Ferrari News

Ferrari’s hardcore 458 Italia, the successor to the 430 Scuderia, has been revealed as the new Ferrari 458 Speciale. The vehicle’s dry kerb weight comes in at 1290kg, which combined with the stouter engine performance means 0-100km/h acceleration in 3.0 seconds flat and 0-200km/h in just 9.1 seconds. See the video here.

One of the big magnets at Frankfurt motor show this year was the dynamic BMW i8 - but performance purists might be horrified to learn the Bavarian muscle car only has a three-cylinder turbo 1.5-litre petrol engine. And an electric motor.But the output is staggering: 170kW/320Nm from the tiny petrol motor and the rest from the electric power plant, for a total output of 266kW and a whopping 570Nm of torque. It goes to 100km/h in 4.4seconds and uses next to no fuel. Try 2.5litres/100km.It's an all-wheel drive model, with the electrics powering the front wheels and the three-potter the rear. Most of the body is of carbon fibre plastic, the suspension and other underbody parts are aluminium and the electric bit can be recharged at home in about four hours.BMW says the i8 is likely to go from concept to production in a matter of months and has even worked out a price for it: US$136,000. It might be a tad more if it comes to Australia.Ferrari produced a 458 Speciale, said to be its 'best V8 ever'. The blue-striped red coupe producing some pretty decent numbers: 445kW/540Nm, three seconds flat from standstill to 100km/h and a top speed of 325km/h.Across the passage Fiat had a flotilla of its cute littlies. There was the 500e, an electric powered one with a 140km range, the 63kW GQ Twinair, a turbo S version with 77kW and one called Living which offered a head-spinning 88kW.Plus a 500 Abarth circa 1959, one of the world's earliest mini hotties, alongside the latest and considerably bigger version. But Alfa Romeo's 4C was possibly the best of the Italian sporting machines, a lovely blend of style, performance and balance at a comparatively affordable price.  

Innovation, many hybrids and all-electrics, some high-powered models and a couple of striking retro-inspired coupes are the highlights of this year's Frankfurt motor show. Throw in some staged antics and the world's biggest car show becomes even better.Volvo set the pace with an unveiling of its Concept Coupe, a technologically advanced number of exceptional grace reminiscent of its iconic P1800 of the 1960s. It embodies what Volvo calls its 'human centric experience' and apart from a host of safety electronics, has the new 2.0-litre four-cylinder motor that will soon replace the brand's five and six-cylinder engines.The engine has turbo and supercharging plus a plug-in electric motor, resulting in V8-like performance, but with minicar fuel consumption. However, the classy coupe is not scheduled for production in the near future. Instead, it marks the capability of Volvo's new architecture and elements of its design will feature on all future models, starting with the new XC90 in about a year.Frankfurt was also used to display a growing trend towards compact premium SUVs. Mercedes-Benz showed its cute new GLA-class SUV with new generation 4matic all-wheel drive, and Infiniti unveiled its Q30 concept, which it said was in a unique class, being a blend of coupe, hatch and crossover. A surprise was the appearance of F1 racing camp Sebastien Vettel, who said he helped sort the Q30's handling.Minutes later, Lexus trumped that by having a couple of giant animated creatures, seemingly from outer space, whip the covers of its new LF-NX, another smallish Crossover concept. It, too, had a hybrid powertrain and despite an enthusiastic description of how it's brushed metal finish made it look as if carved from a single billet of solid metal, it was just plain ugly.Then there were the glam cars: Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, BMW, Aston-Martin and lots of specially-bodied creations from Brabus and similar outfits, scores of Fiats and Smarts, Hyundais and Kias and about 50 more brands. Spread through about a dozen vast halls, they added up to sore feet and bewildered looks as people did their best to absorb the techno and visual overdose of tomorrow's dream machines. 

Russian dash-cam footage may dominate the world of viral motoring videos, but the Middle East still wins when it comes to truly crazy car culture. Whether it's hypercars abandoned in the desert or rich Saudi Arabians posing with supercars and their pet tigers and lions (seriously, that's a thing now), the Internet is awash with very wealthy people doing very silly things. DON'T MISS: Crazy truck jump | video This young kid hooning a Ferrari 458 Italia around a dusty parking lot is the latest, and we're just as confused as you are. Who owns the Ferrari? How do two kids -- the one driving and the one holding the camera -- get access to such a thing? ALSO SEE: Watch a Jaguar XJ220 hoon around a farm | video Luckily, despite shouting what we assume is the Arabic for "watch this!", the kid manages to avoid destroying the 458 as he zips around the parking lot. Impressive age of the driver aside though, it's a bit of a disappointing video. Any true hoon would have turned off the traction control first... Watch video here.  

Hybrids, for a long time, were synonymous with everything that isn't fun about driving--commutes, traffic, gas mileage, and penny pinching. Lately, they've taken on a new high-performance sheen, perhaps nowhere as much so as at Ferrari.The LaFerrari hypercar is, put simply, obscene in its perversion of hybrid technology. We love it. It's a 708kW, no-all-electric-mode, sub-three-second-to-100km/h, more than 350-km/h-top-speed, this-clearly-isn't-about-saving-the-planet hybrid. But don't call it an electric car, or Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo might get a bit cross with you.Why? According to Bloomberg, di Montezemolo doesn't believe in electric cars. Presumably, that means he finds them unsuitable to Ferrari's mission of exclusive performance rather than merely unsuitable for reality.With examples like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive out setting sub-8-minute Nordschleife laps, it's clear EVs can be made quick, if not quite truly fast, but then you'd expect it of a 560kW/1000Nm supercar, whatever fuel delivers that power. Unfortunately, the maximum range of the (roughly) US$550,000 SLS AMG Electric Drive is just 250km even with much more temperate use, and it takes about 20 hours to charge without the optional quick charger. Perhaps that's what di Montezemolo is talking about.Ferrari, meanwhile, is already joined at the upper end of the exotic hybrid segment with the McLaren P1 knocking out similar acceleration and top speed figures, despite sporting just 673kW, and the Porsche 918 Spyder making do with 653kW yet still achieving similar performance.Whose machine will reign supreme? Allez hybrids!www.motorauthority.com 

Ferrari’s hardcore 458 Italia, the successor to the 430 Scuderia, has been revealed as the new Ferrari 458 Speciale.

A 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spyder set a world record on the weekend for the highest price paid at auction for the Italian brand.One of just 10 built, it went for US $27.5m ($29.9m) with buyers fees under the hammer of the RM Auctions event in Monterey, California.That’s still short of the highest price ever paid for any car – again a Ferrari – which is the US$35m ($38m) for a private sale in June last year for a 1962 Ferrari GTO 250 race car originally built for British champion Stirling Moss.However the NART Spyder – named for the North American Racing Team – still went for nearly double the RM Auctions estimate of US$14-17m, and millions more than its original asking price of about $15,000.One of an edition of just 10, the Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spyder was reportedly sold to Canadian fashion Lawrence Stroll – the business brains behind the Tommy Hilfiger brand. 

Ferrari is very picky about who it will afford the opportunity of purchasing its latest supercar. The newest of the mad machines is the LaFerrari, and you need a green light from the automaker before you shell out the big bucks needed to buy it.One Filipino man hopes to add the LaFerrari to his garage... so he was forced to first buy the new F12 before he even has a shot at the LaFerrari. The cost of a F12 Berlinetta is around $836,000 in the Philippines. That's an awful lot of money, especially when spending it doesn't ensure that this well-heeled chap will even get a chance to spend more money on the LaFerrari. Still, if you have that close to a million to spend on one car you possibly didn't want as your main goal, then you likely also have enough to spend more than that on another that is the real target.The automaker apparently requires LaFerrari potentials to have at least five prancing horse-badged automobiles in their stable, and this man figured the F12 would fit the bill. We can't feel too bad for the guy, especially considering his new purchase provides him with plenty of power. Ferrari’s newest flagship, the LaFerrari, is the fastest and most powerful road car ever launched by the company.With 715 kilowatts and more than 900 Newton metres of torque delivered by its V12 hybrid drivetrain, the LaFerrari will accelerate to 100km/h in under 3.0 seconds, hit 300km/h in 15 seconds and go on to reach an undisclosed top speed in excess of 350km/h. We assume he takes his accountant for a spin around the block, and then proceeds to drown out his or her voice with the go pedal. That's what we'd do at least.www.motorauthority.com 

Last week, Spanish authorities arrested eight individuals for running a supercar replica business, where mostly fake Ferraris were built using humble Toyota parts and then sold for upwards of 40,000 euros (approximately $60,000).We have no doubt the people buying the fake cars knew they were fake, but as Ferrari points out, this wasn’t like a reproduction of fine art but just forgeries pure and simple. The practice, says the automaker, is akin to those “fake Hermès bags sold in the streets.”While most fans of the Prancing Horse are unlikely to be fooled by the replicas, to the casual observer we wouldn’t be surprised if the cars were believed to be the real deal.Don’t agree? Just take a quick look at this video from the Spanish National Police, which was posted up on World Car Fans. It shows just a handful of the 19 replicas that were seized last week (17 Ferraris and two Aston Martins) and shows just how deceptive the cars actually were.Not only are the cars’ styling and proportions accurate, their exhausts have been tuned to sound like a genuine supercar. Our only question now is: Who were actually buying the cars?www.motorauthority.com