex-Ferrari chairman sounds off on IPO

Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo preferred to put exclusivity over profits when he ran the company, and the lower volume still meant huge amounts of cash for the business. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne has since taken over Ferrari, but that hasn't stopped di Montezemolo from voicing his opinions. "I hope that the clients will remain more important than the analyst or the investor or the financial markets," di Montezemolo said prior to his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported. The former chairman argued that once on the stock exchange, a company would need to maximize profits quarter after quarter to keep investors happy. Conversely, di Montezemolo said Ferrari's years of success came from an "exclusivity in terms of number of cars, exclusivity in terms of how you deal with the clients." When di Montezemolo left Ferrari last year, he and Marchionne were scuffling about the future of the brand, including the health of the Formula 1 program. With the change in leadership, the company has reversed course in some ways. Where volume was previously kept around 7,000 units annually, the carmaker has set a new goal of closer to 10,000. The paperwork was filed for the IPO, and Marchionne thinks the company could be worth over $11 billion. The actual shares are rumored to go on sale in October. Related Video:

Meet the man that discovered and restored the oldest existing Porsche

Luciano Rupolo is an absolutely fascinating gentleman. He was born in France but spent nearly his entire life in Italy as an auto mechanic running his own shop. His grandfather and father instilled a love of sports cars in him that he carried on by historic racing in Italy for decades. He saw his life-long automotive passion repaid when he found and restored the car that might have been the first Porsche registered for the road.
You can spot in his garage a split-window Corvette, Ferrari 250 GTE and other exotics, but Rupolo's most interesting automotive story concerns his Iso Grifo Competizione (pictured above). The sports coupe was found in the Canary Islands as little more than a shell, but Rupolo got help from a prestigious source for its restoration. The result is a motoring masterpiece.
Rupolo is a fantastic storyteller with a captivating, tale to tell. Settle in, scroll down and watch the bittersweet documentary about his life with one of the first Porsches.