2016 Ferrari 488 . on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ferrari Driver Academy heads to Florida for the winter

Retirees and Girls Gone Wild camera crews aren't the only ones who go to Florida for the winter. So is a contingent of aspiring formula racing drivers taking part in the new Florida Winter Series being set up by the Ferrari Driver Academy.
The program is being set up in response to a lack of suitable weather at circuits in Europe, which would otherwise keep rising stars in formula racing from honing their skills during the off-season. Toyota runs an off-season series in New Zealand, but Ferrari is heading to the most southern of these United States to give its prodigies some much-needed track time.
Set up as more of a training program than a competitive championship, the FDA Florida Winter Series is based around a field of 15 aspiring drivers piloting the Formula Abarth-spec Tatuus FA010B, with a 195-horsepower engine furnished by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and an engineer for every three cars in the series.

1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona could be world's first great 'condo find' [w/video]

Barn finds are the absinthe of the collector car world right now. They're highly intoxicating and a bit of the 'flavor of the month.' An actual barn isn't necessary, just some form of out-of-the-way long-term storage that involves a car being out of circulation for a long period of time, remaining complete with the time-capsule-like detritus of their slumber-yellowed newspapers, vintage eight-tracks or real pay dirt like a telex printout from Howard Hughes or a receipt from the Playboy Club. RM Auctions has just announced perhaps the first 'condo find' in a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona coupe that had been stored in a Toronto condominium building for a quarter century. Like any good barn find, this Ferrari is still covered in a layer of thick dust (the removal of which would likely devalue the car considerably) and still has a cartridge entitled "Disco Rock" shoved in its original eight-track player. And while the one and only owner's taste in music may have been questionable, his taste in cars wasn't. The Daytona was the last front-engine V12 two-seater Ferrari produced during the so-called Enzo-era, when founder Enzo Ferrari was still in command of the company. With its 172 mph top speed, a Daytona was famously used by Dan Gurney and Brock Yates in setting a coast-to-coast record of 35 hours and 54 minutes to win the first Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971. An impulse trip to the Geneva Motor Show in the same year by a Toronto businessman saw him purchase the Daytona where he spent a month touring Europe before sending the car back to Canada on the Queen Elizabeth II. He drove it for eighteen years and put a whopping 90,000 kilometers – 56,000 miles – on the car prior to putting the car up on blocks in a condo garage before a trip to Asia that he anticipated would last just six months. The car remained in that spot until November 14, 2014. The car that originally sold for $18,000 in Geneva, Switzerland in 1971 is expected to bring in excess of $600,000 at RM Auction's Amelia Island sale in March. Carwash not included. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Berlinetta Chassis no. 14385 Body no.

Race Recap: Brazil ends the 2013 F1 season with whimpers, bangs [spoilers]

When the grid lined up at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Brazil there were just 71 laps, almost 306 kilometers, until the end of the 2013 season. Sometimes the circuit in Interlagos is deciding a Championship winner or showcasing new talent, and sometimes it's merely deciding a winner. This year was the latter.
2013 World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing lined up in front of Nico Rosberg in the first Mercedes-AMG Petronas, Fernando Alonso in the first Ferrari, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and his final Formula One race, Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes, Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, Daniel Ricciardo in the first Toro Rosso and his final race for the team before moving to Red Bull, his teammate Jean-Éric Vergne, Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari and Nico Hülkenberg in the Sauber.
There were numerous theories about what surprises might occur, with race day being the first dry running of the weekend and rain predicted to fall at some point during the running. The first surprise came when the lights went out and Vettel, the consummate starter, got beat to the first corner.