Ferrari F8 Reviews

The Ferrari 458 Speciale, based on the already excellent 458 Italia, is filled with extra technology that aims to make it into one of the most thrilling supercars that money can buy.

There's rich, and then there's completely over-indulged. Undergraduate students at a university in Dubai stuff the carpark with a fleet of supercars that are their daily drivers. The American University of Dubai students turn up for classes in a range of exotic and expensive metal that looks like a convoy from a Top Gear episode.  Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Porsches and Maseratis have all been photographed in the carpark by one of the students, Meeka Nasser, who has posted them on Reddit.Nasser has told media he was astounded by the high-end level of vehicles in the carpark. "Because $200,000 Cayennes and Range Rovers are a dime a dozen here, I only included a few of them in the album. Keep in mind, almost all of the students are between 18 and 24 years old, as the graduate programe is pretty tiny here. The students that drive the insanely expensive cars (Rolls Royces and Bentleys etc.) are usually local (Emirati) for those wonderin," he wrote.The American University in Dubai is a private university that has been operating in the United Arab Emirates capital for nearly 20 years, and aims to offer an American-style education to both Emirates residents and expatriates. Tuition starts at a base level of around $12,000 per semester.

Ferrari and Maserati will re-enter Adelaide's new car market early next year on the back of a boom in luxury car sales across the country. Solitaire Automotive Group will unveil a new state-of-the-art Maserati showroom in the first quarter of next year after winning exclusive dealership rights for the Trident brand, while Adelaide Motors is finalising designs for its Ferrari showroom which is due to open on Hindley St soon after.The Fiat stablemates have been absent from Adelaide's new car market since November 2011, when previous dealer Prestige Formula was downgraded. Strict guidelines from their Italian headquarters have meant a lengthy design process for the new boutique showrooms.Solitaire Maserati will be located at the former Lexus site at Parkside - part of a plan to deliver an eightfold increase in SA sales by 2016. Solitaire managing director David Smoker said Maserati was a good fit with the dealer's other luxury brands which included Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar and Land Rover.'We've had a fair bit of success with our luxury sports brands - the people of Adelaide have an appreciation for luxury sports cars," he said. Sales of supercars in Australia are up 72 per cent since the lows of the global financial crisis with enthusiasts snapping up more than 190 exotic cars per month this year.In the first 10 months of this year a total of 85 new cars were sold across the Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Lotus, Maserati, McLaren and Porsche brands in South Australia - up 12 per cent from last year. Maserati's ambitious three-year plan to reach annual Australian sales of 1350 vehicles will be led by two new four door models - the Quattroporte and the Ghibli which will both be on show at the new Solitaire showroom.The sedans will be followed by the 2015 launch of the Levante, a high performance SUV. However, according to Ferrari Australasia chief executive Herbert Appleroth, the prancing horse is taking a slightly different approach, keeping a close eye on volumes as it seeks greater exclusivity.'While we have reduced our global production down from 7500 cars to 7000 in 2013, the Australasian deliveries will be similar in 2013 as compared to 2012," he said. 'We expect South Australia to see high levels of growth as we have not been represented in Adelaide for a number of years." Maserati owner Pam Russo expects the new four-door range to strike a chord with Adelaide buyers.I'm a believer that everyone deserves a little luxury and in my family's case it's a Maserati," she said. 

Sydney Motorsport Park is set to host the biggest gathering of Ferraris ever seen in Australia, with the announcement of the Ferrari Racing Days festival for April 2014. Similar to the Porsche Rennsport event held at Sydney Motor sport Park in May, the three day Ferrari event will see hundreds of Ferrari road and race cars converge on the western Sydney race circuit to take part in track activities, static displays, and on-side entertainment. Ferrari Racing Days will also include the second round of the 2014 Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific (APAC) one-make series for 458 Challenge racers.   Another drawcard will be the first Australian appearance of the official Ferrari F1 show, with a genuine Ferrari racer set to take to the circuit, and no doubt aiming to beat the 1:13.6 time set by Mark Webber’s Red Bull racer at the Top Gear Festival in March. "Not everyone can own a Ferrari and not everyone can be a racing driver, but anyone can come to Sydney Motorsport Park in April 2014 to see, hear, smell and maybe even touch Ferrari Racing cars," President of the ARDC Andrew Leithhead says. Ferrari Racing Days will be held at the Sydney Motorsport Park from 11-13 April 2014. This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn  

