The coachbuilt Ferrari Superamerica 45 special commissioned by American billionaire Peter Kalikow has arrived at the Villa d'Este for the Concorso D'Eleganza contest. Not surprisingly, a by-passer took advantage of the occasion and filmed the car's roof mechanism in action at its first outing under the sun. This is the first time we see the supercar’s rotating top on the move and we have to admit it's pretty fast.Read more »
Ferrari is once again showing off its coach-building capabilities with the release of its latest one-off special, the Superamerica 45, which will make its first public outing at this weekend’s Villa d’Este Concours d’Eleganza in Italy. It was built to order for New York billionaire, collector and former owner of the New York Post, Peter Kalikow, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of his Ferrari purchase in 1961.Read more »
It seems the success of the Ferrari FF, the production of which for this year has already been sold out, will affect the 599 GTB Fiorano as well. But in a good way, since it is being reported that Ferrari has cancelled the original plans for a 599 facelift and instead build an all-new car as a replacement. The plan was revealed by Motor Trend magazine, which noted that the new car will be derived from the FF featuring a mightier punch in the performance division. Ferrari plans to launch the new car in late 2012.Read more »
There’s so much you can do to improve a supercar like the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, but tuning specialist Anderson Germany believes it has some goods to offer with its new program for the Italian model.
Ferrari's most exclusive and powerful series production model, the 599 GTO, doesn't seem fast enough for the aftermarket specialists at Novitec Rosso. This is why the tuning house brought to Geneva Motor Show the 599 GTO Bi-Kompressor, their own version of the Prancing Horse's fastest car.
As the name suggests, Novitec Rosso engineers fitted the naturally-aspirated V12 engine with two superchargers, raising the maximum output from 670 to 888 horsepower. The impressive increase in power can only be rivaled by that of the maximum torque, which goes up from 620 Nm/6,500 rpm (457 lb-ft) to 860 Nm/6,600 (636 lb-ft).
As a result of the political turmoil going on in Tunisia, president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has fled the country. But like any dictator on the run, Ben Ali had to leave plenty of wealth behind, accumulated in his 20+ years of totalitarian rule, including his Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, which was “repossessed” by angry protesters using a forklift. Video after the jump.Read more »
A prototype model of the Ferrari 599 covered in black cladding has been snagged on film during testing at the Fiorano circuit. We're not entirely sure if it's a test mule for a replacement of the 599 or an updated version of the current model, possibly featuring Ferrari's upcoming KERS energy-recovery system which was first shown on the Geneva Salon HY-KERS hybrid concept.
In any case, the vented hood and the styling of the bumpers point towards a prototype based on the 670-horsepower 599 GTO, which was introduced into the range this past April, with some minor changes such as the California-esque LED headlamps. Watch the video right after the jump.
Actress Bo Derek once quipped, "Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." Someone who would most likely agree with her is 21-year-old Dhiaa Al-Essa, a Saudi Arabian Engineering student and millionaire playboy with a collection of over 30 exotic supercars worth more than £4.5 million (US$7.3 million).
Al-Essa has recently taken delivery of his thirty-third exotic, the first Ferrari 599 GTO worth £345,000 (US$557,000). In his own words:
In 1971, one of the greatest one-on-one boxing matches took place in New York's Madison Square Garden: the bout between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. So big was this event, advertisers dubbed it, 'The Fight of the Century'. Now, two different contenders take to the ring (uh...tarmac). The reigning champion: the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano HGTE. The challenger: the Lexus LFA. Video after the jump. Read more »
The 'greener' California HELE wasn't the only new car on display at Ferrari's Paris Show stand. The 670-horsepower SA Aperta, which we reported on last week, also made its debut. All 80 examples of the limited edition, open-top 599s have been spoken for well before the car made its way to Paris. Read more »
Ferrari may have sold all 80 examples of its awkwardly named SA Aperta before the roadster's world premiere at the Paris International Motor Show on September 30, but that hasn't deterred the company from launching an online configurator for the rest of the world to see. Read more »
The long-anticipated roadster version of Ferrari's front-engined 599 is finally here but don't get too excited as all 80 examples have already been sold even before the car makes its formal world premiere at next week's Paris Motor Show. Named SA APERTA, the new member of the 599 family was designed in celebration of Pininfarina's 80th anniversary. Read more »
After Ferrari announced in June that they would be organizing special presentations for people to view a topless 599, is it surprising that the Italian Stallion previewed a 599 roadster (or "Barchetta", perhaps?) at Pebble Beach? Not particularly. What's surprising is that it took this long for A) the car to come out, and B) someone to spill the beans. Who cares about non-disclosure agreements and a "no cell phone" policy, on with what we can expect! Read more »
A special version of Ferrari's California will make its first public appearance at this week's Goodwood Festival of Speed. Set to race in the Sunday Times Supercar Run, the California special features a two-tone finish with the body painted in Argento Nurburgring (metallic silver) and the roof and A-pillars in Nero (black), a theme that the company claims echoes its bi-colore berlinettas of the 1950s and 1960s. Read more »
The next new model to come out of the Maranello shop will be a roadster version of the 599 GTB supercar. Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo dropped the news himself yesterday morning during a special press gathering in Central London.
