How to Overkill a Ferrari 458 Italia

Electric lamps are so passé these days. The way of the future is LEDs or Light-emitting diodes that can be found just about everywhere. Lately, LEDs have taken the automotive industry by storm with carmakers offering them either optionally or standard on most of their models.But it’s not only regular carmakers that have adopted the new lighting technology; so has the tuning industry which discovered a new toy to attract consumers. The results, as you can see from this example of a Ferrari 458 Italia slathered in LEDs, aren’t always graceful. Video follows after the break.

VIDEO

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari 458 Italia Xbox 360 Steering Wheel Brings Maranello Magic to your Playroom

Chances are most of us will never have the opportunity to drive, let alone own, a Ferrari 458 Italia. But a racing game for a gaming console like Microsoft’s Xbox 360, is certainly within the reach of most.

Even though you will have to do without the hand-stitched cream leather of the interior, the actual G’s squeezing your body in corners and, of course, the gorgeous bodywork, Thrustmaster wants to bring the 458 experience closer to with the Ferrari 458 Italia Racing Wheel for the Xbox 360.

Apart from being sanctioned by Ferrari itself, the 11-inch diameter steering wheel features a rubberized grip, built-in paddles and the Manettino dial for changing certain game settings. In other words, it gets as close to the real thing as possible, even offering progressive “Bungee Cord” resistance to the driver’s inputs.

The 458 steering wheel comes bundled with a pedal base that features a long-stroke accelerator pedal, a resistant brake pedal and a wide footrest.

Now, if you already own a Sony PS3 or a PC instead of Microsoft’s console and feel left-out of all the fun, Thrustmaster offers the TH8 RS gear shift, which also connects via USB to the PS3 and PC-compatible T500 RS steering wheel. It offers a sequential or a traditional H-pattern as well as a 360o rotation feature in order to customize it according to your preferences.

The 458 steering wheel and the TH8 RS gearshift are expected to reach U.S. stores in October with a suggested retail price of $180 and $90 respectively. So, ladies and gentlemen, you have plenty of time to fasten your seatbelts…

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

New Ferrari 458 Italia Spider with a Retractable Hardtop

Behold the new Ferrari 458 Italia Spider, the world's first mid-rear engined convertible with a retractable hard top that was officially unveiled today ahead of its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September.

The Spider features a newly developed, single-piece aluminium hardtop that automatically tucks away just ahead of the engine bay with a tonneau cover that features two buttresses completing the design.

Ferrari says that the aluminium structure offers a number of advantages over the traditional folding soft-top, including a reduction of 25 kg in weight and a faster deployment time of just 14 seconds.

In addition, the company says that the small piece allowed the designers to include "a generous" rear bench for luggage behind the two seats.

The 458 Spider includes an adjustable electric wind stop designed to slow and diffuse the air in the cockpit, with the Italian company claiming that it enables "normal conversation to be held even at speeds over 200 km/h (124mph)".

While the Spider sports the same powertrain as the coupe and which combines a high-revving, 570HP 4.5-liter V8 with a dual-clutch F1 paddle-shift transmission and Ferrari's E-Diff, the Italian firm's engineers recalibrated certain features such as its accelerator pedal mapping, the damping of the multilink suspension and the exhaust to improve feel with the top down.

The new Ferrari 458 Spider will go on sale early next year.

VIDEO

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

CARS | Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am 2012 | GALLERY

After making his debut in his home track in Fiorano, Ferrari 458 Italian Grand Am is back in action 26 to 27 July 2011 a private test session at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. Mutual Reliance on the wheel is tested in a duo Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander, which boasts a long list of wins to their name Ferrari. They will continue their development in the Italian Grand Am Ferrari 458 America, prepared for participation in the 2012 championship.

The Ferrari 458 Grand Am was built to match the U.S. regulations and thus different from the European car, particularly as it develops 500 horsepower and aerodynamics are less effective than the GT version. It is also equipped with a butterfly of 48 mm and a maximum speed of 8000th Major changes have been made in the brake when the car has no ABS or traction control. Other differences compared to the GT3 include the canopy, which provides most protection to improve safety in a series where collisions are a little more often. The car is equipped with Continental tires, the only supplier to the series, featuring a very hard substance, again to be compatible with the rules of the series. At its cleanup today, he made a lot of laps without any problems, 45 to be precise in the hands of Jaime Melo and Maurizio Median, as they took turns driving.

