All Entries in the "FERRARI" Category
A Day in the Life of a Ferrari 458 Italia
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img via YouTube ::: Ferrari 458 Italia
SOME people live for this $#!T.
I’m not sure how or why, really. It’s the soprano bray of yet another Ferrari exhaust that falls short of registering the auto’s Italian aria on your PC’s speakers via compressed streaming video.
This video, if it’s honest, is third party stalker spy footage shot by some Dutch Volvo drivers who really do like their Italian hot metal.
And with nearly 300K views, a small but significant sample of the Petrolhead Party hath spoken for the wider whole.
We love (apparently) watching a video of some random guy drive a new Ferrari down the road at pedestrian speeds – stopping by the garage, the supermarket, the laundromat, the Five ‘n Dime, etc. Short of driving the car ourselves, that is.
Was that a burble I just heard?
Here it is – the Ferrari 458 Italia in all its suburban, if élite glory.
Enjoy!
eBay Watch: Texan Ferrari F50 Needs a Connoisseur’s Love
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Med Pro Auto via eBay
FERRARI’S F50 hasn’t gotten a fair shake.
It’s as though connoisseur lust for Maranello flagships jumped a decade between the Cindy Crawford F40 and the Angelina Jolie Enzo. There’s just no apparent love for the F50’s swoops and undulating curves or the tail-out drama that gave the 90’s prancing horse its own flair.
Of course, Ferrari would have only made 349 examples.
And, of course, this keeps sightings rare as many owners keep theirs locked away as prized principessas; waiting for their car’s day in the sun once more.
Like less valuable rare currency, there are four times as many F40s in circulation. Perhaps that’s part of the older thoroughbred’s broader appeal among Ferrari aficionados? Quantity in this instance led to wider popularity?
No, in truth there’s more to the F40’s street-racer shtick, plus its thrilling and unique twin-turbo V8 that won hearts and minds. Little consolation for the F50’s 4.7 Liter V12 which bested the F40’s 196 mph top speed by achieving 202 mph.
This ebay auction item from Dallas-based Med Pro Auto Group (sounds like a healthcare provider; does the car come with dental coverage?) is targeting the discerning buyer. Those artful shots portraying that sensual form of an exotic with a not-inconsiderable 8,006 miles on the clock; this 1995 red over black-red F50 is a sparkling spectacle.
Current bid stands at $650K and the reserve has yet to be met.
Ferrari Snubs Detroit Auto Show, But Shows Support For Chrysler
By Gunnar Heinrich
SIGNALING an end of days for the all-encompassing, omnipotent, omniscient, and hugely expensive auto show is nigh, Ferrari took the unusual step of announcing that its official display will not grace the upcoming the North American International Auto Show (a.k.a. “Detroit Auto Show”).
But in a curious twist, Ferrari also announced that a Ferrari 599XX will be on display at the Chrysler stand to “celebrate the Fiat-Chrysler partnership”.
It’s a strange world we live in. But then again, times were a lot stranger in earlier days.
To mark this momentous occasion and in the spirit of amity, Ferrari stablemate and Fiat subsidiary Maserati didn’t announce that they wouldn’t display a Chrysler TC by Maserati as a tribute to the Trident’s former partnership with ChryCo.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? Exotics @ Foxwoods
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Phil Dunphy for ADLX
LET’S see: how to compliment a mostly male gathering of one hundred sports cars at Foxwoods Casino to raise awareness for the ongoing battle against breast cancer?
Well, aside from lunch at the Hard Rock, a crisp autumnal road trip through scenic New London County, Conn. there were some other visual flourishes that added value to the event. Our man Phil catelogues them nicely with his camera.
Decisions, decisions: Lamborghini edge or Ferrari curve?
The rally was set against the world’s largest casino. A colorful backdrop, to be sure.
Models advertising Private Jet Charters were on call that morning.
Apparently, the pain of standing in heels got to more than a few as the morning wore on.
They persevered, nonetheless.
As did the event’s planner, Manolis Christo.
Color coordination was a recurring theme…
…as you might’ve guessed.
For one, Bumble Bee from Transformers blended well in Camaro yellow.
Getting ready to rally.
FerrariChat.com member Lane Baker coordinates route plans. No speeding!
A tall order considering the old rivalries represented here.
But then again, not too tall an order. One hundred cars on Connecticut backroads creates its own special kind of traffic.
Much to some local’s apparent appreciation.
Super Car Rally @ Foxwoods
HOW could it be that whilst on the grounds of the world’s largest casino – so large it’s said that Foxwoods’ annual intake would account for 20% of Las Vegas’ gross winnings – that yours couldn’t find the time to gamble?
