Or so says Autoblog. They carry on thus:

” … companies like Porsche and Lamborghini say drastic change would effect the underlying character of their products. Ferrari apparently doesn’t feel the same way, … ”

Well of course they don’t feel that way.

Why?

Because Ferrari is a better car company than Porsche and Lamborghini, that’s why.

Lamborghini doesn’t race at all, or at least in no meaningful way (and giving factory support to a few privateers in minor series doesn’t count). And Porsche? Please. Yeah, I know, they’re doing really well with the RS Spyder in the ALMS series … running in LMP2. Sure, sure, they’re beating the LMP1 Audis on shorter courses, but you don’t see them doing that at Le Mans, do you? No. You don’t. Why? Cause they can’t compete there any longer.

Remember when there were tons of rumors flying around about Porsche making a return to Le Mans in ‘01. Then they came out and said, ‘Sorry, we can’t afford to race at Le Mans, we’re putting our engineering resources into other areas.’ And then they put out the Cayenne and it turned out that’s where the engineering resources were deployed: into making a frickin’ SUV for too rich Soccer moms.

A hybrid would “would effect the underlying character of their products”? Sure it would, if you don’t have the engineering muscle to make it work.

Ferrari takes on people like Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatore and crushes them like flabby grapes. You give them a CO2 target or say make it more environmentally friendly, and they can do it.

Autoblog has the full skinny.

The Enzo was perhaps Ferrari’s craziest car ever, but it stopped production in 2004. Since then, we’ve had a number of good Ferrari’s, like the F430 Scuderia, the 599 GTB Fiorano— all stunning cars, but none of them were truly crazy. Now, Ferrari might be introducing a successor to the Enzo in 2010.

Like the Enzo, the successor (currently called Millechili, but that name, thankfully, won’t make it to production), will feature lots of F1 technology as well as F1 styling. It’s supposed to be super light (around 2,200 pounds or so) and very aerodynamic.

Performance-wise, I have no info. But you can expect a V-10 making more than 600 horsepower, and a 0-60 in the low 3 second range. Top speed had better be in the 200+ mph range, and I would love for this thing to get on the top ten list.

As for what the car will look like, I have no idea. The above image is an artist’s rendition by the good folks at Car and Driver. I expect it to look like a more modernized version of the Enzo, with smoother edges and a more fluid shape. But whatever it looks like, expect to pay upwards of $500,000 for Enzo’s successor.

I know I usually do a spec sheet, but I have no info whatsoever.

This is freakin’ hilarious.

According to Automotoportal, there was a highway race between a Bugatti Veyron and a Ferrari 599. This happened in England, on the M27 motorway. The Bugatti was leading in the race for about ten minutes before he got pulled over.

So what happened was a police officer was just sitting there with his radar gun, not really paying much attention to anything, when suddenly this black thing shoots past him, quickly followed by another black blur. Being a policeman, he just has to spoil the fun, so he chases after him, and reaches 140 mph before catching the Bugatti and pulling him over. The Ferrari got away, and since it had no plates, it was impossible to track.

The luckless Bugatti owner got three penalty points and a £60 fine, which is about $120.

Damn, I don’t know how, but they did it- Edo Competition has made the already insane Enzo even crazier.

Along with the visual package, which I don’t like, Edo has given the Enzo more horsepower, more torque, a higher top speed, and overall better performance, thanks to all of the performance upgrades. The engine is an all aluminum V12 behemoth, with Edo’s performance exhaust. Other performance goodies include a new high-flow catalytic converter, a performance muffler, a ram air intake system, better air filters and ECU recalibration. Put it all together and you get the following:

Horsepower is increased from 485 to a monster 700, and top speed is increased from 217 mph to 230. The 0-60 time is now under 3.5 seconds, since 3.5 is for a 0-62 mph, so 3.3 should be about right. A new light-weight clutch and new a transmission control unit provide the same shift times as the uber FXX. Special suspension and light weight wheels and tires complete this awesome package. Not too bad, in fact, this is actually very good. Greenpeace will be screaming bloody murder, but Ferrari has never cared about them before, so no reason to start now. Continue Reading…

“McLaren Readying Ferrari F430 Adversary” or so says the good folks at CarScoop. This has been in the wings, and on again/off again (depending on the relationship between McLaren & Mercedes) for awhile.

My first thought was, “Yeah, McLaren wants it to build a Ferrari F430 adversary, but they got a long way to go to beat that, given that Ferrari has been kicking their ass around the world for the past nine years .”

Look, I’ve got nothing against the McLaren F1; very impressive car in every respect (although Mario Andretti said the car was “aerodynamically spooky”, and the last time he said something like that was when he was racing CanAm, and THAT GUY knows whence he speaks). It’s just that lately, McLaren have been showing themselves to be struggling to maintain 4th place in the constructors championship, being stomped by the likes of Renault & BMW, let alone being able to challenge the likes of Ferrari.

Anyway, the main details come from Autocar in the U.K which basically boil down to this:

The new car, codenamed P11, will be in showrooms by March 2010, the official unveiling is slated for autumn 2009. The P11 will be available in both open-top and hardcore versions of the base model. It will be noticeably lighter and more compact than the Ferrari F430. The Mclaren P11 will be powered by a 550bhp V8 engine, built by Mahle (who bought out the old Cosworth business) in Northamptonshire, possibly based on an existing Mercedes unit. The Spider version of the P11 is expected to appear in March 2011.

OK Ron, let’s see what you can do.

OK … OK … calm down … breath … breath … slow down and breath … stay calm … calm … calm …

It seems that at the upcoming “Ferrari Leggenda e Passione” auction in Maranello, Italy that’s organized by RM Auctions, and by ‘upcoming’ I mean this weekend will feature an extremely rare 1964 Ferrari 250 LM.

It’s been around a lot (relatively speaking for this kind of car); one of its previous owners “converted” it for street use, but it has undergone a recent and complete restoration back to full 1964 racing specs. This 250 LM’s racing provenance is OK, but not stellar. The stated high watermark of its career is ” … in 1965 when driven by Jochen Rindt, it claimed first place at the Austrian Grand Prix.”

To me, these cars have it all.

They’re Italian. They’re red. They’re mid-engined AND they have 12 cylinders. And, best of all they were made for, and dominated The 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world’s great races and THE greatest sports car race still running (maybe The Mille Miglia and The Tagra Florio are better, but they don’t run those anymore, sadly). Few manufacturers can say that, and no one can say it with this much style and grace, and let’s face it purity of purpose as Ferrari can.

RM Auctions says it’s expected to fetch around $6,500,000 - $7,500,000.

It’s worth every penny.