On the last season of Top Gear, F1 Champ Michael Schumacher took the top of the list on the Top Gear lap times, completing the track with his personal Ferrari FXX in 1 minute, 10.7 seconds - nearly seven seconds faster than the next fastest car (Gumpert Apollo,) which is an incredible feat. British supercar maker Ultima was less than impressed, however, and bet their track-tuned (and street legal) GTR720 could beat the track-only FXX around the track.

Ultima claims that Top Gear producers have refused to allow them to test the Ultima GTR on the track, however, and had to take it upon themselves to rent some track time from McLaren to do their tests… Continue Reading…

To pay homage to the Ferrari F430, German tuners Novitec Rosso took a 430 Scuderia and made it into quite a beast. The Ferrari 430 Scuderia, with its 510 horsepower V8, was no slouch in stock form. Novitec, however, added two superchargers to the engine which pushes the 4.3-liter powerhouse to an incredible 747 hp (hence the name.)

The conversion wasn’t as simple as bolting on a coupe of blowers, though. As you might imagine, it took some extra engineering to coax out those extra 237 ponies. Each cylinder bank in the Novitec Edizione 747 has its own intercooler, which feature their own dedicated water-cooling system. The system’s radiator is placed behind specially created central air ducts in the front apron. Novitec also created a new underbody for the 430 Scuderia, which feature an integrated air deflector, routing the air through a larger custom intake manifold. Continue Reading…

Miss out on your chance to pick up a Ferrari FXX? German tuning firm Edo Competition’s got your back. It may not be identical to the FXX, but it’s clearly what they’re going for in their latest iteration of the Enzo. Plus, I’m sure it’s cheaper than the $1.9 million FXX asking price, and you can drive it on the street!

So what Edo did was take a stock Ferrari Enzo at 660 horsepower, and bore out the cylinders from 6.0 to 6.3-liters (just like the FXX.) They added new camshafts, valve springs, connecting rods, and cylinder heads to the engine. New high-flow headers, catalytic converters, and mufflers were added on the exhaust side, and a new air intake system allows for better breathing. These changes allow the engine to produce 180 more horsepower than the stock Enzo, now up to 840 hp. The FXX “only” gets 800. Continue Reading…

Finally, Ferrari unveils the long-awaited 458 Italia, the replacement for the F430. The 458 Italia is replacing the F430 as the next iteration in the line of Ferrari V8 GT cars. The 458 Italia is all-new from the ground up, not using a single element from the outgoing F430.

It will feature a 4.5-liter naturally aspirated V8 capable of about 570 hp - quite a jump from the F430’s 483 hp - and sports a seven-speed F1 dual-clutch gearbox, which maximizes torque at lower RPMs. 80% of the car’s 398 lb-ft is available at only 3,250 RPM. This allows the 458 Italia to reach 0-62 mph in under 3.4 seconds and reach a top speed of 202 mph - the first V8 GT Ferrari in the 200 mph club. Continue Reading…

The tuning firm Novitec Rosso just can’t keep their hands off of various Ferraris. In this case, we’re talking about the Ferrari 599 GTB, a very potent car to begin with. There’s always more power and performance to be gleaned from any given car, even one as good as a Ferrari 599, so what does Novitec Rosso have up their sleeve?

They summed it up this way: An Extra 40 hp, Striking Design and Exclusive Accessories.

OK, no probs there really. The world being what it is, they’re probably hitting three of their target markets main areas of focus: Performance, aftermarket appearance “upgrades” and nick-knacks.

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Nasty. That’s the first word that springs to mind when I see mention of Ferrari’s 288 GTO. It was a car that grew out of the 300 “series” (the 308 of Magnum PI fame, the 328 & 348) and eventually lead to the wicked F40 …which begat the F50 … which lead to the current King of The Road, the Enzo. From these comparatively modest beginnings came a car that looked better than its original base, out-performed anything else the factory was making at the time and became highly collectable.

And a whole slew of them gather together at this year’s Monterey Historics.

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