Click above for high-res gallery of this record-breaking Ferrari
This past weekend a new record was set for the highest amount paid for a car at a vintage auction by a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder selling for $10,894,900 after auction fees. The sale was at RM Auction's second annual "Ferrari Leggenda e Passione" auction in Maranello, Italy, and the obviously wealthy buyer was popular British radio host Chris Evans.
While we aren't experts on the classic car market, we can't help but think this sale was the result of a "gotta have it" mentality by Evans with no regard for the actual value of the vehicle. The initial estimate from RM Auctions was nearly half the sale price, and the fact that the car was previously owned by actor James Coburn seems somewhat inconsequential. While there's no doubt that Evans snagged an incredibly beautiful vintage Ferrari, we think he could have got his hands on a California Spyder for much less.
We wrote about the Car-Parazzi kids a while back when they were discovered by Jay Leno and became web celebs overnight. This team of young teens is possessed with some insane energy and skill. Still young and unjaded, they have tons of opportunities to feed their passion in the areas around SoCal. This new footage from the teen titans is of the annual Southern California CHP 11-99 Charity Drive, a venerable cornucopia of exotica.
The California Highway Patrol's (CHP) 11-99 Foundation is an assistance program for the families of officers who have been injured or fallen in the line of duty. The foundation sells merchandise and holds various fundraisers throughout the year, but the highlight is this drive. Virtually every supercar and exotic in and around Los Angeles shows up for the short drive to the charity dinner/auction destination. The young men at Car-Parazzi were there last fall to capture some of the excitement. Keep your eyes peeled and you'll see a Maserati MC12, Ferrari Enzos, Porsche Carrera GTs, a Bugatti Veyron, Mercedes SLR McLaren and a host of other Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ford GTs, and the like. Check out the car porn for yourself after the jump.
Alfa Romeo is returning to the US market in about a year, offering the zooty 8C Competizione and 8C Spider atop a range of less spectacular offerings. While the top-end 8Cs will probably be Italian emigres, the 149 and 169 sedans could be put together in Mexico. Alfa doesn't have a hard and fast decision yet, and could pick another site, even one in North America. Moving the labor to Mexico for the volume sellers might prove to be a wise move on Alfa's part. The dollar continues to take a beating, pushing up the cost of European items on US sales markets, and building somewhere else would sidestep some of those increased costs. Alfa is trying this idea in China, too, where Chery will assemble automobiles for that market. We're all for it if it gets the keys to some stylish Italians in our hands while holding the prices down. The quality can't be any worse than it was in the bad old days that led to the notorious reputation for unreliability that afflicted Italian marques. Besides, those shop queens were so joyous to drive, they made suckers out of all of us, and we'd do it again, given the chance.
The current standard-wheelbase Spyker C8 Laviolette
Spyker may be down, but it's not out. The Dutch exotic automaker has fallen on some hard times, but that's not going to stop it from moving forward with at least some of its plans. The C12 Zagato has been postponed indefinitely, but at the upcoming Geneva auto show in March, Spyker is expected to unveil an improved version of its existing C8 Laviolette.
As wonderfully quirky as the current C8 is, owners complain of constricted space. In response Spyker has stretched the wheelbase, giving more space in the cabin while improving the vehicles proportions. The C8 Laviolette LWB will feature an elongated version of the current model's glass roofline. A long wheelbase Spyder version is expected to follow sometime thereafter, benefiting from a proper motorized convertible roof instead of the largely useless folding rag on the current short-wheelbase model. It's a small step forward for the ailing company, but a step forward nonetheless.
Follow the jump for a video rendering of the upcoming C8 Spyder LWB doin' the turntable thing.
click above to view more high-res images of the gorgeous GranTurismo
Since Maserati unveiled the GranTurismo almost a year ago in Geneva, the question on everybody's mind has been, when is the convertible coming? The Trident marque from Modena has finally answered the call, announcing that, although it has yet to decide which show will feature its debut, the convertible will hit the market in March 2009.
Based on the GranTurismo's platform, itself shortened from the four-door Quattroporte's, the remaining question is what form the convertible will take. Although Maserati is thought to be developing a hardtop convertible, sources suggest the upcoming model will adopt a folding soft top, leaving the door open for a smaller hard-top convertible in the future.
The convertible GranTurismo will fill a void in Maserati's line-up created by the departure of the previous-generation Spyder – which ended production along with the GranSport and Coupe – and will form a vital component to achieving its sales targets. When the final figures come in later this month, Maserati expects to post its first profitable year since being taken over by the Fiat Auto Group some 17 years ago, buoyed by steadily increasing sales: In 2006 Maserati sold 5,714 units, rising to 7,353 units in 2007, anticipated to reach 9,000 in 2008, putting the company on track to reach its target of 12,000 vehicles annually by 2011.
Uh-oh. The big day came and went and you forgot a present for that pint-size kiddie on your shopping list. This is gonna cost ya. We'd charge you for information on the ultimate "stop crying, let me make it up to you" gift, but our lawyers insist it's legally questionable and our life coach says it's "wrong", whatever that means.
So here's what you want to get to make the kid forget the conspicuous and disappointing void under the tree: an Alfa Romeo. Okay, not a real one, but everything is relative and to a child, this will seem just as cool – trust us. These downsized rideable Alfa Spiders are available with a choice of body-styles – 8C Competizione or Brera – and powertrain. A hair under three bills will get pedal-power, or an extra two hundred nets the 6-volt electric version. Shipping's extra if you live outside the UK, and the roadsters are made for kids ages 2-5. Oh, and they're available only in red.
If your kid's passion lies elsewhere than with Alfa Romeo, we'd recommend a better education. In the meantime, don't fret: Turbo Toys has a variety of similar ride-ons, including a Maserati, Audi TT, Jag XK, Porsche, and several Ferraris.
Dutch designer Michiel van den Brink doesn't seem to be deterred by adversity. First he set out to pen a modern interpretation of one of the most iconic homologated racing GTs of all time, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Then he actually decided to build his design, basing it on the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, arguably the most dynamically sublime supercar ever to grace tarmac. When the Fiorano's 600-hp Enzo sourced V12 wasn't good enough, he teamed up with tuning house Edo Competition to turn it up to 11 by boring it out to 6.3 liters. The result? 750 horsepower. When Maranello declined to grant him its blessing, he started taking orders anyway from customers seemingly undeterred by the $1.3 million asking price... over the cost of the donor car.
Now that conjecture has begun circulating cyberspace that Ferrari is considering building a small run of convertibles based on the Fiorano, van den Brink has thrown his hat into the ring by unveiling his own design, dubbed the "GT Convertible". A far more convincing and seducing design than the photochops we've seen so far, van den Brink says he'll build it complete with a folding carbon-fiber hard-top for any interested customer.
That's some unfettered ambition, considering we've yet to see an actual copy of the Vandenbrink GTO built, yet despite an undisclosed but undoubtedly high cost for the sublime chop-job, Michiel might start taking orders before you know it.
More details are included in the press release after the jump, where van den Brink alludes to future designs to be based on the Audi R8, Spyker C8 Spyder and Corvette Z06. Oh yes, the future bears promise.
Who would have guessed, but Benito Mussolini was a certified car guy. At least we can surmise that much from his car: the Alfa Romeo roadster you see above was once owned by the Italian dictator, and is now destined for the auction block.
Il Duce ordered this Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder in 1935. Before it was delivered, he had custom coachwork with an auxiliary jump-seat crafted for it by Carrozzeria Touring. Underhood, he had the engine tuned to 95 horsepower from the standard 68. Naturally, the father of fascism didn't drive himself, but he didn't get any ordinary chauffeur either: he hired Ercole Boratto, a former Alfa Romeo factory test driver. In 1936 Boratto even took the car to the famous Mille Miglia street race, where he and the dictator's Alfa finished third in class.
Now, there are cars with provenance, and there are cars with provenance. As if its infamous first owner and its race history weren't enough, chassis 700635, with matching numbers, was awarded top honors at the 2005 New York Concours d'Elegance and second in class at Pebble Beach the same year. H&H auction house is putting it up on the block at England's Cheltenham race course on February 27, 2008, where it is expected to fetch between six and eight hundred thousand pounds sterling (approximately one and a half million dollars).
The internet, as usual, is rife with speculation. Today's source is the FerrariChat message forum, where members claim to have inside information on two new Ferrari models that are anticipated for launch within the next couple of years.
The news concerns a convertible version of the current 599 GTB Fiorano, an illustration of which you see above (courtesy of AutoGespot). FChat member "supraman55" says his local dealer confirmed the upcoming model for a debut at either Detroit or Geneva in 2009. Speculation surrounding the 599 Spider is backed up by an interview with Ferrari's General Director, Amadeo Felisa, which appeared recently in the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport. When asked about a convertible 599, Felisa confirmed that Ferrari is developing such a model for possible production in a limited series like its predecessor, the 575-based SuperAmerica. We'll add our own fuel to the fire by speculating that, based on traditional Ferrari nomenclature revived for the 599 GTB, the roadster will likely carry the 599 GTS designation, perhaps married to another name to replace Fiorano for the open-air version.
Cyberspace is rife with speculation about a new small Alfa Romeo convertible, which could be an indicator of one of two things: either the quintessential Italian automaker has got one such spider in the works, or it's just plain old wishful thinking.
Rumors suggest a revival of the Alfa Romeo Duetto, popularized by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, which could feature a retractable hard-top for motoring al fresco under the Tuscan sun or closed again for parking in Rome and winding through the Alps.
Along the road to rehabilitation, Alfa's return to the American market will include two unspeakably beautiful convertibles: the Brera-based Spider, and the recently-confirmed convertible version of the 8C Competizione. A third convertible in the line-up would be likely to come in significantly under the price of either (not hard to do in the 8C's case considering the anticipated €185,000 sticker price that's guaranteed to climb with speculation) in the effort to attract a younger clientele. If the upcoming "Alfa Junior" can serve as any indication, we could be looking at an Italian rival to the likes of the Mazda MX-5 and Pontiac Solctice, which again could be just wishful thinking.
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