Ferrari News

JOHN MARTIN and Team Australia only took a 10th and a 12th from the latest round of the A1GP series in Portugal as Team Netherlands took the sprint race and Switzerland scooped the feature event. The feature race win gave Neel Jani his 10th A1GP feature victory, a record for the category, while the overall results for the weekend leave Australia holding 12th place in the A1 championship and trailing well behind pace-setters Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal.CHRIS Dyer has just been promoted to team manager of the Ferrari grand prix team after a crisis meeting intended to get the Italian superteam back on track in this year's world championship. After guiding Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen to world titles as their race engineer the transplanted Australian was originally moved up to chief track engineer for 2009 but - after the worst season start since 1992, with zero points from the first two races - team manager Luca Baldisserri has been switched to a factory job and Dyer has moved up.RYAN Briscoe is favourite as the Indy Racing League makes its first visit to the former heartland of Champ Car racing at Long Beach this weekend. Team Penske took first and sixth with Briscoe and Will Power at the IRL season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg in Florida and is expected to be just as strong on the California street course.MARK Winterbottom has a new website. The lead driver for Ford Performance Racing, and last year's V8 Supercar championship runner-up, is moving to the latest technology and will file from his mobile telephone using the popular Twitter system to keep things current at www.markwinterbottom.comAMERICAN veteran Paul Tracy has finally found a place for this year's Indianapolis 500 despite failing with plans for a fulltime return to racing in the Indy Racing League. Tracy, who has not raced at all since a one-off Champ Car start last July, will drive at Indy with the KV Racing Technology team.SOME of Australia's fastest young rally drivers will go all-out in May to win a fully-paid promotion to the World Rally Championship. They will tackle Rally Queensland, a round of the 2009 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, as the regional qualifying event for the Pirelli Star Driver program. The ultimate prize, if they make it through the whole Pirelli process, is one of five WRC scholarships for 2010. 

The facts are so weighted towards motorsport that the only other contender usually put forward doesn't even have enough stamina to sustain a healthy lunch time argument - eh - discussion. So it was the case for me the other day.My friend and lunching companion tries hard to put up a good argument - but the truth is he has nothing. Sure football has a large following in Europe and a fair section of Asia. Big deal - motorsport has an enormous following everywhere.He offers up the old; “more people watch the World Cup than Formula One”. Rubbish I say .... Well I don't know that for sure .... but never waver in an argument.Someone needs to do the math. World Cup every four years, lots of qualifying games leading up to it - mostly watched by only those countries directly involved. Formula 1, eighteen races every year watched in most countries by millions.Ok then, we get to the – “it's not about the watching it's about the participation. More people play soccer than actually participate in motorsport”. Define participation. Are we talking just drivers or are we including the mechanics, team managers, strategists, pit crews. Are we talking the 120kg Norm that kicks a football at his annual schoolfriends get-together or are we talking grade competition?Grade competition he says with confidence. ........ Starting at under-5's and up through the ranks to professional.Not a bad argument. Most areas have a soccer club - few have a racetrack. .... Changing the line of argument I offer up the old soccer is soccer is soccer. One game, one set of rules. Motorsport on the other hand has F1, F3, A1GP, Formula Ford, Indy etc etc and that's without even leaving the open-wheelers. Then we have rally, drags, touring cars, LeMans, GT Class, historics - the list goes on.There is more money in Football.... You can't buy the Ferrari Team, I counter with. It's priceless.....  Schumacher is worth more than Beckham.“But didn't that guy that Schumacher used to work with just buy the Honda team for a dollar”.Rod Halligan

