2023 Ferrari SF90 Stradale (phev) Reviews

If you’re looking for a car with some significant history and one very famous owner, then Swedish supercar dealer Garage Zénith might be worth a visit.The officially recognised Ferrari and Maserati dealer has a handful of rare Enzo supercars up for sale, but two of the cars, featured in the gallery left, were previously owned by none other than seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher.Both cars were specially built for the racing legend during his time with Ferrari and come with a number of personal touches including his initials dotted around their interiors.The regular Enzo also has a number of famous signatures under its hood, including that of Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo. Interestingly, it has 8,500 kilometers on its odometer, suggesting Schumacher did manage to drive the car somewhat during the time he owned it.The same can’t be said for the FXX, whose odometer reading is just 900 kilometers, though this makes sense considering the car can only be used at the track and Schumacher has access to much faster track toys.This particular FXX is the only black example of the Enzo-based experimental supercars, of which only 30 were ever built, and it famously appeared on Top Gear back in 2009 with Schumacher taking it for a power lap at Dunsfold Aerodrome.Both of these cars were gifts to Schumacher for his achievements at Ferrari, so it’s odd that they’re now up for sale. If you’d like to own one you’ll have to front up some serious cash; the Enzo will set you back approximately $1.47 million while the FXX will cost you close to $2.67 million.www.motorauthority.com 

We're big fans of hauling the mail on track, but we have learned to rein in our wilder tendencies on the street. That's why games like Need for Speed Rivals are such a good outlet for our excess hooliganism.From the scenes in this official trailer for the upcoming E3 electronics and video game conference, the game appears to offer a level of realism and detail--in looks, if not in consequences--that will help suspend your disbelief as you work out your road-going frustrations. As a bonus, there's the added fun of sticking it to the cops or the crooks, if that's your thing.To be available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Playstation 4, the new game lets the driver play as either the street racer or the cop, living out both sides of the furiously fast scene.As the trailer demonstrates, however, the next generation of car games are going to be truly gorgeous, even video-realistic at times. Let's just hope the gameplay lives up to the look.One of the most striking cars in the game will be the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, as part of a new partnership with the Italian supercar maker. Expect more enticing Ferrari models to come.Underlying the whole game is a network allowing players to transition from single-player to multi-player games at any time, appearing and disappearing at will. Need for Speed Rivals goes on sale November 19, 2013.www.motorauthority.com

The hardcore version of Ferrari’s 458 Italia supercar, the spiritual successor to 2007’s 430 Scuderia, is reportedly being prepped to be unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show this September. The biannual event has been favoured by Ferrari of late for debuts concerning its entry-level mid-engine model, with 2007’s Frankfurt Auto Show playing host to the debut of the 430 Scuderia followed by the debut of the 458 Italia at 2009’s event and the 458 Spider at the most recent 2011 show. Thus, it’s easy to see why Car and Driver is reporting that the new hardcore 458, which some are suggesting will be called the 458 Challenge Stradale or perhaps even a 458 Monte Carlo, will be shown in Frankfurt in just a few months.   Like its predecessors, the hardcore 458 will be lighter than its donor 458 Italia. The previous 430 Scuderia weighed 100kg less than the regular 430, meaning the hardcore 458 could end up weighing about 1300kg. The car is also expected to borrow a number of elements from the 458 Challenge racer, and utilise knowledge learned during development of the new LaFerrari flagship supercar. Look for new gear ratios and a more tightly calibrated tune for the 458 Italia’s seven-speed dual clutch transmission. There should also be stiffer suspension, uprated brakes, stickier rubber and the aforementioned lighter kerb weight. Peak output from the 458’s 4.5-litre V8, meanwhile, is reported to see an increase to around 450kW, up from the current 425kW rating. This is said to be courtesy of forged internals, the redline moved up 300 revs to 9,300 rpm, and the exhaust system made less restrictive. Finally, new aerodynamic features are said to be planned, including the use of active winglets on the rear diffuser. Oh yes, one of the best supercars on the market is about to get a whole lot better. www.motorauthority.com

Luxury car buyers in Australia are paying too much, according to a British exotic brand that has just slashed a massive $100,000 from its local pricetags.

