People come together when disaster strikes. So when an earthquake claimed nearly 300 lives in Italy's Abruzzo region last month, Fiat donated a specially-equipped Ducato van to the emergency relief crew so that the Pope could tour the stricken region and visit the victims. Following its parent company's lead, Ferrari has announced that it will be donating a special one-off F430 to help the cause.

The special edition will be the very last F430 to roll off the line later this year, in effect confirming the arrival of its oft-spied replacement. Painted in special two-tone silver and gold, the colors of the Aquila – the city most directly impacted by the disaster – the one-off will be outfitted with extra equipment from Ferrari's Carrozzeria Scaglietti customization catalog and accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the company's president Luca di Montezemolo. The vehicle will be auctioned off to the highest donor at RM Auction's upcoming Leggenda e Passione event at the Ferrari factory in Maranello next weekend, with proceeds going towards disaster relief. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Ferrari]

Aston Martin knows how to crank out the variants like few others automakers. With essentially two model lines in production, the British sportscar marque always seems to have another new model to debut. And the next looks to be the V12 Vantage Roadster.

Joining the limited-edition V12 Vantage coupe and its endurance racing counterpart, the muscle-bound drop-top should carry over the 510-hp 6.0-liter twelve, but trade a couple of ticks off the coupe's 4.2-second 0-60 time in exchange for the open-air experience. With barely-disguised test mules already spied, sources suggest the V12 Vantage Roadster is being prepared for its debut at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

[Source: WCF]

The residents of Maranello used to the sight of rakish red two-door sheetmetal roaring under the impulse of several hundred horsepower – and they still do. Except when that metal hides a ten-cylinder engine and wears four rings on its hood. In this Audi commercial depicting an R8 V10 on a slow cruise through Ferrari country, the locals are shown to have a decidedly different reaction upon realizing that the German barbarians are no longer content to hang out at the town gates.

If you want to see some excited Latins, follow the jump to watch the commercial. Hat tip to Kobla!

[Source: Audi.tv via Quattro Videos]

We've been reporting on the Lexus LF-A since 2005, and since that time we've shown you the debut of two separate LF-A concepts, an LF-A Roadster and a race version of the LF-A that competed in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. What we've yet to show you amongst these concepts, race cars and the many spy shots in between is an actual production version of Lexus' supercar. After hearing nothing about the LF-A for some time, we've been informed that a new prototype is currently testing on the Nürburgring in Germany. Though wearing camouflage, the new LF-A can definitely be seen sporting a new front- and rear-end, as well as additional sculpting to its side air intakes found ahead of the rear wheel and between the B- and C-pillars. If there's one thing we know about the LF-A with any certainty, it's that we know very little. The production version is rumored to produce over 500 horsepower from what will likely be a V10 engine, and the car itself should be capable of over 200 mph. A $200,000 price tag has been thrown around as well, though you have to question the strategy of a mainstream automaker like Toyota selling such a supercar when the entire world is caught in an economic sleeper hold.



[Photos: KGP Photography]

A new supercar is a cause good enough on its own; all the more so when the car in question is being auctioned off to raise funds for charity. In this case, the very first U.S.-bound Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder to roll off the assembly line in Sant'Agata Bolognese was auctioned off this past weekend to the highest bidder at the 16th Annual Race to Erase MS event in LA.

This particular Lambo Spyder was prepared especially for the charity event, in black with orange accents in the organization's colors. The winning bid of $270,000 (a good $50k or so over list) was placed together by Kymberly Gold of True Religion Jeans and music producer Victor Newman, who will apparently be sharing the two-seat roadster when it arrives at the beginning of U.S. delivery next month. Proceeds from the auction – part of the $2 million raised at this year's event – go to the Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis, and the funds will be earmarked for MS research and public awareness campaigns. Details in the press release after the jump.



[Source: Lamborghini]

Torque is good. More torque is better. And when you have more than 600 lb-ft of the stuff at your disposal with just a tip of your right toe, life is fantastic. Now, if it would just stop raining, things would be perfect. Such is life with the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

As the old saying goes, "Timing is everything", and as General Motors approached its 100th birthday last September, it introduced the two most powerful production cars it had ever created, the Cadillac CTS-V and the ZR1. Unfortunately, just as GM reached the pinnacle of high performance cars, the world economy imploded. The global financial bubble got pierced from multiple sides and sales of cars at every price and performance level vaporized. Fortunately for us, GM is still hanging in there and Chevrolet let us have a few days of quality time with a ZR1 while the opportunity still exists. We went to Hell and back in the ZR1 and lived to tell the tale after the jump.



Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc

Well folks, it's over. The wacky/insipid/annoying (all-of-the-above?) 2009 edition of the Gumball 3000 wrapped things up with the drivers' arrival in Miami Beach. Freelance journo and friend of Autoblog Myles Kornblatt was there, and he ends his coverage with one final photo gallery and this report:

There's something special about seeing ultra-rare cars at the end of an eight-day, 3000-mile road trip. By the time the 2009 Gumball 3000 ended in Miami on Friday evening not only were the drivers visibly road weary, but so were their vehicles. Supercars were built to be driven, and these machines had the dead bugs, brake dust and road scars to prove it.

One hundred and twenty-three teams participated in the 11th running of the Gumball, and according to rally VP Julie Brangstrup, everyone finished. "Every Gumballer has the spirit to do whatever it takes to cross the finish line." Unfortunately not all the vehicles shared their driver's determination, and so some rental cars finished as stand-ins for injured road warriors. One Gumballer was even on his third vehicle by the time he reached Miami.

Some enthusiasts see the Gumball as a rip-off of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (which has evolved into today's One Lap of America.) That's not completely true. The term "Gumball Rally" was first used on a 1976 road race film that Cannonball founder Brock Yates considers to be sort of a bastard child of his rally. The Gumball Rally was Hollywood's excuse to use some minor celebrates for an over-the-top take on the road race (it even features a pre-crazy Gary Busey.) Today, the Gumball 3000 uses a mix of famous, rich and half-crazed participants, who are more about the party than the time clock. Any enthusiast who has seen the film (anyone who is a car guy/girl should,) knows these good-timing Gumballers have as much character as a movie script.

Gallery: 2009 Gumball 3000 conclusion in Miami

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Photos Copyright ©2009 Myles Kornblatt / Weblogs, Inc.

We haven't necessarily had a shortage of photos of the Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce. In addition to the first batch of press photos released by Lamborghini, we also captured the super-Murcielago on the show floor in Geneva and once again here in the United States when it stopped by at one of our favorite weekly car gatherings. Even so, our salivary glands went into overdrive when we saw this latest batch of photos of the SuperVeloce. There' s just something about the outrageous over-the-top styling that takes us back to being a teenager. Check out the high-res gallery below for all the new photos.



[Source: CAR]

Here's your chance to put Godzilla in your driveway for a discount! Of course, this GT-R that's headed for the block at Matley's Richmond Auto Auction today in Virginia will likely not go for much of a discount. Barring a transmission that's been launch-controlled into oblivion, this 3,011-mile repo-special appears virtually showroom-fresh. Carfax says this car is a clean, one-owner affair, and the auction company hasn't put it in the "inoperative vehicle" group, so we're guessing it's another case of financial over-reach brought back down to reality. If it were us, we'd be hiding this thing in a garage more secret and secure than Dick Cheney's undisclosed location while we sold an organ or two on the black market to pay its bills. You've got a spare kidney, but it's not like the GTR comes along every day. If you've actually got the finances to purchase a GT-R and think this one may be a bargain, you'll have to move fast – the auction is today. As long as you can make one or two payments before you start selling off pieces of yourself, you'll be fine. This tip comes to us from our friends at Hemmings, who also hooked us up with the Carfax, posted after the jump. Thanks David!



[Source: Richmond Auto Auction]

If anyone could have done a diesel supercar, it would have been Audi. After achieving utter domination in Le Mans racing with its R10 TDI, the German automaker unveiled two successive turbodiesel concept versions of the R8 supercar at the Detroit show and then at the Geneva salon in 2008. But after whetting our appetites for an oil-burning supercar with instant power delivery and endless reserves of torque, Audi has reportedly canceled development of its R8 TDI program.

Apparently, the R8 was not originally designed to accommodate the company's enormous V12 turbodiesel engine, and re-engineering the car was proving far too costly for Audi to justify under these financial circumstances, especially when the American market, which accounts for 1/3rd of R8 sales, is marred by diesel prices that are higher than gas. Fortunately Audi's already given us the 5.2-liter V10 FSI and has the convertible version in the works, but a diesel R8 just isn't in the cards.




[Source: Auto Express]