So Ferrari’s already working on a hybrid 599. They’ve also considered turbocharging (and I love their thrust to solve turbo lag). Now the company is looking into slapping on V6 engines to their cars.

Ferrari boss Amedeo Felisa said “If I had to answer the question a year ago I would have said no, but attitudes are changing and we build cars for customers. In 20 years, who can say?”

While this really ins’t a confirmation that they will be slapping on V6s anytime soon, at least we know that it’s not going to be a real ideological issue. And about the electric issue, Felisa said, “We will not make engine sounds with speakers.” Bravo, Felisa.

Felisa also confirmed that in their pipeline are an open-topped 458 Italia and an Enzo replacement are both under way. I would love to see how they lop the top off the 458. It sure looks exquisite as a hard top. I hope it just translates well to an open top.

We can all just savor this photo rendering by Job Sibal.

Well, you can’t expect to fight the growing market trends and still be the preferred brand. Ferrari has officially joined in on the rest of the automaking world by building a hybrid.

Ferrari will be showcasing a Ferrari 599 hybrid at the Geneva motor show next month. The car is considered to be a concrete manifestation of Ferrari’s intent on developing hybrid technology.

The electric motor is reported to help cut fuel consumption by as much as 35%. Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo announced back in July of last year that Ferrari wants to cut fleet-wide emission figures by 40% by 2012.

Green cars aren’t really that alien to Ferrari. Remember the biofuel Ferrari F430 Spider?

When Schumacher retired, Fernando Alonso could’ve relished the fact that he was the best driver in Formula 1 but deep inside him, he probably knew that he wasn’t the best driver in the world. That even though the maestro opted out, Michael Schumacher will still be the best driver out there.

Alonso has two championships under his belt but Schumacher has seven and can probably hike it up to eight now that the maestro’s back driving for Ross Brawn with Mercedes GP next season.

Alonso knows he has unfinished busienss with Schumacher and says he’s looking forward to compete against Schumacher. Alonso will be driving for Ferrari starting next season.

“To beat a legend is very motivating. Now he’s back it’s very special,” Alonso said.

Source: BBC

Fiat isn’t joking when they said they’ll be utilizing Chrysler to bring in their European badges on US soil. Just check out what’s actually the best thing Chrysler has had on a motor show stand for years – the Ferrari 599XX.

That is absolutely soooweeet!

The 599XX is an absolute beast. The car packs a 6.0L V12 dishing out a wicked 700 hp with a max torque of 479 lb-ft. For added racing goodness, Ferrari slapped on a new F1-bbased gearbox that cuts down gear changes to 60 ms – faster than you can blink your eye.

Fiat boss, Sergio Marchione is still working on ways to optimize how to play out the brands and badges across the two continents but one thing that Fiat will obviously be exploiting is Chrysler’s dealership network.

Too bad they didn’t feature the Ferrari 458 Italia.

One of the cornerstones of Ferrari engineering is to get the most out of its engines without having to resort to turbochargers. Its best cars like the Enzo, the F430 and the new 458 Italia have remained defiantly naturally-aspirated.

That’s pretty much why the V12 and V8 bellows have remained pure without any annoying whirr of force-fed air and Ferraris never had to worry about turbo lag. But things might change soon.

The firm is now considering using turbos for future models. However, one of their biggest hurdles is to deal with the turbo lag citing that any sort of delay on delivering power is unacceptable for Ferrari.

Now that’s basically what Ferrari is all about – engineering perfection.

Source: Autocar

Oh yeah. That kind of headline surprised us too. Ferrari with a 4×4 system. It’s a good thing this effort isn’t really for an SUV. It’s for their future GT models.

With all the greening efforts going around, Ferrari has also jumped into creating hybrid systems for their front-engined GTs and they figure that a 4×4 system is best mated to the hybrid powerplant.

But here’s the part why I like Ferrari – they claim that using the electric motors for the front wheels will not really help improve fuel economy but they are more interested in using the electric motors’ torque for acceleration and cornering.

So basically, turning their thoroughbred cars in hybrids won’t make them soft green cars after all.

Word has it that their 612 replacement will be among the first to get a hybrid treatment. So that would probably mean dropping the V12 for a V8 and slapping on some electric motors.

There’s a lot of websites to go to if you want to waste a few minutes but car customizer sites are always a welcome destination for geeky gearheads.

Ferrari has just launched its customizer microsite for the newly-launched 458 Italia. And if you don’t have a quarter of a million dollars to buy the car, at least settle for a a few mouse clicks and customize the car to your liking.

The application allows you to customize the exterior including the paint, wheels and exterior options. It also allows you to tweak the interior including the colors, materials, seat styling, the carpeting and the trim. The options even include Alcantara for some of the panels. Nice!

The 458 is set to be the replacement for the F430. It packs a 4.5L V8 that dishes out 570 hp and is considered as the highest-revving Ferrari ever. The engine’s mated to a seven-speed gearbox allowing it to go from 0 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph.

Check out the microsite here.

Ferrari hasn’t even rolled out the hard top version and yet they dish out another reason to highly anticipate the yet another variant of the car – the Ferrari 458 Italia Spider.

Too bad it will be within two more years after the hardtop for Ferrari to launch the soft-top version.

The 458 Italia packs a 4.5L V8 engine that dishes out 562 bhp and is the company’s highest-revving Ferrari road car. If the car would maintain the power numbers, it would require some really fantastic engineering to maintain the handling and performance.

Typically, cabrios take a bit of hardtops’ edge off with all the added weight and support to accommodate the structural functions of the roof.

But if there’s something Ferrari knows, it’s maintaining the handling and performance of the hard top. Just check out the car replaced by the 458 – the F430. The soft-top can easily go toe to toe with the hard top.

Source: Autocar

You can only do so much to tune a Ferrari for it not to look like a riced-up exotic. But if you’re going to slap on some bits on your Ferrari, better make sure it’s done by those who know what they’re doing.

Japanese tuner ASI is set to deliver a body kit for the Ferrari 458 Italia. The car isn’t even available yet but for those who want to add more flairs on the car, ASI has you covered.

ASI restyled the front bumper to make it look like an Enzo. The mad thing about the Japanese is that, it’s not even purely aesthetic, it helps on the aerodynamics too. The intakes deform at high speeds in order to reduce drag.

To wrap the kit up, it includes a rear spoiler and the rims have been sprayed with black paint.

ASI has been doing Ferrari body kits for quite some time now and has been quite good at it with many of their past works known to have improved the aero and lightweightedness of the cars.

Source: Autocar

With Massa out for the season, Schumacher no hopes of a comeback this season, and Badoer driving badly, Ferrari had to make some real moves to even be near of a competitor that it was last season. Their latest move – get Giancarlo Fisichella.

And that they did. After a flurry of talks, Force India has released Fisichella from his contract to race for Ferrari. Fisichella will be on board a Ferrari car come the Italian Grand Prix.

Fisichella had quite the race in the last grabbing pole in Belgium and dueling it out with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen before settling for second. Talks of a Ferrari move suddenly sprung out since then and intensified when Massa has been ruled out of the season.

No word yet on who will be replacing Fisichella to drive with Adrian Sutil but test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi is a likely possibility. Force India can only hope that Liuzzi wouldn’t turn out as badly as Badoer has done for Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher might not be of no use for the Ferrari F1 team this season but there’s a lot more reason for Ferrari to keep him around. Well, he did cause quite the publicity for Ferrari driving the FXXeil Evoluzione around the Top Gear track as the Stig. He is more than enough of a draw as far as endorsing cars is concerned.

Ferrari has recently unveiled the new F430 replacement – the Ferrari 458 Italia. Given the reputation of its predecessor, it’s got much to uphold. The car is powered by a 570-hp V8 mated to a 7-speed gearbox enabling the car to go from 0 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph.

Check out this video of Schumi talking about the car.

When Ferrari released the official photos of the new Ferrari 458 Italia as the replacement to the Ferrari F430, all we can say is that it looks exquisite. And going by Jeremy Clarkson’s logic, the 458 is poised to be quite the car given that Ferrari’s own Formula One team is sucking badly this season. (Good Ferrari road cars just so happen to come while their F1 team is doing badly.)

Part of what Ferrari is hyping in the 458 is its aerodynamics. The car is supposed to be able to get massive downforce meaning that the car will be more planted to the ground to help both speed and handling. Technical director Roberto Fedeli claims, “The distribution of the downforce on the axle is very close to the weight distribution.”

The 458 packs 4.5L V8 which dishes out 562 bhp at 9000 rpm. It revs 500 rpms more than the old F430 making it the highest-revving Ferrari road car. That power allows the car to get from 0-62 in just 3.4 seconds and blast the hypercar benchmark of a 200 mph top speed.

As for the handling, Ferrari claims that the controls of the 458 is sharper than the F430 it replaces. And that should mean something, the F430 (especially the Scuderia) is already one razor sharp car and, if Ferrari really improved on that, then the 458’s sharpness must be biblical.

Source: Autoblog

More tuned supercars with this one. Much like with Reiter and what they did with the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670 SV, EDO Competition gave the Ferrari Enzo XX a treatment.

And that includes boosting the already amazing power of the Enzo by 170 hp. To get that much power, EDO swapped out quite a lot in the engine including slapping on some new cylinder and pistons, camshafts, valve springs, connecting rods, oil cooling piston pipes, exhaust manifold, sport filters and fuel cooling system among many others.

Power is now at an estimated 800 hp and max torque is pegged at 575 lb-ft. All of this propels the car to a mind-boggling 236 mph. 0 to 62 is achieved in just 3.2 seconds.

For good measure, EDO also slapped on ceramic sports brakes with special pads to get the car from top speed to standstill without burning anything.

How can you make a Ferrari even better? With the case of the F430 Spider it would take something really special to make that car better than what it already is. Chopping the top off of a car and retaining its performance takes some masterful engineering to do.

German tuner Inden Design thinks that they can do better. They took the F430 Spider, applied some carbon fiber aero kit (diffuser, side flaps, and front and rear spoilers) to improve aerodynamics. This alone enables the Inden-tuned Ferrari to top at 186mph.

Powering the car is the same engine but the ECU was tweaked to increase the power output by 35 bhp to give it a total power of 518 bhp.

A new sports suspension is also used to lower the ride height and help it negotiate corners better given the power boost. The car sits atop lightweight 20-inch alloys for good measure. The interior though is left almost unchanged with the exception of a few extra leather and carbon fiber trim.

No word on how much the car will cost yet.

The all-new Ferrari F450 will be packing quite the punch. The folks over at Maranello will be applying a bevy of Formula One and Formula GT engineering and technology for the successor to the outgoing F430.

The F450 will sport a light aluminum chassis, for reduced weight without sacrificing toughness. The weight cut helps improve handling, too. Other features include radiators mounted in front of the front wheels, a double-clutch seven-speed transaxle gearbox and an improved version of the Ferrari traction control.

Sources say that there is a possibility for the F450 concept car to make its debut before the year ends, perhaps at the Los Angeles Motor Show in December. The car was originally slated for an early September launch, but aerodynamic tweaks and other adjustments were ordered for the car, with some directives coming from Ferrari head honcho Luca di Montezemolo himself.

The new car won’t have a simultaneous release for both coupe and convertible Spider variants, unlike the launch of its predecessor. This is likely so that the Ferrari California can continue to make its rounds in the market in the one-and-a-half year or so before the F450 Spider is launched.

Ferrari’s rumored hybrid concept car could be unveiled before 2009 reaches its end. This was confirmed when Ferrari boss Amadeo Felisa spoke to a US car magazine and said, “Not at Frankfurt, but shortly thereafter, probably at an American show.”

That timeline could mean that the hyped Ferrari hybrid could hit the Los Angeles Auto Show, which will be held from December 4 through 13. The Frankfurt Show is in October.

Despite the high profile of the hybrid, there are also other matters that warrant Ferrari’s attention. Among these are three solutions, including turbo-charging, that should complement the Italian automaker’s V8 and V12 range so that the company’s vehicle will be able to meet the new and stricter 2014 emission regulations in Europe.

Ferrari is committed to making the new solutions work, and the new hybrid concept car combined with a potential turbo-charged engine should help give Ferrari a nudge in the right direction.260

The FBI does have a driving course, right? Or is the course just plainly useful for pit maneuvering fleeing criminals in their hulking four-door saloons and SUVs? One thing’s apparent with this instance – it doesn’t work for $500,000 Ferraris.

A fed was “transporting” a half-a-million Ferrari to a warehouse when it crashed the big red machine. The agent claims that he was driving 40 mph when he lost control and crashed into some trees and bushes. Initial investigation says that the car’s tires were worn out.

The car was seized by the feds as part of a drug bust. Whoever the drug lord who used to own it obviously doesn’t care much for his car to buy it some new rubber.

Whether the crash will come out of the fed’s pocket has yet to be determined.

Source: Wrecked Exotics

Ferrari is trying to get patents on a new hybrid four-wheel drive system, one which the company claims will be much less complex than current “part-time” 4WD systems. Ferrari claims that performance won’t suffer because all four wheels won’t be driven all the time.

Some of the proposals for Ferrari’s new system will have the electric motor driving one pair of wheels and the engine driving the other pair of wheels. The motor is powered by an on-board battery as it drives one pair of wheels.

“The aim of the present invention is to provide a four-wheel-drive vehicle with hybrid propulsion…and being at the same time easy and inexpensive to produce,” says Ferrari in the patent application. The system achieves that by being lighter and less affected by losses in friction.

“The four-wheel drive that can be engaged enables the driver of the automobile to decide whether to use the rear drive or the four-wheel drive; in this way, the driver can use the rear drive in optimal conditions of adherence and can use the four- wheel drive in poor conditions of adherence”.

Ferrari should be really disappointed with Formula One today. For one, they can’t seem to get a win standing only 7th this season in the constructors cup. The big issue today, however, is their beef with the FIA’s imposition of a budget cap for next season.

The FIA is hoping to bring more teams to F1 by bringing the budget down and increase competition. Teams like Aston Martin and Lola are both. Ferrari, who has pushed the boundaries of F1 by introducing new racing technologies over the last decade, isn’t too happy about this, threatening to quit F1 entirely if this pushes through.

Ferrari isn’t just posing empty threats to the FIA, taking the issue to court, bidding to block FIA’s ruling. Bad news for them though, a French court denied Ferrari’s bid.

Ferrari is not alone in their crusade as they’re joined by Toyota, Red Bull and Renault to prevent the 40 million quid cap from being imposed.

The French court, however, refused to grant the injunction to Ferrari with Judge Jacques Gondran de Robert ruling that Ferrari had failed to use a veto against the new rules at meetings of FIA World Motor Sport Council in March and April when the matter was discussed.

While Ferrari voted against the new rules, they apparently failed to veto the ruling.

A 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa has just become the most expensive car sold under the hammer, after fetching for 8.2 million euro, or over $11 million at an auction.

This surpassed the previous record of 7.04 million euro fetched by a 250 California Spyder in 2008. Additionally, the single Ferrari sale amounted to more than double the entire sales at the Leggione e Passione auction held in Maranello, Italy.

Despite the record sale, many of the marquee cars up for bid didn’t fetch quite the sum the organizers expected them to fetch. Two Ferraris were written off at the last minute, while there were five straight cars that went unsold. A good 11 cars, including some top-billed models, didn’t even reach reserve prices.

That just goes to show that even the highly-valued secondary market is being affected by the economic crisis. In fact, an attendee called it “a disastrous auction.” Still, there’s plenty to be taken from this auction, and the auctioneers did get that record sale on the books, so they can still take their victories where they can.

Everyone knows Ferrari had been opposed to a proposed budget cap in Formula 1 ever since rumors about it started circulating. Now, the automaker maintains that this is more for the fact that road car research and development will suffer because of the cap—at least for Ferrari’s case.

“Unlike some of the other teams in F1, Scuderia Ferrari’s involvement in the sport is not a marketing exercise,” said a Ferrari spokesperson. He added that the cap proposal “would severely hinder (Ferrari’s road car) development”.

Renault will be joining Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, and Toyota on the list of teams threatening to quit if the new two-tier championship setup doesn’t change by the May 29 deadline for confirming entry to the 2010 F1 season. F1 team president Bernard Rey said that the team “cannot be involved in a championship operating with different sets of rules.”

There have been reports of a few new team additions to the grid next year, but if those threatening to pull out make good on their threat, then those new teams probably won’t make much of a difference.

After a meeting with Ferrari’s Board of Directors, board chairman Luca di Montezemolo confirmed that the company won’t enter the 2010 F1 season if the proposal for a new two-tier system remains unchanged. The meeting initially tackled Ferrari’s 2009 first quarter sales performance, but eventually went over to F1 issues.

“The Board considers that if this is the regulatory framework for Formula One in the future, then the reasons underlying Ferrari’s uninterrupted participation in the World Championship over the last 60 years – the only constructor to have taken part ever since its inception in 1950 – would come to a close,” said di Montezemolo.

He closed by saying that the BOD was disappointed at how the FIA could not reach an agreement with the teams and also failed to uphold the stability of long-standing regulations. He also appealed to the fans to understand the approach that Ferrari is taking regarding this issue.

Well, that’s going to be a hard pill to swallow for die-hard Scuderia fans. The way things are going, it’s hard not to be distracted by all the off-track issues while having to deal with the fact that the team is so behind in the standings, too.

Source: Formula 1

Well, we have to apologize for not writing about this earlier. Jean Todt, Ferrari’s forme CEO, has stepped down after 16 years with the Maranello company. He stepped down as CEO last year but was still highly involved both as a board member and with Formula 1.

Ferrari chair Luca di Montezemelo expressed his praise of Todt, saying “Jean Todt has been one of the leading protagonists of the Ferrari story of the last 15 years. I would like to wish him the very best for the future which I hope will prove extremely satisfying both personally and professionally.”

Aside from being at the forefront of Ferrari’s business both on the track and on the road, Todt also earned distinctions as a Chevalier then eventually Grand Officer of the Legion d’Honneur of the French government.

Source: Autocar

At least Ferrari isn’t shelving all their projects due to the crunch. Ferrari will be debuting two Ferraris both of which of the 599 GTB Fiorano. Initially developed under the F139 code, the Fiorano has been around for nearly 3 years now, making its debut in Geneva 2006.

To spice things up for Ferrari’s GT flagship, the Fiorano gets a dynamic Handling GT Evoluzione (HGTE) Package. As the name implies, the package gives the car better handling and other performance upgrades. More details will be ready at the show.

Ferrari will also be showcasing the 599XX which is pretty much their guinea pig for all sorts of new technologies. The car is said to feature improvements that take their roots from both the road and on the track. Now this is quite interesting since the 599’s essentially a long-distance cruiser as a GT but we’re all held in anticipation since there’s no indication yet whether the 599XX will be a road or a track car.

Still, anything new from Ferrari is nice.

Ferrari will be replacing its top-selling F430 luxury sports car with the debut of the new Ferrari F450 in October, to be unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Of course, nothing’s official yet. The working code name for the sports car is F142, although it is expected that Ferrari will officially name it the F450 because of the vehicle’s 4.5-liter V8. It has direct injection and is said to go for upwards of 500 brake horsepower. The new production sports car will also have a transmission system developed from that of the Ferrari California, a seven-speed dual-clutch with the manettino control functionality, which allows drivers to go from sport settings to cruising automatic.

The new sports car will be the first Ferrari in production to feature the Ferrari Mille Chili concept’s focus on the use of green materials and weight-reduction measures

Sources say sales are slated for late 2009 or early next year, and with the car’s debut at Frankfurt, those estimates should be quite head-on, barring any last-minute roadblocks in development.

Source: Autocar