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You can apply to attempt to break the world record for fastest blindfolded driver [w/video]

The Guinness-certified world record for "fastest speed for a car driven blindfolded" is 186.12 miles per hour, set by Mike Newman in a Porsche GT2 last year at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in England. Then earlier this year, Newman said he'd go for the 200 mph mark - something he might want to talk to fellow Bruntingthorpe speed demons Vmax200 about. UK firm Extreme Motorsport, which seems to have been set up solely to set blindfold driving and riding records, wants to wrest the record from Newman using a Ferrari 458 Challenge and the even longer runway at Elvington Airfield in York, England.
Strangely, it appears the terms "legally blind" and "blindfolded" equate to the same thing. The Guinness record and Extreme Sports say "blindfolded," but Newman and the man who held the record before him, Turkish pop singer Metin Sentürk, are legally blind and neither of them wore blindfolds during their record attempts.
No matter - the real point is that Extreme Motorsport is casting about for a driver to set a new record. The could-be-shady part is that Extreme is pretty vague about what's involved; they'll provide the car or the motorcycle, but you have to "choose a charity and pledge to give them all the funds you raise above the entrance fee and for any other personal expenses you may need to participate in the challenge." Extreme doesn't give any indication of how much that entrance fee might be.

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:

Kimi out, Bottas in at Ferrari?

Things have not gone well for Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen since he returned to the team in 2014. After a pair of strong seasons for Lotus that saw him finish third and fifth, the Finn ended last season in 12th, 106 points behind his teammate, Spaniard Fernando Alonso. His 2015 fortunes have improved – he currently sits in fourth, only a spot behind teammate Sebastian Vettel – but he's been remarkably inconsistent, struggling with the SF15-T, a car that was specifically designed to work with his driving style. He only has a single podium this season, was forced to retire in Australia after a bad pitstop, and he crashed out of the most recent round in Austria. Clearly, Kimi should just stay away from races starting in "Austr." That advice may have come too late, though, as rumors are bubbling up that Ferrari may be swapping its Finns, dropping Raikkonen for his young countryman, Valtteri Bottas. Fox News, citing a report from Germany's Bild, claims Ferrari has made an offer to Bottas' current team, Williams, to secure his services. It doesn't sound like the British team will give him up all that easily, though. According to Fox, Williams enjoys a contractual "option" on the 25-year-old Finn's contract for next season, and that Ferrari would need to buy that contract out to steal him away. Bild claims the Italians have offered $4.4 million, but Williams' second-in-command, Claire Williams, wants nearly four times that. Ferrari has, rejected that figure, allegedly and unsurprisingly. Should the two sides come to a compromise, German and Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg seems to be the popular choice to take the open Williams seat, Fox is reporting. It's unclear where Raikkonen would end up next. And with that, we consider the 2015 Formula 1 silly season officially open.