The fastest open-top Ferrari was unveiled this week in Sydney. The car has an extremely limited production run that will see a mere dozen coming to Australia. Needlesss to say, it’s a stunner. But the numbers add up too. Starting with the name, or nomenclature in true Ferrari terminology; 16M – represents the number of times Ferrari has won the World Constructors Championship. Luca di Montezemolo is personally responsible for the 16M as he requested a car to celebrate last years constuctors title. 499 – the number of 16M to be built, of which 12 have been purchased by Australian cognesenti and 3 will make New Zealand their home. 375 – as in kilowates, the output of the 4.3 litre engine. 470 – the nM of torque established at 5250 rpm 60 – the speed in milleseconds it takes for a gear change when the driver flips the paddle. 80 – the kilograms saved over the standard Spider from the introduction of additional carbon fibre and special light weight wheels as well as the deletion of carpet (not optional) and noise reduction material. 3.7 – the number of seconds it takes to reach 100km/h 315 – the manufacturer quoted maximum velocity in km/h 675,000 – the price in Australian dollars Also of note is that all of the 12 coming to Australia are going to existing Ferrari owners who are purchasing their 16M as an additional car to join their collection.  The Ferrari market is not suffering under the global recession as the production numbers are still limited enough for the clientele to be somewhat immune from the full impact of the crisis. The same cannot be said for the higher production exotics such as Porsche, who have just seen a 29% drop in sales for March in the American market. Also of note is that with the introduction of the new California, Alan Hind -- Ferrari Sales Manager for Italia Motori in Sydney -- says that the market reach is being extended to non-traditional Ferrari buyers who may have been considering a Mercedes SL or higher spec SLK, but for whom the addition of the occasional rear seat in the California is seen as an extra bonus. Another niche grow areas for Ferrari is the female market with three recent buyers of standard F430 Spider and three orders for the new California. Carsguide

Certainly not us. So we were fairly excited to get a press release from the Prancing Horse stable detailing how we could choose a brand new Fezza, spec it up to our individual taste and then drive it around the Mugello race track in Italy in a joust with Michael Schumacher. After shaking the press release vigorously and finding that no airplane tickets or car keys fell out, we read it more carefully and found that it would all happen online. Ferrari has set up a virtual section of their website that allows you to do all that, plus take a tour through their factory and museum. And of course the merchandising area, with more than 2000 products ... and wouldn’t it be great to work out one day how much of their Formula One bill is covered by $100 Ferrari t-shirts being bought by people who will never be able to get within high-octane petrol-sniff of the cars. But we can’t resist the prospect of driving one of them, so we dived into www.ferrari.com to have a shot at it. You could walk around Mugello faster than it takes to get proper access to the site and the goodies you’re after. Perhaps it’s a persistence test. Or some kind of Ferrari exclusivity weeding process. You really have to want to get there. You have to sit through a bit of welcome blurb from the badge’s impeccably-dressed chariman Luca di Montezemolo, but he’s so charming it’s a pleasure. The semi-animated tour of the assembly line, machining and paint technologies part of the factory is fascinating and well worth a look. Curiously, the workers all seem to have been sourced from the Italian head office of Supermodeli’R’Us … not a beer belly or plumber’s cleavage in sight .. and they’re mostly sporting neat little tufts of designer stubble and slickly groomed hair and manicures. In the showroom, we took the California just because it’s gorgeous. But then our unerring taste was aghast to find that you can’t order it in Barbie Pink. So we had it specially ‘resprayed’ in-house for the image here. Yes, we knew you’d appreciate it too. We figure that if you’re shelling out for a Fezza — especially in today’s economy when repossessed ones are cluttering the auction house floors so thickly that in some places they’re being used to prop up wonky desks — you should be able to have it in any colour you damn well want. From there, you can select interior trim and wheels. We were tempted to go for the almost lingerie-skimpiness of the 20” sport wheels, and try and match with pink callipers. But after a lot of consideration we picked the five-spoke diamond finish with black callipers, because the website promised some virtual laps around the Mugello race track against Michael Schumacher, and we thought the 20” footwear might undermine our handling. But to race, first you have to download their racing simulator. And here is where you can run into trouble because while Ferraris might be fast, their download is not. Twenty minutes later (and after all that effort with the pink spraygun) the site informed us that the California we’d chosen and salivatingly accessorised was not available for racing. Never mind, we chose a Scuderia instead, rolled out to the start line and hit the accelerator. And once you’re there, we have to say it’s worth all the effort. The graphics are clear, the track is well-rendered and the noise is impressively realistic. We swear there was a smell of burning rubber in the office a few minutes into the first lap. And that was as far as we got, because after taking out several sections of wall, every tyre bank — and a couple of race stewards, for all we know – we thought it best to retire. Apparently, instead of simply racing against Schuey, there’s a section where you can get him to give you driving advice. We didn’t need to bother. It would have been a resounding “Give up now. Please!”