The video of this teen at the wheel of his father's Ferrari 458 Italia -- worth more than $525,000 plus a hefty amount of Luxury Car Tax here -- claims insane acceleration. The footage doesn't quite match to the promise, with the young tacker taking it pretty carefully. But you still get a good earful of the fantastic 458 engine: a whomping 4.5-litre V8 that pushes out 425kW of power at 9000rpm and 540Nm of tyre-shredding torque at 6000rpm. Getting that to the rear wheels via a seven-speed sports auto, it delivers a claimed 0-100km/h time of 3.4 seconds. We don't see that in the kid's video, but he seems to be already driving fairly confidently. And while we might be a bit envious that he gets to play with this kind of toy, at least he's treating it with a bit of respect -- unlike the video earlier this year of a young lad drifting his dad's Ferrari around a dusty carpark. Watch the desktop version of the 14-year-old takes dad's Ferrari 458 super car for a blast video here.  This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott    

The mysterious Tax The Rich team seems to have plenty of money to get hold of supercars and blast them around their rural lair. So it's no surprise they can afford the kind of high-end video camera that gives you stunning slo-mo of the action.Their fitting subject for this stunt is a Ferrari F50, and with the high-speed camera you see every detail as it drifts and dances.We've previously seen Tax The Rich dish out similar thrashings to a pair of Ferrari F50s, a Ferrari Enzo, a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a Jaguar XJ220 that was punished through a series of rural British paddocks and down crumbling dirt and gravel backroads.The mystery crew have been very coy about their identity, but it's becoming obvious there's a link to Harry Hunt, the rally driver son of Brit real estate magnate Jon Hunt, whose Heveningham Hall manor estate is clearly identifiable in some of the videos.Watch the video of the Ferrari F50 being punished on our desktop site. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

We've seen Tax The Rich punishing a Ferrari Enzo before, but this time they're giving us a closer look at the action in all the grace of slow-motion.It's the latest in a series from the mystery team, who take supercars to places they're never supposed to be. Over the past couple of years we've seen the Enzo, a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls Royce Phantom, twin Ferrari F50s and a Jaguar XJ220 thrashed through farm paddocks and down crumbling rural bitumen, dirt and gravel roads.While the identity of the Tax The Rich driver is officially unknown -- and despite his denials -- it's becoming increasingly obvious there's a connection to Harry Hunt, the rally driver son of Brit real estate magnate Jon Hunt, who's the owner of the palatial Heveningham Hall manor estate identifiable in some of the videos.Watch the Ferarri drifting, sliding and doing burnouts.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Ken Block makes do with a specially-built Ford Fiesta Gymkhana thrash machine for his video ventures, but the anonymous souls at Tax The Rich like to create their sideways sequences using museum-grade thoroughbred supercars or ultra-luxury machines.Over the past 18 months we’ve seen a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls Royce Phantom, twin Ferrari F50s, a Ferrari Enzo, and a Jaguar XJ220 thrashed mercilessly around their agricultural playground, to the chagrin of supercar fanciers and the guilty pleasure of everyone else.For their latest and tenth instalment, the mega-dollar 288 GTO returns to the Tax The Rich farm, where they put it through the usual opposite-lock action across mud, gravel and tarmac, all to the tune of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.The 288 GTO was developed for Group B rallying, but never raced due to the disbanding of the category, and the 272 road cars are now worth serious money. Perfect for the Tax The Rich treatment then!The highlight this time are the slo-mo figure-eights the GTO executes within the tight confines of a hay shed, with its composite body slewing sideways just inches from brick walls.And as with recent entries, it looks like there’s a clue to the subject of the next Tax The Rich instalment, with what looks to be a prototype Ferrari F40 (chassis 74047 as seen below) appearing through smoke at the end of the film. If so, it will be the most precious to be pummelled yet.While the identities of the Tax The Rich progenitors officially remain a mystery, the elaborate gates shown in the Phantom film just happen to signify the entrance to Heveningham Hall, a palatial 25 bedroom manor that makes Downton Abbey look like an outhouse, set in 460 acres of lush Suffolk farmland. Significantly, Heveningham Hall is owned by real-estate magnate Jon Hunt, and his rally driver son Harry…This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn Watch the desktop version of the Tax The Rich Ferrari 288 GTO video here.  