Daytona recalls many memories of past victories Ferrari famous 24 hour race, the company is to take a close relationship with this important event. In fact, Ferrari has participated in 47 of these endurance races, winning five of them directly as well as take 15 class wins.

Standing on the list was an incredible clean sweep of the podium in 1967 by the two Ferrari 330 P4 and 412 NART, while in 1962, Phil Hill and Ricardo Rodriguez won a Dino 246 SP. This year, Ferrari no less than four finished in the top ten, while in 1972, Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx won in 312 PB.

Read more »

Ferrari Gives Up on 2011 Championship to Prepare Next Year’s Car

Truth to be said, Scuderia Ferrari had a bad start in the F1 season this year. Nevertheless, changes to the personnel and, more importantly, to the Ferrari F1 car's aerodynamic package gradually improved its pace considerably, yielding a win in Great Britain and four podium finishes for Fernando Alonso.
But even with Felippe Massa saying that nothing's over and Luca di Montezemolo claiming that he expects more wins in 2011, team principal Stefano Domenicali revealed to the Telegraph that the Scuderia will stop developing this year’s car in September.
From this point on, Ferrari will concentrate all of its resources on next year’s car. And, given Red Bull’s huge points advantage, no one can really blame them.
“OK, if you have to do some fine tuning you can do it. But otherwise you will lose a lot of time on development of the new car. The more time we can spend on the wind tunnel the better” said Domenicali. “What I really want to avoid is another difficult winter like the last two years," he added.

  PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Van Bumps Ferrari 360 Modena Spider into the Sea after Brake Failure

When it comes to exotic sports cars like the Ferrari 360 Modena Spider and accidents, more often than not, mishaps are the result of speeding or bad road conditions, sometimes even both.
But that's not the case here as the Ferrari Modena Spider pictured half dipped into the sea was actually parked on the road when this accident occurred.
The incident took place at the Croatian island of Pag located in the northern Adriatic Sea on Monday morning when the driver of a van bumped into the Ferrari pushing the drop-top model into the sea.
According to the local media, the driver of the van said that his brakes didn't work.
For more pictures of the incident, check out the links below.

 PHOTO GALLERY

 

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari to Drop the Top on New 458 Italia Spider

Emerging from the rumormill are talks about Ferrari getting ready to reveal a convertible version of its new 458 Italia supercar at next month's 2011 Frankfurt auto show.
According to the report from Germany's Auto Motor und Sport magazine, like its predecessor, the 458 Italia Spider will be offered with an electrically operated cloth convertible top that disappears behind the front seats.
Under the hood, the 458 Italia Spider will sport the same 4.5-liter V8 engine with direct injection technology found in the coupe model.
The V8 delivers 570 horsepower at 9,000 rpm and a peak torque of 540Nm or 398.2 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm. All that grunt will be sent to the rear wheels through Ferrari's highly-acclaimed 7-speed F1 dual-clutch gearbox.
Expect to see the Spider version in showrooms in 2012. 
 

PHOTO GALLERY

 

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari's Montezemolo Expects More Wins this Season

Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that he expects the Scuderia to win more races this season. And this despite the fact that in the 11 first races of the year they have won only once, with Fernando Alonso in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Alonso lies fourth at the Drivers’ championship and his teammate Fernando Massa sixth, trailing championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 89 and 164 points respectively with just eight races remaining. In the Constructors’ championship, Ferrari is in third position, with 215 points, trailing Red Bull (383) and McLaren (280).
Still, di Montezemolo came out with a positive mood after a meeting with team principal Stefano Domenicali, technical director Pat Fry and engine boss Luca Marmorini:
“I can see the right spirit in the team after a very difficult start to the season. Domenicali and his crew seem very determined, concentrating on their tasks for the second part of the year which I am sure will feature Ferrari in the role of a key player. I expect we will pick up wins to add to the historically very significant victory achieved at Silverstone”.
Ferrari’s boss does have a point since the 150 Italia seems to be much more competitive after recent aerodynamic changes, with Alonso being on the podium in the five of the last six races.
No one mentioned the championship, though. This, despite the fact that everything is still possible, seems to be going the way of Red Bull –unless McLaren and Lewis Hamilton can prove them wrong. But the Scuderia is satisfied with the progress after its worst start of the year in many seasons –and can surely play a big role in deciding the championships.

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Video: Two Girls, a Red Ferrari F430, a Parking Job

It's become something of spectator sport over in Europe and chiefly in London: people equipped with a handy cam waiting for a hot car to pass by to record it and upload the video on Youtube.

As with anything else in life, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it does not and our amateur producers are left with a bitter taste in the mouth.
This particular video sent in by one of our readers caught our attention mainly due to the fact that there were two young females in the red Ferrari F430 and to a lesser extent, the rather mediocre parking job. If you have a few minutes to spare, watch it after the jump.

VIDEO

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am

Italian sports carmaker Ferrari has set its eyes on the North American Grand Am series, which it plans to compete in with the new 458 Italia Grand Am that was given its track baptism today at the Fiorano circuit completing several laps in the hands of Maurizio Mediani and Jaime Melo.

Developed in cooperation with Michelotto Automobili, the racing model is based on the European GT3 version of the 458 Italia but features less efficient aerodynamics as well as a detuned V8 delivering 500-horses due to the different regulations in the American series.
In addition, the Grand Am sports a modified braking system, as the car has neither ABS nor traction control.
Other differences compared to the GT3 include the strengthened roll-over bar to deal with the more frequent collisions in the American series, while the car is also fitted with Continental tires, the sole supplier to the series.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari World Design Contest

For the past few months, design students from 50 universities across the globe took up Ferrari’s challenge of designing a future supercar for the famous Italian brand. Now, following the completion of the second phase in which seven schools were chosen to move to the final round, we have a winner.
Drum-roll please…and the winners of the Ferrari World Design Contest are…the students from Seoul’s Hongik University. The South Korean school finished first ahead of the second-placed IED of Turin in Italy and London’s Royal College of Arts.
The first three winning models are:

1) Eternità– Kim Cheong Ju (Rep. of Korea), Ahn Dre (Rep. of Korea), Lee Sahngseok (Rep. of Korea) – Hongik University (Seoul)
2) Xezri– Samir Sadikhov (Azerbaijan ) – IED (Turin)
3) Cavallo Bianco – Henry Cloke (UK), Qi Haitao (China) – RCA (London)

Following the announcement of the winners, Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo commented:
“Ferrari World Design Contest represents a window that we want to keep open on the world and the creative energy of the next generation. I saw at first hand the many genuinely innovative ideas that these talented youngsters sent us and could feel the enormous passion and commitment that had gone into them. I am certain that some of these suggestions will come to light in the Ferraris of the future.”
The Italian company said that the all of the design concepts focused on reducing weight and fuel consumption, the latter through alternative propulsion systems, and in particularly hybrid engines.
Commenting on the winning design from Korea, the Eternità (pictured in the opening photo), Ferrari stated: “The Seoul students provided the finest interpretation of Ferrari’s design brief for a thoroughbred hypercar brimming with new generation technologies and materials, an extreme (“hyper”) car not only in its architecture but also in every other aspect.”

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Ferrari 458 Starts Drag Race In REVERSE!!

Before you watch the following video, take a minute to ponder this: You are sitting behind the steering wheel of an exotic, brand new Italian supercar, getting ready to drag race a V10-powered Dodge Viper on the quarter mile strip in front of a crowd of 100, or perhaps even more people. But when the race begins you start rolling backwards…

Oh yes, that’s right; the owner of the Ferrari 458 Italia that you’re about to see in the clip and who was pitted against a Dodge Viper at the ICAR motorsports complex situated just outside of Montreal in Canada, paddle shifted his car’s dual clutch auto transmission into reverse!

True, anyone can make a mistake, but can you really think of a more embarrassing moment on the track?

VIDEOS

Read more In Cars

Read more »