Last week’s Pickles auction in Sydney sold a late-model Ferrari GTB with just 2293km on the clock for $355,000, plus the 33 per cent Luxury Car Tax component.The car was nabbed by Ateco Automotive Ltd, which distributes Ferrari in Australia and has since been onsold to an enthuasist.Ateco spokesman, Edward Rowe, says the GTB was now back in the Ferrari fold.“Ferrari guards its residual values jealously,” Rowe says.Although Rowe would not comment on the price paid, Carsguide believes it was well over $500,000 and just shy of its new car price of about $600,000.The Ferrari was one of several high-end cars that went through Pickles quarterly luxury and exotic auction.More than $4.5 million worth of vehicles went under the hammer.Other rich pickings included a 2006 Aston Martin Vantage sold for $162,000 and a 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo all-wheel-drive fetched $280,000. Even with the LCT component added into the price the cars were bargains.Some home-grown performance cars also sold.A 2007 Ford Performance Vehicles F6 Typhoon fetched $38,500, not bad when new it cost $63,310.Apart from Pickles, GraysOnline and ManheimFowles auction houses are reporting a lift in distressed prestige sales by finance companies and cash-strapped owners and the economic crisis bites.For the managing director of GraysOnline, Cameron Poolman, the downturn is proving a boon.He says the traffic on Grays’ site has increased more than 25 per cent since the economy took a dive.“We expect that it will continue to rise,” he says.“People are still looking to buy but they’ll try to get it at a reduced price.”Poolman says GraysOnline has helped take out the middle-man and dealers.The upside of increased interest in cars going through auction houses is that it is helping push used values up.Private owners and fleets are holding on to their cars for longer, leading to a shortage of used stock coming into the market.This is lifting used prices of some popular late model cars by up to $1500.

Well you're too late.

Probably not, but we all have to dream. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa qualify on talent but now the Italian supercar company is easing the way for some of its most committed and cashed-up fans. Anyone with a proven history as a Ferrari owner can help with testing and development of the latest Ferrari 599XX - provided they also have the cash to splash on their own test car. Ferrari has already run a program with the Enzo FXX - which Michael Schumacher has as one of his personal cars, splashed in matt-black paint - and now it's doing the same with a 599XX which will only be available for use at special Ferrari-organised test track days. The 599XX was one of two cars revealed this week at the Geneva Motor Show, alongside the 599 GTB Fiorano with a performance pack called the HGTE kit. The letters stand for Handling GT Evoluzione and the pack runs to stiffer springs and rear anti-roll bar as well as A re-calibrated Manettino control system which adjusts the the 599 HGTE’s magneto- rheological shock absorbers for a more racetrack-like drive. The Fiorano - named after Ferrari's private test track - also gets a lower ride height, grippier performance tires, an upgraded version of the F1-SuperFast transmission with faster shifts and improved accelerator response, and a raunchier exhaust. Visually, the Fiorano picks up 20-inch wheels, a rear air diffuser and a cabin with carbon fibre seats trimmed in two-tone leather and alcantara. There is no news yet on sales plans or prices for the 599XX or the Fiorano, but there is almost zero chance of either car coming to Australia.

Fast and flashy. That's the Geneva show of 2009 in two words.

...by saying the show required `specialist equipment’. The accusations about fake vehicles were made after one of the suppliers to the show at Sydney’s Acer Arena spotted the cars backstage and became suspicious about what was under the bonnets. During the show, fans looked on in wide-eyed wonder as three Ferrari F360s chased each other around the ring, missing each other by a few centimetres in a casual disregard for their $370,000 price tag. Other eagle-eyed fans smelled a rat however when they spotted irregularities in the body work of the cars which were missing a rear air vent. The music was so loud it was difficult to hear the noise of the Ferraris which ordinarily would be unmistakable. The cars were actually Toyota MR2s fitted with body kits to look like Ferraris. The same thing happened on the South African leg of the tour, but the producers fessed up to the substitution beforehand, explaining the cars were on their way to Australia. Of course it begs the question what happened to them? “Top Gear Live is a mix of the usual Top Gear fooling around, exotic cars and extremely exciting, live-action stunt driving,” the show’s spokesperson Gemma Courtenay says. “Stunt driving requires highly specialist equipment. In this sense Top Gear Live is no different from any cinema or theatrical production.” Jeremy Clarkson and the Richard Hammond took Top Gear on the road in October, playing to some 250,000 people, with 67 shows in six countries. A “local” filled in for missing presenter James May at each port of call. For Sydney, it was Top Gear Australia’s Steve Pizzati, or Pizza Boy as Clarkson kept calling him. There’s no mention of the Ferrari fiasco on Top Gear Australia’s website, just the news that anchor Charlie Cox has been replaced by jazz great James Morrison for the second series which goes to air later this year. The sleight of hand strikes at the very core of Top Gear’s DNA which draws much of its excitement from the fact that’s it’s all real and that they don’t mind trashing the odd Ferrari or two in the name of entertainment – hang the expense. Or so everybody thought . . . The fake Ferraris were in fact Ferrenzos, Toyota MR2s with body kits that are designed to look like the real thing for a faction of the cost.  

...in the annual ‘Automobiles of Amelia Island’ held by RM Auctions in March. Headlining the list – with an estimated hammer fall of around US$3 million ($4.65m) is a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder. The Pininfarina-penned design rendered into metal reality by auto maestros Scaglietti, and carrying a 179kW 3-litre V12 engine and a four-speed manual gearbox, is the 23rd of a total of about just 50 LWB Spyders ever built. Built for Prince Alvise Hercolani of Modena, who sold it six months later to race driver Wolfgang Seidel, it features unusual front fender vents and bonnet air intake. Also showcased in the auction listing is the `Yellow Peril’ 1911 Oldsmobile Autocrat race car, with an enviable track history dating up to classic events in the 1980s, but with many early trophies in its cabinet are from races on dirt. It’s said to have often competed with the fenders and lights removed for weight savings, and had a home-made fuel system that was a pioneering version of fuel injection. Other cars going on the block include a 1954 Packard Panther-Daytona Roadster concept car – the only roadster version of the mere four Panther concepts built – with a one-piece fibreglass body and the first of the company’s wraparound windscreens. Another rare concept is the 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl Phaeton, which was put to work as a pace car for the Indianapolis 500 and then retained by Walter P. Chrysler. There is also a supercharged 1939 Bugatti Type 57C Faux Cabriolet known as `Charmaine, one of the last Bugattis built before WWII and tipped to possibly go for as low as $850,000, a 1953 Cunningham C-3 Cabriolet that could be yours for as little as $620,000, and a private collection of 1932 Fords – including a Roadster, a Cabriolet, a Woodie and a rare Ute. Other cars on the list – and featured in our photo gallery — include Top 10 car auction records (US$ prices) 1 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Cal Spyder R M May-08 $10,894,400 2 1931 Bugatti Royale Type 41 Christie’s Nov-87 $9,800,000 3 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM R M May-07 $9,281,250 4 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster R M Oct -07 $8,252,201 5 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe Gooding Aug-08 $7,920,000 6 1929 Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK Bonhams Sep-04 $7,443,070 7 1904 R olls-Royce 10hp Bonhams Dec-07 $7,254,290 8 1962 Ferrari 250 LM R M May-08 $6,979,000 9 1931 Bugatti Royale Type 41 Kruse Jun-86 $6,500,000 10 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM R M Aug-01 $6,490,000