1983 Ferrari 512 Bbi on 2040-cars

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Corvette gets slidey with Britain's best performance cars

Autocar wants to find Britain's best driver's car, and it's challenging a murderers' row of some of the world's best performance vehicles to find out, including the latest Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. All of them were therefore assembled at the Castle Combe Circuit to find a winner.
If it wants to take the crown from this pack of mostly European competitors, the 'Vette has to beat some steep competition. Its challengers include monsters like the Ferrari 458 Speciale, Ariel Atom 3.5R and Jaguar F-Type Coupe. As a further hurdle for the winner to clear, Autocar also has last year's champ among the fighters - the Porsche 911 GT3.
Even if you're not at all interested in the C7, there's still something here for practically any fan of fast cars. The competitors include relative oddities among the pack like the Renault Mégane RS Trophy and Alfa Romeo 4C. Plus, Autocar has some well-positioned microphones that let you hear the Atom wailing like a banshee and the roar of the 458 Speciale. Check out the video to see which one of these all-stars takes home the award this year.

Race Recap: 2014 Spanish Grand Prix is boom and bust [spoilers]

The Spanish Grand Prix's 2.892-mile Circuit de Catalunya is considered a preview for the rest of the season, since it's a combination of long front straight and twisting middle sectors mimic sections from every other Formula One track to follow. After the long break following the flyaway races to open the season, teams and fans have also been looking forward to this race to see if anyone had a realistic hope of catching Mercedes AMG Petronas; Infiniti Red Bull Racing honcho Christian Horner boiled his team's outlook for the season down to the line, "We've got to [beat them in Spain] if we're going to make a championship of it."
If we take that as our starting point then the weekend began as a bust. Lewis Hamilton only just beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for pole, the Brit's final effort getting him 0.178 seconds clear of the German. Daniel Ricciardo, proving Red Bull is at least the best of the rest, took third but did so more than a second behind Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas of Williams lined up fourth, almost 1.5 second behind and Romain Grosjean delivered overdue good news for Lotus by taking fifth on the grid, more than 1.7 seconds behind pole. Kimi Räikkönen in sixth outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso in seventh, but he couldn't be happy about it because the Ferraris were nearly two seconds behind, and Jenson Button in eighth in the McLaren was more than two second behind. Felipe Massa put the second Williams in ninth, and Sebastian Vettel overcame a terrible start to the weekend to make it into Q3, then didn't set a time when his gearbox failed, then got dropped five places to 15th on the grid when the gearbox had to be changed.
When the lights went out, then came the boom...

US Customs takes break from crushing Skylines, returns stolen Ferrari [UPDATE]

Update: A spokesperson from US Customs and Border Protection told Autoblog more details about the case. The thieves "completely removed the '81 VIN, and changed it to the '82 VIN," the spokesperson said. "The true VIN was identified through secondary numbers." US Customs and Border Protection often gets a bad rap among auto enthusiasts for the agency's propensity to crush fun cars, including Minis, Land Rovers, and Skyline GT-Rs. However, the group also sometimes finds stolen classic vehicles just before they leave the country. For example, officers recently recovered a stolen Ferrari nearly 30 years after the owner reported it stolen. The 308 GTSi was on its way to Poland from the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport on April 8th, but the officers found something fishy. This Ferrari was supposed to be a 1982 308 GTS, but running a check indicated that the coupe with that VIN left the US for Norway in 2005. "This VIN discrepancy is what 'raised a red flag' and prompted further scrutiny," CBP LA/LB Seaport Port Director Carlos Martel said in a statement. The CBP contacted the California Highway Patrol and the National Insurance Crime Bureau. A Ferrari expert eventually identified the car as a 1981 308 GTSi. Once the authorities obtained the correct VIN, the system listed the Ferrari as stolen from a consignment lot in Orange County, CA, on July 19, 1987. Unfortunately, the original owner doesn't get to enjoy having the Ferrari back. The Prancing Horse now belongs to the insurance company because it paid off the claim on the car decades ago. It might be worth trying to buy the Ferrari again, though. The red 308 GTSi still looks like a beauty in CBP's photo, and coupe has only covered 45,000 miles since 1981. Stolen 28 Years Ago, CBP Seizes Classic Red Hot Ferrari Release Date: April 14, 2016 "Red Flag" Prompts FEAR Team Scrutiny LOS ANGELES — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Los Angeles/Long Beach (LA/LB) Seaport complex intercepted and seized a red 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi, destined to Poland, on April 8. It was stolen 28 years ago, has 45K miles and an estimated value of $50K. red 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi seized by CBP CBP officers at LA/LB seaport seized this 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi, destined to Poland. It was stolen 28 years ago. Falsely manifested as a "1982 Ferrari", analysis of its purported vehicle identification number (VIN) revealed that the VIN was previously used for a 1982 Ferrari 308 GTS exported in 2005, from the U.S.