"This is a very unusual car and it will certainly surprise you," said Montezemelo. "It's only going to be available to a very select number of clients who've been asking us for an open-top version of the 12-cylinder for quite some time now. We won't be unveiling it at a show though. Instead we'll be organizing private presentations," Ferrari's boss added.
The last thing we'd expect you to do now is to read a recap of our previous post on Ferrari's "fastest ever production model", the new 670-horsepower 599 GTO... So without further ado, follow the jump to watch Ferrari's chief test driver, Dario Benuzzi, getting behind the wheel of the 599 GTO and tackling the firm's Mugello race track. Read more »
Records are meant to be broken, though we're not quite sure what kind of record the track-focused, but not street-legal, Ferrari 599XX broke at the Nurburgring race track.
The Italian maker said in a press statement that the 700HP 599XX, which inspired the road-legal 599 GTO, is the first ever "production-derived sports car to break the 7-minute barrier on the 20.832 km Nordschleife circuit, lapping it in 6 min 58.16 sec."
For comparison, the Dodge Viper ACR and the Corvette ZR1 turned the 'Ring in 7:22.10 and 7:26.40 respectively, however, unlike the juiced-up Ferrari, both American sports cars are street legal.
Ferrari wants to know how people want to personalize their 599 - as in, 599 are being built- GTOs (click here for details and high resolution photos). To help the common man get involved, they've released an internet configurator. Set to come out at the Beijing Auto Show, the car will pack 670 horsepower and 620 Nm (457 lb-ft) of torque. A good way to waste a Sunday afternoon? Indeed. Read more »
Marking the return of the famous GTO badge, which stands for "Gran Turismo Omologata", Ferrari today unveiled the 599 GTO, a limited edition supercar that's inspired by the track-only 599XX prototype.
Set to make its public debut at the Beijing Auto Show in China at the end of April, only 599 examples of the GTO will be built.
Billed as the company's fastest ever road car, the 599 GTO makes use of the 599XX's (Enzo-derived) tweaked 6.0-liter V12 engine that punches out 670-horsepower at 8,250 rpm with maximum torque of 620Nm (457 lb-ft) at 6,500 rpm. For comparison, the V12 delivers 700HP in the 599XX and 620HP in the standard 599 GTB.
[UPDATE - Apparently the photos of the 599 GTO are the real deal as the head of Ferrari's notoriously friendly legal department sent us a not so friendly email requesting the removal of the pics on the premise that they were shot inside a private area, a.k.a. the Italian automaker's Maranello factory. In other news, all pictures of the 599 GTO are available on the internet.]
As the world gets closer to the official reveal of Ferrari's 599 GTO, and just a short while after the price list was leaked, the internet has spewed out what appear to be pics of an official GTO show car.
Distinguishing features appear to include a new wheel design, duck tail spoiler and design cues straight off the 599XX (such as the matte black roof, extra cooling vents in the hood/fenders, angry rear diffuser and other aerodynamic bits). Too bad we can't see the face and driver's compartment. Anyway, we're sure those will show up soon enough.