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What I learned after 5,600 miles in a Ferrari F355 Spider

I'm paraphrasing, but Autoblog reader Paul Dyer asked me one day, "Want to drive my 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider from San Jose, California, to me in Newfoundland?" I'm also paraphrasing and leaving out some colorful but unpublishable language, but essentially I said, "Yes." That's how I ended up on a two-week, 5,600-mile road trip, getting an extensive and intimate look at one of the most spectacular cars of our generation. Here's what I discovered. To paraphrase, you don't even know how badly you want an F355. The F355 Spider is the last beautiful Ferrari. Subsequent stallions are modern and dramatic, the F355 is eternally gorgeous, like Brunelleschi's doors and sunsets in Viareggio. The Iliad would still make sense if you said the Greeks took to ship after a Trojan keyed Menelaus' F355. You cannot say the same about the 348, or even the 458 (though we do love it so). This car began the era in which mid-engined Ferraris sell out for years in advance. That said, F355 upkeep is the equivalent of giving your bank account a flesh-eating disease. This car's most recent engine-out service was $28,000: $12,000 in labor, $16,000 in parts. Dropping the Propulsore Completo is recommended every three years for routine service and runs $7,000 or more if no other work is required. Gooey valve guides, melting exhaust manifolds, and cranky seat sensors are among the fickle components that will guarantee the bill will exceed that amount. A single bolt is $45. One F355 owner, asked if he'd recommend the model, replied without hesitation "Absolutely not." But the F355 began a whole new game for The Prancing Horse. One of Luca de Montezemolo's first marks on the company as president, the F355 was intended to rectify the sins of the 348 and deal with the Acura NSX. The F355's design resulted from 1,800 wind tunnel hours. It introduced Ferrari's five-valve V8 engine – at 107.3-horsepower-per-liter, the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated car at the time. It had an 8,500-rpm redline. The engine was so important that Ferrari changed its naming convention to highlight it. The F355 introduced a six-speed manual transmission to the V8 range. It introduced the paddle-shifted sequential gearboxes to consumers, previously the purview of top-tier race cars. This Spider was the brand's first semi-automatic droptop. This car began the era in which mid-engined Ferraris sell out for years in advance. Some of the trademark features take getting used to.

New Zealander builds 1962 Ferrari GTO replica in chicken shed

The Ferrari 250 GTO is one of the most gorgeous vehicles ever made, but with just 39 produced, they're also some of the most expensive cars in the world, often setting records when they occasionally come up for auction. The eye-watering price presents an insanely steep barrier of entry to ownership, which has led at least one buyer to pursue a different option: simply creating his own. While the beautiful example in the video above isn't an authentic, original Ferrari, the story behind this replica goes far beyond some cheap knockoff slapped together haphazardly. Surrounded by crowing roosters and waddling ducks, Rod Temporo doesn't immediately strike you as a guy who would be building exacting replica racers in his shed. However, first impressions aren't always accurate, and Temporo is a maestro when it comes to metalwork. He has been doing this for decades and has recreated all sorts of vintage vehicles, including a beautiful Jaguar XJ13. Temporo and his team are true artisans. They make their own wood bucks for the body and then bang out the metal body with hammers and an English wheel. According to the video, it took them about four years to complete this 1962 GTO replica starting from scratch. The end result is a piece of automotive art.

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