Luxury cars and luxury watches target the same moneyed buyers, so it’s no surprise to see carmakers teaming with watchmakers to produce high-end timepieces. One of the latest is also going to be one of the rarest. Just 50 of the Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari watches will be produced, with a price tag tipped to be $300,000 each ... about 60 per cent of the price of a Ferrari California convertible. Hublot is the official timekeeper for Scuderia Ferrari racing division, and the MP-05 was largely inspired by the engine of the flagship LaFerrari. The titanium and carbon-fibre case houses a face that gives the impression of looking at an engine through the car's glass cover, showing 11 barrels on a spine that holds hand-wound power for 50 days, cylinders that indicate time and power reserve, and anodized aluminium reinforcing bars in Ferrari red. But even at that hefty ask, it's not the most expensive watch Hublot has created -- that honour goes to the Big Bang 5 Million, so named because of its $5 million price tag. See video of Hublot LaFerrari http://video.carsguide.com.au/2381730458/Luxury-watch-celebrates-LaFerrari-engine The Bulgari Octo Maserati was born from two famed Italian names: prestige jeweller Bulgari and iconic sports car brand Maserati. The Octo dial was inspired by the Maserati grille and follows a signature Maserati livery of blue and silver, while the leather strap is styled after the brand’s upholstery – and the case back bears the carmaker’s trident badge. The face has more resemblance to car instrument gauges than a conventional watch layout, with numbering echoing that of speedometers and tachometers rather than the normal 12 numbers. The Bulgari Octo Maserati will set you back about $35,000 – a hefty amount, but a fraction of the $250,000 you’ll shell out for the Maserati Quattroporte, the cheapest of their cars available in Australia. See video of Bulgari Octo Maserati http://video.carsguide.com.au/2383574240/Bulgari-Octo-Maserati Aston Martin and Jaeger-LeCoultre have produced several watches together over nearly a decade – including some that could be used as a transponder to start your Aston Martin DBS. The latest collaboration between the two brands is the AMVOX7 – a $30,000 chronograph with an unusual trigger for the timing function. Activating a lever unlocks the watch glass, and you then press at the 12 o’clock mark to start and stop the timer, and at 6 o’clock to reset it. As with the Bulgari Octo, Jaeger-LeCoultre have echoed a grille for the watch face – in this case the Aston Martin Vanquish. See video of Jaeger-Le-Coutre AMVOX7 http://video.carsguide.com.au/2383570984/Luxury-watch-inspired-by-Aston-Martin-Vanquish And it's not only supercar brands that get in on the watch market. Volvo Trucks have just released one inspired by their long-haul 'FH' rig.  The robust Volvo FH Performance Watch takes design cues from the truck styling, and is the centrepiece for an entire range of clothing and accessories for the fashionable trucker. The design was taken from elements of the new Volvo truck, such as the pattern of the interior and the signature Volvo fonts used for the instrument cluster. And honestly, the watch looks pretty good -- as you'd expect from Swedish design. See video of Volvo FH Performance Watch http://video.carsguide.com.au/2382992721/Big-rig-watch-for-Volvo But unions between the car world and the watch world sometimes produce dreadful offspring. And that was the case when Tag Heuer decided to make an ad in 2009 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their famous Monaco watch – and to feature the actor who made it famous by wearing one in the film Le Mans, Steve McQueen. So far, it all sounds good. But when you edit in a stilted role from F1 champion Lewis Hamilton – and have the two drivers duel for the watch – it becomes a cringeworthy campaign that by rights should have stopped another single Monaco being sold. The fact that people would still consider buying one after seeing the ad is testament to the beauty of the Monaco. Or perhaps to the short memories of its buyers. Check out the ad, and if you’re still interested – or are able to quickly expunge it from your memory – you can find the Monaco in a range of models starting around $3000. See video of McQueen vs Hamilton for Tag Heuer Monaco http://video.carsguide.com.au/2383560778/Steve-McQueen-and-Lewis-Hamilton-duel-for-Monaco  

