Ferrari has unveiled a bespoke California T from the company’s Tailor Made program, created especially for the Shanghai Auto Show.
Illustrating the numerous possibilities for personalization, the unique California T is inspired by two great style icons: the actress Ingrid Bergman and Jacqueline Kennedy.
The car features a “Grigio Ingrid” body color named after the legendary actress who chose this exact shade of grey for the Ferrari 375 MM given to her by Roberto Rossellini in 1954.
While the exterior has an understated appearance, the cabin is rich in materials and detail, taking inspiration from the worlds of interior and furniture design as well as luxury goods.
The seats feature a reddish brown, velvety “count prestige” leather, a reference to the Kennedee chair by Jean Marie Massaud, which in turn was influenced by the style of the Kennedy family. The luxurious ambience is also enhanced by the waxed edges of the leather covering the center console and the door panels.
These vintage elements are combined with contemporary accents such as the matte grey metallic details on the dashboard and center console, as well as the black Alcantara inserts in the seats. Finally, the floor mats are made of 100 percent pure virgin wool from New Zealand with a natural jute background, a carpet normally used in luxury home interior decoration.
Manual Ferraris are always a treat in this paddle-infested world we are living in but would you pay almost $700K for a 2007 599 GTB, just because it has a gated shifter?Well, one bidder did that, paying $682.000 (about £460.000 or €645.000) for a manual 599 GTB in Amelia Island’s RM Auction, almost half a million more than the estimated $200,000 - $275,000.The car itself has covered less than 3.800 miles since its delivery from new in Portland, Oregon, making it one of the only 20 manual 599s to exist officially in the United States. Being considered as the last, analog Ferrari V12, the 599 GTB is using essentially a detuned version of the Enzo’s engine, making 620bhp at 7.600rpm with a top speed of 205mph. With a black-on-black colour combination, the 599 GTB looks menacing enough, featuring the desirable Daytona-style seats made from Recaro. Its previous owner had it properly stored in a climate-controlled environment to ensure nothing bad will happen to it during its stay with him.If you think that regular 599 GTBs with the paddle shifter go for about £100K (about $148K or €140K) in the UK and the extreme GTOs fetch around £400-500K (about $592K-740K or €560Κ-700Κ), paying that amount for a regular, manual 599 could only mean two things. Either the market will start to treat the last remaining manual Ferraris as a separate exclusive entity in their line-up, driving prices into ridiculous levels or the fortunate owner of this lovely manual 599 GTB will face a very unpleasant surprise when he decides to calculate again how much is the real cost of the car in the future. We understand the exclusivity of it, being 1 of only 20 in the United States but is this rareness really worth $700K? It’s a ‘normal’ 599 after all.
Let's all take a moment and nod in agreement of this being arguably the best looking Ferrari 458 we've ever seen. Ready? And go.
The 458 Italia is what we like to call, an elegant supercar. It's not imposing or scary in any way. It's quite beautiful. Except that when it comes to cars, beauty can mean several things. Certainly more than just being elegant.
This FXX K-inspired body kit from American tuner Misha Designs is absolutely stunning to look at. It also happens to come in two different versions so that you can have a choice as to how much you want your 458's appearance to change.
The first version includes a new hood, front bumper, fender, side skirts, rear bumper and a new rear wing, but it isn't until you look at what the other body kit has, that you realize that this is the one you have to have. You know, if you own a 458 that is.
Going for the Limited Edition wide body kit (20 units), will land you the same mods as those mentioned before, but also air ducts and 3 inch wide rear panels, rear diffuser and the stunning FXX K-style rear wing, which let's be honest, is what we're all staring at.
Naturally, all the custom parts are made from duct tape (just kidding, it's carbon fiber), and they make this 458 look even better than the new 488 GTB.
Oh and yes, we would take this any day of the week over that Misha Designs' SLS AMG we showed you last month.
Who needs Top Gear? As we kept waiting for them to bring Porsche, McLaren and Ferrari together in a hypercar shootout, the whole show went and got itself canceled! Thankfully, there are others out there ready to get the job done.
Such is the case with Motor Trend, who set out to see which is faster around a track, the McLaren P1 or thePorsche 918 Spyder - still waiting on the LaFerrari though.
And yes, they did try to get it, just that Ferrari refused yet again. We're not entirely sure what the problem may have been. Was it that they prefer The Stig to Motor Trend's race-car driver, Randy Pobst? That would be a silly reason not to do this.
Regardless, what we have here is a pretty definitive result, proving that the 887 HP Porsche 918 is quicker around Laguna Seca than the 903 HP McLaren P1, even though the P1 isn't just more powerful, but it's lighter by about 150kgs too.
The Porsche lapped the track in 1:29.89 while the McLaren did it in 1:30.71, which is almost a second slower, and that's not something we should easily ignore. All-wheel drive does go a long way indeed.
Granted, Laguna Seca is the type of track that heavily rewards cars that can put all their power down as soon as they exit the corners.
Pobst said that "The McLaren could not exit the four slow corners at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca the way the 918 could, a clear and present contrast."
We'd love to have more data though, and see these two go at each other on several other tracks.
Still, Motor Trend did say that the P1 was the "quickest-accelerating production car we've ever tested", which means this case is definitely not closed. It's conceivable that given better circumstances, it could do a quicker lap than the 918 Spyder if they were on a faster track. But hey, let's not speculate and just go with these results already.
Massive win for Porsche!
Opening screenshot via EVO video (from Nov. 2014)
Despite its GT size, the F12 is arguably one of Ferrari's best looking modern-day cars. It may not be as sleek as a 458/488 or a California, but it's still stunning to look at.
Of course, throw in a set of matte black ADV10R Track Spec CS wheels to a car that's already black, and you'll get yourself a Dark Knight reference without even asking for one.
However we're hoping they lowered the suspension just for the photoshoot, because a car like the 741 HP F12 Berlinetta will always look better on the street/track than at a tuning show - which is what we think about every time we see a car sitting so low, its tires are almost touching the wheel arches.
Plus, when you can go from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.1 seconds, better make sure none of your mods can slow you down.
Aesthetically, this F12 also features new side skirts, front splitter and rear diffuser, as well as a boot lid lip spoiler - naturally all carbon fiber.
The wheels measure 21x9.5 up front and massive 22x13 in the back. As for the design, ADV.1 has that covered every single time, so we love it.
If we were to have a list of the best looking Ferrari F12s we've ever seen, this one would probably make the top 5. And by probably we mean certainly.
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