Not a penny slot. Not a quick turn at the roulette table. Not a few numbers in the bingo hall. Nada.
No matter, I had good cause for distraction. The best actually.
In what may go down in the history books as one of Connecticut’s largest informal gatherings of exotic cars, last Sunday SuperCarRoadTrips.com founder Manolis Christo with the help of some very enthusiastic sports car enthusiasts organized a rally spectacular that drew Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses, Maseratis, and the odd Pantera and McLaren SLR from across the land (or southern New England, to be more geo specific).
It was an astounding sight. Foxwoods hosted. And the Hard Rock Cafe’s Pinktober charity partnered with SuperCarRoadTrips.com in an effort to raise some awareness and support for Breast Cancer. Drivers were offered a prix-fixe $17 a head lunch at the restaurant onsite.
There were plenty of side shows. A man who seemed a little down with his lot in life showed up as Bumble Bee from Transformers providing a funny, if melancholic distraction while a team of models from 80’s fashion label Jordache posed in front of a brilliant, tutto rosso F40.
Local car dealer extraordinaire Herb Chambers made an entrance in his own, particularly rare Ferrari 275 GTB*.
The event provided for another impromptu opportunity: the reunion of none other than our very own BMW Enthusiast Trio Hardy Drackett, Newt Clark, and Richard Wolf.
The air was thick with emotion.
Of course it wouldn’t have been a true exotic rally without the requisite Sunkist yellow Italian contingent.
As well as a smart, lean = mean set of road-legal roadsters from LotusTalk.com.
There was, however, a paucity of Porsches. And somewhere else that lovely morning, stewed a bevy of bruised egos. Apparently, more than a few German car registrant hopefuls were turned down. This led to sniping in some quarters: if so ‘n so’s Porsche got rejected from taking part in the rally, then why did that Mustang or that Infiniti get accepted?
It was an Italian party, gentlemen.
Manolis, the event-planner-in-chief recently did a reverse-Clarkson and traded in his AMG SL Benz for a Ferrari F355 Spider. Not that he had a moment to enjoy his car on Sunday.
In a subsequent email, Manolis expounded a little bit on what SuperCarRoadTrips.com was really about:
“[SuperCarRoadTrips.com] packages the best possible roads and social venues in the form of well organized events,” he wrote. “I seek to attain the premiere exotic car club for the North East. The twist being that it’s free to its members and comprised of a variety of exotic car makes.”
Luckily, the owner of this Mercedes McLaren SLR made the cut.
As did our Uncle Richo’s legendaryE39 M5.
Following an hour’s jaunt through southeastern Connecticut which included Mystic seaport, the procession of prancing horses and glistening tridents made its way back to Foxwoods.
Event planner Lane Baker, a mildly stressed 348 Ferrari owner from FerrariChat.com, was elated that the rally went off more or less hitchless. At least on his watch.
It was with not a moment too soon, then, that after a morning of gawking at exotics and parading around New London County the party segued inside to Shrine Lounge at the MGM Grand.
In a final twist in events, clothing designer Andy Jacques provided a sartorial cap to the day with a brief fashion show showcasing his own singular brand of couture based on sports car themes.
Karl Lagerfeld probably won’t call, but the display was lively and well received.
Meravigliosa!
___
*Corrected
Part II: Ferrari Road Trip
WHERE were we?
Ah yes… convoys, Ferraris, and Autumn View Farms.
Not to be confused with online listings for “Autumn View Farms” in ME or MD, but rather Autumn View Farms of Warren, Massachusetts.
Nestled sweetly between soft ridgelines near crystal lakes about 20 clicks from the Connecticut border at Staffordville, Autumn View is a horse farm owned and operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Smith (truly).
Today, this corner of the Bay State is the platform for an amazing showcase of Ferraris, Porsches, Alfa Romeos, BMWs, and the like.
The Smiths have a clear appreciation for thoroughbreds.
Which helps explain why their lovely equestrian setting has capped another season of Ferrari owner get-togethers for the second year in a row.
The September sunshine is giving the fields a summer cast that contrasts with the dark deciduous forest of yonder hills.
There’s a long, loose stone driveway (that no one is using!) which leads to a pleasantly low-key house and cuts left to a large brown barn. Inside the barn are immaculately kept stables with gorgeous horses giving the attendant crowd sidelong glances; occasionally reaching through the bars snorting appeals for carrots or oats.
The horses have an easy life at Autumn View. As do the thoroughbreds that have assembled here. Behind the house, two rows of Italian and German autos point uphill.
Ranging in ages, like a popular FM station – playing your favorites from 70s, 80s, 90s and today – one exotic after the next makes an entrance in a grand parking parade.
Like some die-hard Cranberries or Sheryl Crow fan, I keep wanting the same 90s tracks at first – the F355s and 348s. Sigh, childhood. Memories. Ferrari Challenge Series at Lime Rock. Road & Track.
To my mind’s eye, the 355’s were perfection. In red, the 90s Berlinetta was the quintessential Italian mid-engined sports car. Achingly beautiful. Idiosyncratic. Supremely well proportioned.
Charms in banana yellow.
Seduces in jet black.
But speaking of mellow-yellows, I encounter Jay who proceeds to tell me about his yellow on black 355 f1. He bought it from a Floridian last year and brought it up north to New England’s inhospitable clime. As we take in the pleasing view of a Ferrari V8, he tells me that every few years the belts need changing as part or a routine service.
He suggests that if this routine was carried out by Ferrari, the bill would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,000. Unlike more conventional setups, the belts are wound towards the firewall – not an easy reach.
So, having never before worked on a 355, Jay did what seemed sensible for a mid-winter’s service: he propped the car’s body off the ground with, gulp, floor jacks and removed the five hundred pound powerplant from beneath to change the belts himself.
The work proceeded slowly over the course of cold winter days, he says, and was only accomplished through the online advice he got from the helpful chaps on FerrariChat.com.
Crazy, I say. Wasn’t he worried of catastrophic failure?
Yes. But, he gives my astonished inquiry a what’s-an-adventure-but-a-disaster-avoided shrug of the shoulders. Indeed.
Listening in on this conversation is Frank. Wearing a black Ferrari cap, he’s a mild mannered ‘06 F430 owner who, bless his soul, made sure his redhead came with a six-speed notched gate shifter.
I ask Frank if he’d consider getting his F430 in the same yellow as Jay’s F355 and Frank’s mildness melts into a flat rebuke.
Red’s his choice.
Speaking of color, there’s a lovely dark blue 355 spider at this party and its not a hue I’ve seen on a Ferrari anywhere outside of Albion. The British are generally a bit off with their automotive color palettes, it should be said.
The 355’s owner is Manolis, a young Greek-American who’s eagerly passing out glossy event cards for his site Supercarroadtrips.com. His previous car was an AMG SL and like many, he frowns on how Mercedes designers bastardized the facelift.
An R129 generation SL makes a subtle entrance.
Anyway, pulling a reverse Clarkson, he traded in his Benz for the Ferrari which you see here. I ask him why he doesn’t start a car club in Hellas?
The costs are too great there, he insists. Unlike America where the good life can be had at a discount, in Greece, Manolis warns, you have to be a multi-millionaire to own and operate Ferraris. Not just a millionaire.
Anyway, Manolis’ mission is to unite exotic car owners here in America with tour events similar to the one we’re enjoying today. He admits that the events are tricky to coordinate and that the participants seldom say “thank you”.
I wonder aloud how many people will thank Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
I find myself lured by a bright red Boxer in the corner field.
A product of the 70s, the 12 cylinder two seater seems to reflect a wilder, carefree time. The Boxer possesses a certain raw edge that Ferrari seems to have spent the subsequent years refining into softer, more coddling cars.
It stands in modernist contrast adjacent to a classic Alfa GT.
The afternoon rolls on and antsy to drive (or simply show off?), the bulk of the posse decides to head for town.
There’s a golf cart polo match later in the day (which turns out to have been much fun had by many). But we’ve had our fill in what’s been a tremendous day.
Saying our goodbyes, we slip back down the loose stone driveway.
Fantastico.
Part I: Ferrari Road Trip
RISING at seven thirty to be out the door at eight o’clock on a Sunday morning is, by most standards, not a gentle start to the day. Having just returned from New York at three o’clock that very same morning, you can imagine how daunting the prospect must have seemed when the alarm clock jolted yours out of REM and into a groggy fog.
Fortunately, there was good cause and plenty of caffeine on hand.
Days earlier, our friend Richard Wolf had alerted me that upwards of 40 enthusiasts from FerrariChat.com were staging a get together in Glastonbury, Connecticut to drive an hour or so north across the border into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where with other regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire they’d converge on a small horse farm for lunch and golf cart polo.
He suggested I meet up with him so that from the seat of his E39 generation M5 we could take part in a brilliant caravan of Italian exotica.
“What better way to spend a Sunday?” said Richard.
What better way, indeed, said I.
“Be at my house nine sharp.”
A former air force pilot, more of the military has rubbed off on R.D. than I think even he’d care to admit. We arrive in Glastonbury with the show already in progress.
FerrariChat forum ringleader Lane (below) is dressed in black to match his tutto nero 348.
He appears in jubilant spirits and for good reason. This year’s September meet is bigger than last year’s. And a quick scene survey shows as many Porsches as Ferraris in a range of vintages from the 70s to the present – along with plenty of other lovelies: Alfa Romeos, BMWs, and even an old Cobra.
The owners mix and mingle before saddling up for the hour’s ride north and I pause to take in the happy sight of a banana yellow F355 F1.
The 355’s owner, Jay, late 30s, a good natured do-it-yourselfer from Bristol, Conn. tells me he had just purchased the car last year from some guy in the Sunshine State. Later in the day, he’d share a harrowing account of toying with his car’s V8 that would’ve terrified many owners into having AAA and their insurance adjuster ready on speed dial.
We’ll come back to that in Part II.
The weather, so far, is holding out. There’s alternating clouds with brilliant patches of powder blue. The weather’s like any September day in New England; sweater cool in the morning and shorts hot in the afternoon.
A pleasant breeze clears the air of idling fumes that smoke from the low exhaust rumble and tap-tap-tap’s of thoroughbred sixes, eights, and twelves. A Glastonbury cop drives by the parking lot, amused. I with Jacqueline and Richard with Claudia get into the M5- ready to roll.
And without fanfare, but in coordinated succession, the line of Ferraris, Porsches, Alfa Romeos, BMWs, and a Cobra sets off down the road. It’s an inspired view.
We’re led by a brilliant red 512M. The last of the Testarossas, I decide that this Ferrari has one of the finest tails in all of automotordom. Sad to think that history may treat the 512 as an afterword in the Testarossa’s decade-long story. By the time the red head saw production in the early 90s, it was already an old car. But who the hell could care either then or now? Such flamboyant beauty!
In any event, the 512 plus entourage is catching attention as we enter and exit small towns like Coventry, Mansfield, and Stafford Springs. I’m in a technicolor line of show ponies parading across hill and dale. One long seven figure train of exotica - che bella!
Our travels take us through back country roads mostly, but there’s a brief interstate interlude.
Once we’re on the highway, well, the convoy manages to catch more than a few motorists by surprise.
Understanding that there’s some nut job leaning out the rear window of the M5 taking shots, one driver after another takes turns tailing R.D.’s blue Bimmer; like school fish shadowing a great shark.
Breaking from the pack, a bright yellow 911…
…followed by a black CTS-V. They alternate positions just aft of starboard.
Inside the M5’s cozy confines (funny that a midsize sedan should have such limited rear legroom) Richard is regaling company with salty jokes with punchlines that could peel rust off a Jag’s bumper.
Amused, Jacqueline’s looking backward recommending shots and finds an appreciation for the Caddy’s edgy style.
It’s certainly angular, I say. Nice to find an American make in this Euro crowd. Powered with a mid decade’s Vette Zo6 V8, the first gen. CTS-V would be game for chasing after Italian exotics any day. But on this Sunday, for the most part, ours is a steady, lawful procession.
And once off the highway, our pace gets even more casual.
At points, a little too casual.
But hey, we’re on a Sunday drive. And, eventually, we find Massachusetts. And Massachusetts finds us.
Route 19 directs us into the town of Wales.
It’s a small, colonial hamlet where the church is having a community fair. Our exotic convoy cuts through town traffic and the yellow 911 that’s been tailgating us takes a pit stop for petrol while the rest of the posse presses on.
The quiet secondary road takes us through Brimfield; curving past state forest on its way north towards Warren. The forests are mixed deciduous with gently sloping hills that periodically descend into lakes or marshland- truly beautiful turf.
We close in on our target destination until…
The lead Ferrari -the red 512M with the magnificent tail – has veered off the beaten path. We’re a little lost.
The 512’s driver, Paul, steps out seeking advice.
This intermezzo also allows for another lovely photo op.
Bellissima!
Coordinates reset (we’d missed our turn by one tenth of a mile), friendly chuckles all around, we’re back on the road.
And within a minute we’re turning onto Autumn View Farms -the meeting point for what would be an afternoon of gazing upon breathtaking automobiles, consuming fine grub and drink, and chewing the fat with amiable aficionados.
In Part II: a tutto rosso Berlinetta Boxer, a tale of life and death surgery for one Ferrari’s V8, and a nice Greek fellow who wants to unite the world’s sports car owners. As you’ll see, it was worth the early rise.