Wealthy people around the world are snapping up Ferraris and the company is worried the brand might lose its appeal as a symbol of rarefied luxury. As a result, it will scale back production to below 7000 units this year, compared with 7318 last year. “The exclusivity of Ferrari is fundamental for the value of our products,” Chairman Luca Montezemolo told journalists at the company headquarters near Modena, in northern Italy. “We don't sell a normal product. We sell a dream.” Ferrari sales were up 4 per cent in the first quarter, to 1800 units. Mr Montezemolo said he will provide a detailed outlook in the coming months but estimated the drop in unit sales this year will be greater than 1 per cent or 2 per cent. Revenues in the first quarter of the year were up 8 per cent to 551 million euros (approximately $708 million), yielding a net profit of 80.5 million euros (approximately $103 million), which is an increase of 42 per cent over the same period of last year. Mr Montezemolo said Ferrari's engine business - which supplies motors to Maserati, which is also owned by Fiat SpA - will help keep revenues on track as it scales back unit sales. Ferrari recently invested 40 billion euros (approximately $51 billion) in a new V6 engine plant to supply Maserati. The plant began work in January with 100 workers, and there are plans to add another 100 as production builds up. The strength of the Ferrari brand, besides generating more demand than Ferrari cares to supply, also has boosted merchandising, which last year generated 52 million euros ($67 million) in profits. But the chairman dismissed any notion that Ferrari would become a “shirt and polo” company. Mr Montezemolo said that Fiat, Ferrari's main shareholder, supports the move to limit production. And he ruled out an IPO for Ferrari, a possibility that analysts have floated as Fiat looks to merger with its unit Chrysler. Global demand is helping Ferrari buck the ongoing Italian recession. The company is hiring 250 blue collar workers this year as it boosts engine production for Maserati, which has launched the new Quattroporte and will follow soon with the smaller Ghibli as part of Fiat's plans to focus on higher-margin luxury cars to return its European operations to profitability. Mr Montezemolo said Ferrari will invest another 100 million euros ($129 million) in 2013-2015 on new facilities. In all, Ferrari employs 3000 people to produce five production models based on V-8 and V-12 engines. It also makes limited edition exclusives, like the hybrid La Ferrari shown this year at the Geneva Motor Show and which has already sold out to a selected 499 clients, in addition to the Formula 1 program.  All of it, from the foundry for engine heads to an 'atelier' where clients customise their Ferrari's down to the stitching on the leather seats, is located on a leafy green complex that employees can navigate on bicycle. The factory produces 32 cars a day, with one 8am to 5pm shift on the assembly line. “In all of our 7000 cars a year, there doesn't exist one that is like any other,” Mr Montezemolo said. “For me, exclusivity is the strength of the brand. I don't like to speak of luxury. I like to speak of beauty and taste.” The United States remains Ferrari's main market in terms of unit sales, followed by Chinese-speaking nations, Germany and then Britain. Currently, Europe and the Middle East contribute 52 per cent of revenues, America 20 per cent and Asia 30 per cent. By 2017, Mr Montezemolo wants to shift the distribution to 30 per cent each from America and Asia and 40 per cent from Europe and the Middle East. Mr Montezemolo said there are two things that Ferrari will never do as long as he is running the show: make a smaller Ferrari or an all-electric vehicle.  