Melbourne crime families are behind a fake road smash racket costing millions of dollars. The scam, known as "claim farming", is now a daily occurrence in Victoria, industry experts say. Claim farming, which is driving up premiums for honest drivers, is hitting the insurance industry so hard it is increasing forensic testing of accident vehicles.Firms are "red-flagging" certain surnames for closer scrutiny when they lodge claims. They are names associated with what one investigator called an inordinately high number of smashes. Prangs involving high-end makes such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ferrari and Maserati are popular with the fraudsters. Some fraudsters are deeply involved in other branches of organised crime like car theft and drug trafficking. "Absolutely, it's organised," an insurance fraud investigator said. "It's a business."The Herald Sun has been told:A Ferrari insured for $150,000 was wrecked in a staged smash;There were threats of violence and bikie intervention after a rort cooked up between a driver and panel shop operator turned sour;Scammers have deliberately deployed airbags to ­back their accident stories; andMost of the crashes are in the north-western suburbs.Many of the accidents are staged late at night in quiet industrial areas to eliminate the risk of witnesses and allow maximum planning.A typical sting involves scammers buying a damaged prestige vehicle of low value at auction, repairing it to the point where it is roadworthy then insuring it at a greater worth. It is crashed with the aim of writing it off and getting the full value of the policy.Some of the drivers were raking in even more money by making bogus accident injury claims. The investigator said smash repairers looking for a slice of the action were frequently involved in orchestrating the smashes. A panel shop operator will face court soon after becoming one of the few people charged in connection with claim ­farming.The forensic checks are regularly finding damage inconsistent with the drivers' accounts of what happened. In some cases, there is evidence of multiple impacts to maximise the damage. Telephone records, which can be demanded by insurers as a policy condition, have brought some shysters undone. A check after one smash found the two drivers had been in phone contact before the bingle occurred.Insurance Council of Australia special risks manager Laurie Ratz said the same businesses and people continually cropped up in fake smash scams. Mr Ratz, a former Victoria Police and National Crime Authority officer, said the industry had more and better forensic staff to help but it remained a challenging area. "It's like most frauds. It can be easily identified but problematic to prove it," he said.Claims faked: Insurance scams riseThere's big money at stake in the fake car-smashing game and plenty of people are ready to cash in. The insurance industry has become increasingly keen to take on the shysters, as it did with a man trying to make a $60,000 claim on his ­Mercedes-Benz. Assessors wondered, as they made an inspection, why a set of wire-cutters was sitting on the front passenger seat of the otherwise pristine Merc.Luxury cars, like this Maserati, are being used in claim farming schemes. They assessed it as reparable but the driver disagreed, presenting a questionable quote, which stated the car should be written off and he be given a fat cheque. Because the car would not start, a mechanic pulled away its dashboard and found evidence that wires had been tampered with. This led to suspicion that attempts had been made to deploy the car's airbags, backing the crash claim.A tow truck was dispatched to get the car back. At one stage, the man even turned up with the police, ­saying the insurer had stolen his car. Investigators began to look at the four-wheel-drive vehicle that had collided with the Mercedes-Benz. Within days, it had been stolen, as the driver enjoyed a meal alone at an ­inner-suburban restaurant.Further checks revealed all of the Mercedes claimant's brothers had also been ­involved in vehicle insurance claims for written-off cars, and the man's father had tried to make a $30,000 claim on a small performance car a few years earlier. When investigators arrived to interview the owner at his home in Melbourne's north, they were told to leave. 

You know you're getting old when car comfort is more important than a stoplight sprint. Either that or, like me, you've recently spent too much time with doctors and comfort suddenly becomes the single most important thing in your driving day.I love the Ferrari 458, but right now I would hobble straight past the rip-snorter Italian thoroughbred on the way to a cushy Jaguar XJ limo. It would be the same situation for my first-choice funster, the Porsche Cayman.I've recently driven a race-prepared Fiat 500 Abarth and the pain was almost - almost - worse than the pleasure of romping the pocket rocket around the high-speed swoops and curves of Phillip Island. I was more than happy to slide back into the cushiness of a Chrysler 300 for the drive home, even if the seats in the motown monster don't give as much support as I normally like.The ride back to the airport got me thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of a number of vehicles that have recently passed through the Carsguide garage, focusing on how they make you feel in the body instead of in the head. Every week there are emails to CarsGuide from people of age, asking about upgrading - from a conventional passenger car into something in the SUV style that's easier on the hips and legs at mounting and dismounting time.An SUV can look like a good idea on the comfort front, but lots have bench-flat seats, crappy ergonomics and nowhere near enough suspension compliance. The Subaru Forester has a nice ride, but I prefer the seats in the Toyota RAV4. On the car front, the new Nissan Pulsar has seats that do nothing for me, but the Renault Clio is surprisingly comfy for a little, affordable car.My top favourite seat is a Recaro racing bucket that is almost shrink-wrapped to my shape, like a bathtub full of jelly that provides perfect support. But it's just about the toughest seat to get into or away from. So, right now, the first-choice comfort car is a Range Rover. It's stupidly expensive, but everything works for me, from a body that drops down on its air springs for easy access to beautifully-shaped front buckets finished in lovely leather and even a user-friendly automatic gearbox that means my left leg never has to move out of its comfort zone.This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover