Videos: Ferrari 458 Italia Crashes, Tractor Comes to the Rescue

The bashed up 599 GTO we showed you yesterday wasn’t the only Ferrari to bite the dust at this past weekend's Trofeo Ferrari Club Italia event at the Vallelunga racetrack near Rome.

The same fate awaited this red 458 Italia when its driver apparently lost control of the exotic supercar in a corner sending it straight onto the protective barriers. In a somewhat unfitting end for the Ferrari, a tractor had to be called in to carry away the car. Watch the incident unfold in the video after the jump.

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Video: Rare Ferrari 599 GTO Bites the Dust

While we are happy to see that at least some owners of the rare Ferrari 599 GTO (of which only 599 examples will be built) take their cars out to their natural habitat on the racetrack, it’s always a sad sight when one of those exotics ends up like this.

The Youtube poster of the video says that the driver lost control of the car “at the end of the straight at 250km/h (155mph)”, but given the relatively modest damages to the 599 GTO, we reckon that he either had a lot of space in front of him or the crash occurred at much lower speeds, perhaps even both.

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1994 Ferrari 348 Spyder with just 2,300 Miles and a…$100,000 Paint Job

An imaginary pod of dolphins pictured swimming in a sky of stars may look cool on a pinball machine but on an Italian exotic like the 1994 Ferrari 348 Spyder it’s more like decorating a classical sculpture with graffiti…

And if that ain’t enough to make you flip your lid, learn that the Austin, Texas dealer selling this cars claims that the paintjob, which is the work of the “world famous Hawaiian artist Christian Lassen” cost –get ready for this- $100,000!

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Video: Fifth Gear Pits McLaren MP4-12C against Ferrari 458 Italia

The 458 Italia, Ferrari's V8 supercar, is the default choice in its category. Sexy, with a fabulous design and the latest in automotive technology, it is a pure driver’s car to be enjoyed by anyone who can afford it.

Yet McLaren plans to spoil Ferrari’s party claiming that its own brand-new supercar, the MP4-12C, can beat it. On paper, little separates them. But the question for car fanatics remains: which one is better?

To find out, Channel 5's Fifth Gear presenters Tiff Needell and Jason Plato decided to pit the Ferrari against its new challenger from Britain. Their verdict? To find out, just follow the jump and watch the video…

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Anderson Germany Turns Ferrari F430 Spider into Scuderia Spider 16M

A new alternative tuning proposal for owners of the Ferrari F430 Spyder has been released by Anderson Germany. The design house has created a package that brings the brings the regular version closer to the flagship edition of the series, the F430 Spider Scuderia 16M.

The transformation begins on the outside with a new aero kit comprising of a front air dam, side skirts and a rear apron. Anderson Germany then finishes the car in a new color called Hyper Black and adds pin stripes in the form of carbon fiber accents with a yellow border.

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Ferrari North Europe Brightens the Lives of 50 Special Children

On Tuesday, July 26, 50 special children will enjoy being driven around the Silverstone circuit in a Ferrari California by professional racing drivers from the British Racing Driver’s Club along with “BRDC SuperStars”, young drivers learning to be the professionals of tomorrow. Read more »

Ferrari’s World Design Supercar Contest: Detroit College Video

A few days ago we reported on the seven finalists of Ferrari’s World Design Contest in which the best design schools from all over the globe submit their proposals, both in Autodesk 3D software and in actual 1:4 scale models.

Their goal? To envision the Ferraris of the future or in the words of the Italian supercar company, “design a pure supercar with technology and materials from the latest generation, a car with an extreme architecture, while functional in every aspect”.

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2011 24-hour Nürburgring Race: And the Winner is….

Porsche triumphed in the 2011 24 hours of Nürburgring, with the 911 GT3 RSR of Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr crossing the line after 156 laps and 3,958.968 km (2,462.044 miles), a new record for the legendary endurance race in the demanding Nordschleife.

The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR first led the race at Saturday evening, at 23:25, and then its drivers held on to it for the following 16 hours and 35 minutes, or 108 laps.

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F1: Sebastian Vettel takes his 6th Win in Valencia

Sebastian Vettel is on a roll and no one seems able to stop him and his Red Bull from adding a second Formula 1 championship to their trophy list. This was confirmed once again today in the European Grand Prix in Valencia, in the eighth race of the 2011, where Vettel took his sixth win of the season. The German world champion started from the pole position and was never challenged during the race as he cruised to another win.

The only driver to even come close was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who started from fourth place and, like his team-mate Felipe Massa, made a terrific start. Alonso had a fight with the Red Bull of Mark Webber who, despite starting from the front row, eventually lost out to the Spaniard who finished the race second, more than 10 seconds behind Vettel.

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F1 to Adopt Turbo 1.6-Litre V6s, not 4-Cylinders, from 2014

It seems that Formula 1’s rules that were supposed to take effect from the 2013 season are being scrapped before they are even imposed. Those regulations called for the replacement of today’s 2.4 V8 motors by 4-cylinder turbocharged 1.6 liter units, a proposal that had being strongly opposed by certain teams such as Ferrari.

Now the sports’ governing body, the FIA, has offered an alternative: 1.6-liter turbocharged V6s with hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), with the implementation of the new rules being pushed back one year, to 2014.

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Plastic is Fantastic: 1:24 Scale Supercar Exotics Encased In Resin

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a 1970's style resin “sculpture” made by an unknown French artist and featuring various 1:24 scale Ferraris.

There’s also a Lamborghini Diablo, Jaguar XJ220 and Bugatti EB110 in there among others. Props to anyone who can help us identify the rest. The unusual item is being sold by Mantiques Modern [sic] of New York.

For details on price, you’ll have to contact the dealer, but something tells us it won’t be cheap… More photos of the artsy piece in the gallery after the break.

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Maserati SUV may get Hemi V8, not Ferrari V8 after all

Environmentalists may hate them, but SUVs have proved quite popular –that’s why even carmakers with no former experience are jumping in on the bandwagon, especially in the executive (and most profitable) market. The latest automaker to do so is Maserati which will launch its first ever crossover next year.

At first, Fiat-Chrysler’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, had revealed that that the Maserati SUV will be based on the new Grand Cherokee’s platform, which in turn is based on the quite capable Mercedes M-Class. However, Marchionne had also hinted that, like other Maserati models, it may get a Ferrari V8 –a very mouth-watering, and logical, proposal since the two companies belong to the same group.

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Go-Fast Porsche Cayman Driver Smacks Ferrari 360 at Supercar Gathering in Malaysia

A couple of mishaps involving private supercars marked this past weekend’s 2011 SuperGT race at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

The first incident occurred on the tarmac during a parade of sports and super cars when an overly enthusiastic but sloppy driver of a winged Porsche Cayman rear-ended a Ferrari 360 as it slowed down in front of the crowd. The red Ferrari then bumped into a silver Ferrari California that was in front of it. You’ll have to jump 52 seconds into the first video to see the very expensive fender benders.

The second mishap took place outside the track as the supercars were leaving. It involved a kitted-out Lamborghini Murcielago and a BMW M5. An eyewitness told Jalopnik that he saw the Murcielago and an BMW M5 chasing each other before the crash. You can see what happened to the Lambo in the video after the break.

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New Ferrari FF gets Ready for its First Tuning Job

Not even Ferrari’s most recent models are exempt from the manic hands of tuners. What we have here are preliminary renderings of what could be the very first tuning job on the freshly revealed, all-wheel drive Ferrari FF supercar. Read more »

Eyewitness Update on the Ferrari F430 Spider vs Taxi Cab Incident

Yesterday, we told you about a recent Las Vegas incident involving the drivers of a Ferrari F430 Spider and a yellow taxicab. In our original story, we wrote that the cabbie “allegedly rear-ended” the Italian exotic. It turns out though that there was no collision between the two cars with the Ferrari driver exploding simply because the cabbie cut him off.

Patrick Fritz, the person who filmed the video outside of Fry's Electronics, came in contact with Carscoop and detailed the events that eventually led to the Ferrari driver punching the cabbie.

Here’s what Patrick told Carscoop:

“I saw this altercation from the very beginning. The Ferrari was trying to leave the Fry's Electronics parking lot as the Taxi driver pulled in front of him, cutting him off. The Ferrari driver was pissed that he got cut off. There was NO collision.

The Ferrari driver then peeled out as he drove up past the cab and stopped in front of him and began yelling at him for "driving like an a$$hole". Then the Ferrari driver got out of his vehicle and approached the cab driver. That's the beginning of the video.”

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Ferrari F430 Spider Owner Attacks Cab Driver for Cutting Him Off [*Updated]

A sad tale of road rage between the driver of a red Ferrari F430 Spider and a Taxi Cab driver took place in front of the parking lot of an electronics store in Las Vegas recently.

Story has it that the cabbie allegedly rear-ended the Italian supercar, but did not cause any significant damage to the vehicle – or at least non that can be seen in this amateur video that was filmed after the two cars parked on the side of the road.

Unfortunately, instead of exchanging information, the driver of the Ferrari was in the mood for some talking with his…fists. We can’t hear all that was said between the two men, but it looks like the only person going overboard here was the F430 driver. Watch the video right after the break.

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Alleged Dealer Employee Slams Ferrari 456 into an Oncoming Volkswagen Gol

A violent accident between a Ferrari 456 and a Volkswagen Gol that took place in Martinez, an affluent city located near the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires was caught on tape by a nearby security camera.

The video shows the blue Ferrari 456 after the driver lost control of the car as it heads slideways towards an oncoming Volkswagen Gol hatchback. The impact, as you can see for yourself in the security footage, is severe. Both drivers were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Although we could not confirm this, media reports from the country citing police sources state that the driver was not the owner of the car but a dealer employee who was taking the Italian supercar for its technical inspection.

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Ferrari World Design Contest: 7 Schools move on to 2nd Stage

Ferrari has announced the seven design schools that have been selected among 50 contestants from all over the world, to participate in the second stage of its World Design Contest that is organized in collaboration with Autodesk.

The schools that made it to the second round are: IED and IAAD from Turin (Italy), the London Royal College of Arts (UK) the European Design Institute Barcelona (Spain), Seoul’s Hong-ik College (Korea), the DSK Supinfocom from Pune (India) and the College For Creative Studies in Detroit (USA).

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New Ferrari FF in All Sorts of Colors Filmed on the Roads of Maranello

Some people are so much into supercars that they don’t mind spending hours and hours on the road waiting for one to come by and record it in action. We, on the other hand, prefer to be the recipients of their work…

This Youtube user, for example, spent a great deal of time on the lookout for any Ferrari FF passing by near the Italian company’s headquarters in Maranello. He was able to spot a handful of cars in various color combinations. If you’re interested in the sights and sounds of Ferrari's four-seat, 660-horsepower V12 supercar, simply follow the break to watch the video.

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Aussie Supercar Buyers Paying More than Anyone Else

In today’s economy, AU$1.0 will get you US$1.06, but it seems Australia’s overseas automakers have yet to acknowledge this. A Lamborghini Aventador, for example, costs a hefty AU$754,600 – or more than twice the price you would pay for one in the U.S. of A. And its 51% pricier than a V12 powered Lamborghini Diablo was ten years ago. This was tolerable when the Aussie dollar was worth 64 U.S. cents a few years ago, but those days are over.

While TV’s, computers and mobile phones have all become more affordable, supercars have not. It’s so bad that one prospective Lamborghini buyer, businessman Ra Hazouri, has flat out refused to pay.

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