Video: Two Girls, a Red Ferrari F430, a Parking Job

It's become something of spectator sport over in Europe and chiefly in London: people equipped with a handy cam waiting for a hot car to pass by to record it and upload the video on Youtube.

As with anything else in life, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it does not and our amateur producers are left with a bitter taste in the mouth.
This particular video sent in by one of our readers caught our attention mainly due to the fact that there were two young females in the red Ferrari F430 and to a lesser extent, the rather mediocre parking job. If you have a few minutes to spare, watch it after the jump.

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Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am

Italian sports carmaker Ferrari has set its eyes on the North American Grand Am series, which it plans to compete in with the new 458 Italia Grand Am that was given its track baptism today at the Fiorano circuit completing several laps in the hands of Maurizio Mediani and Jaime Melo.

Developed in cooperation with Michelotto Automobili, the racing model is based on the European GT3 version of the 458 Italia but features less efficient aerodynamics as well as a detuned V8 delivering 500-horses due to the different regulations in the American series.
In addition, the Grand Am sports a modified braking system, as the car has neither ABS nor traction control.
Other differences compared to the GT3 include the strengthened roll-over bar to deal with the more frequent collisions in the American series, while the car is also fitted with Continental tires, the sole supplier to the series.

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Ferrari World Design Contest

For the past few months, design students from 50 universities across the globe took up Ferrari’s challenge of designing a future supercar for the famous Italian brand. Now, following the completion of the second phase in which seven schools were chosen to move to the final round, we have a winner.
Drum-roll please…and the winners of the Ferrari World Design Contest are…the students from Seoul’s Hongik University. The South Korean school finished first ahead of the second-placed IED of Turin in Italy and London’s Royal College of Arts.
The first three winning models are:

1) Eternità– Kim Cheong Ju (Rep. of Korea), Ahn Dre (Rep. of Korea), Lee Sahngseok (Rep. of Korea) – Hongik University (Seoul)
2) Xezri– Samir Sadikhov (Azerbaijan ) – IED (Turin)
3) Cavallo Bianco – Henry Cloke (UK), Qi Haitao (China) – RCA (London)

Following the announcement of the winners, Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo commented:
“Ferrari World Design Contest represents a window that we want to keep open on the world and the creative energy of the next generation. I saw at first hand the many genuinely innovative ideas that these talented youngsters sent us and could feel the enormous passion and commitment that had gone into them. I am certain that some of these suggestions will come to light in the Ferraris of the future.”
The Italian company said that the all of the design concepts focused on reducing weight and fuel consumption, the latter through alternative propulsion systems, and in particularly hybrid engines.
Commenting on the winning design from Korea, the Eternità (pictured in the opening photo), Ferrari stated: “The Seoul students provided the finest interpretation of Ferrari’s design brief for a thoroughbred hypercar brimming with new generation technologies and materials, an extreme (“hyper”) car not only in its architecture but also in every other aspect.”

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Ferrari 458 Starts Drag Race In REVERSE!!

Before you watch the following video, take a minute to ponder this: You are sitting behind the steering wheel of an exotic, brand new Italian supercar, getting ready to drag race a V10-powered Dodge Viper on the quarter mile strip in front of a crowd of 100, or perhaps even more people. But when the race begins you start rolling backwards…

Oh yes, that’s right; the owner of the Ferrari 458 Italia that you’re about to see in the clip and who was pitted against a Dodge Viper at the ICAR motorsports complex situated just outside of Montreal in Canada, paddle shifted his car’s dual clutch auto transmission into reverse!

True, anyone can make a mistake, but can you really think of a more embarrassing moment on the track?

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Ferrari Says: No to Plans for New Stratos

“Despite Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s excellent assessment of the New Stratos after his test drive at Fiorano, Ferrari does not consent to construction of the planned limited run by either Pininfarina or any other Ferrari-dependent suppliers.”

And with the above short statement, Ferrari announced to Michael Stoschek, the man behind the 21st century interpretation of the famous Lancia Stratos of the ‘70s, that it won’t let him use its chassis, engines nor allow any of its suppliers to participate in the build.

Therefore, if the company wants to build a limited run of the New Stratos, they won’t be able to use the 360 Modena, F430 or 458 Italia as donors, nor rely on Pininfarina to build the carbon fiber bodywork, as originally planned. As Stoschek himself put it, they’ll have to do so “only via companies that are not dependent on Ferrari”. Currently the only car in existence is based on a Ferrari F430 Scuderia.

Come on, Ferrari, your boss said he was so impressed and now you get cold feet? What are you afraid of? Surely, your long waiting lists won’t be hurt by a limited run of 40 or perhaps even less examples of the New Stratos.

We hope some other company, preferably Italian in order to keep the character, will step in and help the New Stratos be built.

What do you say, Lamborghini; are you interested? You already have the hardware – the Gallardo and its V10 would make an excellent donor car. Wouldn’t you like to go against your arch-rival and earn the respect of car enthusiasts all over the world?

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Ferrari 599 GTO: The new car Cristiano Ronaldo

Football star, Cristiano Ronaldo long as it's known as automotive enthusiasts, especially the latest sports cars. And most recently, the Portuguese footballer was caught riding a new car, the Ferrari 599 GTO.

Ronaldo some time ago was found driving a Ferrari 599 GTO painted black. Local media had dubbed the last car as the car Ronaldo aka Batman Batmobile.

One of the world players are now grazing with Real Madrid was driving a Ferrari 599 GTO to go eat at a Japanese restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal.

To note, the Ferrari 599 GTO is the car Ferrari terkencang ever made for the car on the highway.

Just imagine, Ferrari 599 GTO is able to accelerate from zero speed to 100 km / h in just 3.4 seconds with top speeds reaching 334.7 km / hour. Wow.

The ability of the GTO is its own beast derived from a V12 engine with a capacity of 6000 ccr with 6 speed transmission that can take a malignant GTO spraying power to 661 bhp with torque reaching 347 ft-lb is able to be achieved at 8250 rpm.

In addition because of the engine, the GTO toughness obtained also for some applications and designs are used in the Ferrari Formula 1 car prototype design they like 'nose' cars, spoilers and legs are finally capable of delivering up to 144 kg of downforce.

And to control a mad-powered car, then the chassis feels very influential role. Well, the Ferrari engineers also was also thinking the same thing, that's why they focus on this section until it can achieve a mix that makes the car almost did not have the effect of understeer (the car's rear wheels slip out of the track the way it should).

The power car that weighs 1295 kg is claimed Ferrari is more ferocious than the legendary Ferrari Enzo. GTO in the test circuit in a Ferrari at Fiorano even able to beat the speed record up to 1 second Enzo is faster.

Because that's not surprising that a car that stands for Gran Turismo has Omologata (GTO) is produced only in accordance with its name and in a very limited number of only 599 units.

While the Ferrari brand in the eyes of Ronaldo is not the foreign goods. There are several Ronaldo Ferrari in the garage of the house. In his garage even thought Ronaldo has a diverse collection of sports car when the calculation reaches two million pounds.

In 2009, Ronaldo was crowded even reported because of an accident with his Ferrari 599 GTB on a tunnel in Manchester on his way to Manchester United's training ground. Although the time of the accident, the car looks bad, but Ronaldo is not injured. Via: otodetik

Red Bull Takes the Front Row in Qualifying with Webber in Pole Position

The unpredictable weather conditions made the qualifying of the British Grand Prix something of a gamble, and the teams weather forecasts were expecting rain during the final session. So everyone made sure that they got out quickly in order to set a fast time before it started to rain again.

Once again Sebastian Vettel was the man to beat, setting a provisional pole. But this was not to last as his team mate, Mark Webber, recorded a fastest lap just seconds later beating Vettel by just 0.032 seconds.

Behind the Red Bull-occupied front row were the two Ferraris. Third place went to Fernando Alonso, who was just 0.1 seconds slower than Vettel and fourth to Felipe Massa, with the Scuderia obviously very happy with the progress they have made.

Jenson Button’s McLaren was fifth, but his team mate Lewis Hamilton couldn’t manage anything better than 10th place in his home Grand Prix. The surprise of the day was the performance of Paul di Resta, who in his rookie period brought his Force India to the sixth place of the grid.

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Massa Shines in the Rain

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the quickest time in Friday’s afternoon practice session of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, which takes place this weekend at Silverstone. Just minutes before the beginning of the session, heavy rain started to fall, with all cars staying in the pits for half an hour because of the condition of the track.

However, in the last 20 minutes conditions improved slightly and the teams decided to send their cars out of the pit lane. At first Michael Schumacher, on wet tires, set the fastest time until one minute before the end of the session.

But with the track drying up the rest were able to use intermediate tires and Massa, with 1:49.967, 0.777 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber.

2011 champion and current points leader Sebastian Vettel was 18th, one spot behind the second Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

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Ferrari North Europe Brightens the Lives of 50 Children

On Tuesday, July 26, 50 special children will enjoy being driven around the Silverstone circuit in a Ferrari California by professional racing drivers from the British Racing Driver’s Club along with “BRDC SuperStars”, young drivers learning to be the professionals of tomorrow.

Ferrari North Europe organizes the event for the second time in collaboration with the BRDC and two charities, The Variety Club and BEN, to brighten the lives of some disabled, disadvantaged and seriously ill children. During the children’s 15-minute ride in the passenger seat of the California, their families will have access to the BRDC Clubhouse.

Matteo Torre, Ferrari North Europe’s Regional Manager, commented: “It is our honour and privilege to be able to share the excitement of riding in a Ferrari with another group of truly deserving children. Last year’s event was unforgettable, not only for the children but for all those who donated their time and energy. We look forward to create another memorable day”.

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1:24 Scale Supercar Exotics Encased In Resin

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a 1970's style resin “sculpture” made by an unknown French artist and featuring various 1:24 scale Ferraris.
There’s also a Lamborghini Diablo, Jaguar XJ220 and Bugatti EB110 in there among others. Props to anyone who can help us identify the rest. The unusual item is being sold by Mantiques Modern [sic] of New York.
For details on price, you’ll have to contact the dealer, but something tells us it won’t be cheap… More photos of the artsy piece in the gallery 

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McLaren Will Spend $1 billion to Challenge Ferrari and Lamborghini

After Lotus, Italian supercar makers have another British contender challenging their supremacy. McLaren is the most successful team in Formula 1 after Ferrari, and yesterday opened its first dealership in the most prestigious part of London.
According to a news report from Bloomberg, the British automaker has much broader plans: its managing director, Antony Sheriff, revealed in an interview that McLaren Automotive intends to spend as much as $1 billion in developing and marketing costs to launch 13 new models and variants in the following years to challenge the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini.
“I see it as a fantastic challenge to come to the market with a new brand” said Executive Chairman Ron Dennis in Bloomberg Television late last night.
McLaren has already invested about $320 million to develop its 458 Italia challenger, the $200,000 MP4-12C and last month unveiled its $500,000 racing counterpart. The street-legal version of the MP4-12C, which at this point is McLaren’s sole production car, has already proven to be a hit, with more than 2,000 orders and a two-year waiting list.

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Lotus CEO Talks About: Ferrari 458 & McLaren MP4-12C

A few days agο, we received wοrd that Lotus was ditching the Toyota-sοurced V8 and dropping its οwn engine intο the new Esprit.

Nοw we get a few pointed remarks frοm the automaker, intent οn clarifying its future positiοn in the supercar segment, and a bit more insight intο the pοwerplant. Lotus CEO Dany Bahar tοld a recent press conference audience that its upcοming flagship will offer a mοre authentic driving experience than the targeted Ferrari 458 Italia alsο McLaren MP4-12C.

Thοse are fighting words, directed at very lοfty rivals.

Furthermοre, according tο Bahar, any injection οf KERS-style (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) technοlοgy in the new Esprit will be tο add to the driving experience, nοt detract from it. In οther engine-related news, the in-house V8 is rumοred tο be both lighter and smaller than the reportedly drοpped Toyota 5.0-liter.

The new eight shοuld debut with a power rating οf about 570 hοrsepower. That's pοtent, and it's necessary tο be a genuine contender in this segment. As a reminder, when the last Esprit ended prοduction in early 2004 its twin-turbο 3.5-liter V8 was rated at "οnly" 350 horsepower.

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