2011 Ferrari 458 Coupe on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ferrari 400 Superamerica leads $60M RM Sotheby's sale at Amelia Island [w/video]

Just last month, two of the most venerated auction houses came together under one roof. And this past weekend, the newly christened RM Sotheby's held its first event at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, selling a record $60 million worth of classic automobiles. The event's highlight was surely the gorgeous 1960 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Cabriolet pictured above. Resplendent in dark green over a red leather interior, this particular Superamerica set a record for that model when it sold for $6.38 million, with proceeds going towards a children's education charity. That price far outstrips the record $4 million that Gooding & Co. got for that sleek white Aerodinamico coupe in Scottsdale earlier this year. Among the other seven-figure items were of course some other Ferraris, including a rare '72 Daytona Spider that went for $3.3 million, along with a smattering of Jaguars, Mercedes, Alfas, Lamborghinis and Bugattis. A rare 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano with a manual transmission sold for nearly triple its estimate at $682,000, and the Daytona-winning, Castrol-liveried 1988 Jaguar XJR-9 sold for over $2 million. Of course RM Sotheby's wasn't the only company holding an auction during the Florida concours. But as the event's official auction house, it brought in more than all the other participating auctioneers combined, setting a record for Amelia Island in the process. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Weekly Recap: Racing legend Jim Hall explains Chevy's futuristic Chaparral concept

"I said our cars are built to be winners." – Jim Hall Racing legend Jim Hall never thought he'd be a video game consultant, but when Chevrolet asked for his advice to create a futuristic Chaparral for the Vision Gran Turismo series, he was eager to help. He reviewed early sketches and suggested some changes that made it onto the concept, including the addition of a camera that's mounted onto a mast over the cabin to aid the driver. The Chevy Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo concept was revealed this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show and will be part of a downloadable update for PlayStation 3's Gran Turismo 6 in December. Theoretically, at least, it uses a laser-beam propulsion system and an air-powered generator to produce 900 horsepower in the video game. It's capable of sprinting to 60 miles per hour in 1.5 seconds en route to a top speed of 240 mph. Those gaudy performance specs – even in the virtual world – came at Hall's urging. "I said our cars are built to be winners," Hall told Autoblog on the floor of the Los Angeles show. The 79-year-old drove Lotus racecars in Formula One before launching the successful Chaparral Cars in the 1960s. Like his innovative Can-Am racers, the Vision Gran Turismo project has an eye toward the future. It also introduces the iconic Chaparral name to a new generation of fans, and hopefully, Hall says, gets them excited about engineering and design. "It emulates what we did in the '60s," he said. And what they did back then still resonates. Chaparral Racing and Chevy partnered more than 45 years ago for development work on the composite monocoque chassis, lightweight alloy powertrains, automatic gearboxes and active aerodynamics. "He [Hall] walked right back into this and was able to apply thinkings and learnings," said Clay Dean, General Motors executive director of advanced design. The Chevy Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo concept was created at GM's North Hollywood advanced design studio, and it will be on display at the show through November. Other News and Views Sebastian Vettel joins Ferrari team in 2015 Ferrari confirmed that four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel will join the Scuderia for the 2015 season, jettisoning Ferrari's current ace, two-time champ Fernando Alonso. Vettel has been F1's most successful driver since Michael Schumacher, though he's struggled to match his previous accomplishments in 2014.

Photographer streaks Ferrari California T in glow-in-the-dark paint

Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner is known for splashing paint and deconstructing cars to create beautiful and unique images. Like Ferrari, Oefner combines art, design and science in his creations. So he was a natural choice when the automaker began looking for a unique way to introduce the2015 Ferrari California T to the world. After taking the California T for a test drive, Oefner wanted to convey the feeling of the swift 553-horsepower vehicle, according to PetaPixel. Oefner scaled up his past experiments with color and blasted $190,000 the sports car with gallons of UV activated paint. By doing it in a wind tunnel with nothing but UV lights blazing down on the car, he hoped to capture the quickness of the California T while the car itself remained motionless. The resulting video is astonishing. The Ferrari looks as if it's being pulled out of the darkness by brilliant rivers of glowing color. The video, entitled 'The Art of Form', is a beautiful way to highlight the new design of this classic nameplate. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. A Look Inside the Art of Form from Ferrari USA on Vimeo. News Source: PetaPixel Weird Car News Ferrari California