Ferrari has denied claims it is already at work on a more extreme version of its LaFerrari supercar. The claims were made in an article from Autocar, which has since pulled the original post from its website. The British outlet had based its claims on an interview with the LaFerrari’s chief designer, Flavio Manzoni, in which he said: “When we were producing the original design proposals for LaFerrari, there was one proposal that I thought was especially beautiful. So we decided to keep that one back for something truly special in the future.” Speaking with Carsales, a spokesman for Ferrari said there were no plans whatsoever to build additional, limited edition versions of the LaFerrari, which itself will be limited to just 499 units in total. As for Manzoni’s comments, the spokesman said there were numerous design proposals for the LaFerrari, some of which are being closely guarded by Ferrari as the company would like to use them in the future. He went on to explain that this was incorrectly interpreted by Autocar as confirmation of a more extreme LaFerrari model. “It is entirely normal that some design flourishes will be held back for future products,” the spokesman said. “If we showed all our designs now, they might be stolen by the competition and used by others.” Ferrari’s official rebuttal of the claims should be welcome news to the 499 lucky buyers offered a build slot for the new LaFerrari. As for that “truly special” model mentioned by Manzoni, it’s possible that it could be something along the lines of the original FXX experimental car, which despite being based on the previous Enzo featured its own unique look. www.motorauthority.com  

The LaFerrari supercar is already the fastest and most powerful road car ever built by Ferrari, and if the automaker’s performance claims are to be believed it could just be the most capable production car the world has ever known.For its latest flagship, Ferrari is claiming a 0-100km/h time of under 3.0 seconds, a 0-300km/h time of 15 seconds and a top speed in excess of 350km/h. But could the LaFerrari’s performance envelope be lifted even higher? According to a new report, Ferrari plans to do just that.Autocar, citing LaFerrari designer Flavio Manzoni, reports that there are plans underway for a more extreme version of the car that could be sold in very limited numbers. We’re talking less than ten examples here. “When we were producing the original design proposals for LaFerrari, there was one proposal that I thought was especially beautiful,” Manzoni said. “So we decided to keep that one back for something truly special in the future.”Manzoni didn’t give any hints as to what this more extreme LaFerrari could be, though something along the lines of the previous Enzo supercar’s FXX track version is a possibility and is likely at some point in the car’s life cycle. Another possibility is a lightweight version developed using construction techniques previewed on 2007’s Millechili concept car. The Millechili weighed just 998kg, while the LaFerrari has a dry weight of 1255kg.According to another report from Automotive News (subscription required), Ferrari engineers had envisaged a kerb weight similar to that of the Millechili for the new LaFerrari and even proposed using a twin-turbocharged 3.0 litre V8 engine, though had to change plans when senior management insisted on a naturally-aspirated V12 and hybrid setup.Whatever Ferrari has in store for its more extreme LaFerrari, expect pricing to reach as high as $5 million or perhaps even more. As we’ve seen with Lamborghini’s Veneno, there’s no shortage of well-heeled buyers ready to drop serious cash on limited edition supercars.www.motorauthority.com

News of the stunt first broke a few weeks ago when video, filmed by the father, Mohammed Nisham, went viral on YouTube. The video showed the boy driving the mid-engine supercar on a residential street and with a friend in the passenger seat. Police eventually became aware of the video and have since charged Nisham for encouraging underage driving and for allowing an unlicensed child to drive a vehicle, according to the Times Of India.  Nisham is alleged to have said he allowed his son to drive the car as a surprise on his ninth birthday, after the boy had pleaded for months for permission. The boy’s mother, meanwhile, is alleged to have said that she was proud of her son’s driving skill and was hoping to encourage him. The boy is reported to have driven some of the family’s other vehicles including a Lamborghini and Bentley. While we love to see young people show an interest in cars, allowing a nine-year-old to drive a 360 kilowatt Ferrari is incredibly stupid, especially when you consider that the boy can barely see over the dash, is unlicensed and thus uninsured, and there are several people including children also on the road. www.motorauthority.com <img alt="" data-cke-saved-src="{filedir_1}Ferrari-driving-kid-composite-inpage.jpg" src="{filedir_1}Ferrari-driving-kid-composite-inpage.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 366px;" /><br />  </p>