2012 Red Auto Ferrari FF Official Photos and Info

2012 Red Auto Ferrari FF Official Photos and Info
The four-seat Ferrari 612 Scaglietti is a great car, but not our favorite Ferrari. Launched in 2004, it’s getting long in the tooth, and the curvaceous body, lacking in tension, never really grew on us.
At this year’s Geneva auto show, though, Maranello will debut a Scaglietti successor that is not only visually exciting in a way the 612 never managed to be, but departs from the Ferrari gospel in two tremendous ways: It’s the first all-wheel-drive prancing horse, and it’s a two-door station wagon, or shooting brake.
Say What?!
The Pininfarina-styled four-seater folds futuristic shapes and detailing into classic front-engine proportions. The front end is dominated by a hood and headlights that are inspired by the 458 Italia, while the greenhouse sits far aft and flows into a rear end with recessed taillights and a low tailgate. It is long (193.2 inches), wide (76.9 inches), and relatively low (54.3 inches), and to our eyes, it is absolutely stunning. The FF, says Ferrari, seats four comfortably and offers ample space for luggage.
The FF moniker stands for "Ferrari Four" in reference to the fact that all four of the wheels are driven and there are four seats. Ferrari claims that its all-wheel-drive system, which it refers to as 4RM, is 50 percent lighter than comparable systems, but provides no details on how this was achieved. (RM stands for ruote motrici, so 4RM just means “four-wheel-drive” in Italian.) The Italians claim a dry weight for the car of 3946 pounds, which makes it less than 100 pounds heavier than the 612 Scaglietti, for which Ferrari quotes a dry weight of 3880 pounds. (The ready-to-run curb weight of the last 612 we tested was 4123 pounds.) Fifty-seven percent of the FF's weight is perched over the rear axle. Incidentally, British manufacturer Jensen built a four-seat, all-wheel-drive supercar called the FF in the late Sixties. The acronym then stood for Ferguson Formula, and Harry Ferguson Research supplied its all-wheel-drive system.
Business as Usual
The shape and drivetrain layout may be unusual, but the engine is pure Ferrari: a 6.3-liter, naturally aspirated 65-degree V-12 that produces 651 hp at a screaming 8000 rpm and 504 lb-ft of torque at 6000. The power is channeled through a dual-clutch transmission, and performance, as you would expect, should be extraordinary. Ferrari claims that 0 to 62 mph will take just 3.7 seconds—we suspect that is a highly conservative guess—and top speed will be a lofty 208 mph. Magnetorheological shocks will help the FF handle, and Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes will bring it to heel. Fuel efficiency is rated at 15 mpg in the European combined cycle, which is invariably more optimistic than the EPA cycles in the U.S. So the FF isn't quite the green Ferrari we’ve been expecting.
Ferrari history is peppered with shooting-brake conversions. At the Turin auto show in 1968, coachbuilder Vignale unveiled one based on a 330 GT. A few years later, Panther created a shooting brake using the 365 GTB/4 Daytona. Swiss coachbuilder Felber got in on the fun with its 365 GTC/4 “Break,” introduced in Geneva in 1977, and followed that a few years later with a conversion of the Ferrari 400 called Croisette. And, in the mid-’90s, Pininfarina built a few four-door station wagons based on the Ferrari 456 for the Sultan of Brunei. From the looks of it, though, the FF is getting the history of the official Ferrari shooting brake off to a spectacular start. View Photo Gallery

2011 Car Red Ferrari SA Aperta

Destined for “Set as Desktop Background” clicks around the world, pictures of Ferrari’s new 599-based roadster, called the SA Aperta, have been released. The car is set to debut at the Paris auto show. Ferrari says that the SA Aperta was built to celebrate the 80th birthday of the company's long-time partner, the design firm Pininfarina. We suspect it's also been developed because Ferrari flat-out said in the past that it wanted to sell a convertible version of the 599.
Although the name “SA Aperta” doesn't live up to the promise made by Ferrari capo Luca di Montezemolo that the 599 roadster would be called something “emotional” and “romantic,” it is a nice tribute: SA refers to Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina, patriarchs of the family business. Aperta is simply Italian for “open.” (At least it’s not called the SA Aptera; how embarrassing would it be to have your molto-expensive Ferrari mistaken for a rolling tadpole?)
To transition the 599 from coupe to roadster, Ferrari has fit a shortened windshield and integrated rollover protection into what the firm calls “aerodynamic fins” that extend behind the headrests. Ferrari claims that the SA Aperta won't suffer any of the typical negative side effects of rooflessness; the chassis structure was redesigned to offer stiffness “comparable to that of a closed berlinetta” and weight gain is said to be nominal. Part of the reason is that rather than a folding hardtop, a flip-back roof like the 575-based Superamerica’s, or a simple cloth top, the SA Aperta has an emergency, rainstorm-only roof, similar in concept to the Porsche Boxster Spyder’s.
Under the hood, Ferrari has installed a 661-hp V-12; this matches the 599GTO’s V-12 and trumps that of the base, 612-hp 599GTB, although Ferrari is waiting until the show to confirm that it is indeed identical to the GTO’s. We also are left to assume that the SA Aperta's transmission will be the same six-speed automated manual found in the 599GTO. Just for reference, the 599GTO has a claimed top speed of 208 mph and we figure that it could run to 60 in 3.1 seconds. The upshot: Not only should the SA Aperta be brutally quick, it may also provide a 200-mph open-topped experience. That would put the Aperta in a very exclusive club.
On the topic of exclusivity, Ferrari says it will build 80 SA Apertas, but those are all spoken for; the car was shown to a private crowd of brand loyalists at Pebble Beach in August, all of whom presumably dropped to their knees and thrust signed checks at Sig. di Montezemolo. Don’t panic if you want one, though. Since the SA Aperta is being built by Ferrari’s special-projects division, we'd wager that the Scuderia will construct additional SA Apertas for the right customers. Specifically, that means those customers already in with the company who can afford the expected $400,000 price. View Photo Gallery

2012 Car Red 2012 Ferrari 458 Spider

As the auto industry gears up for the 2011 Frankfurt auto show, Ferrari has released the first official photos of the 2012 458 Spider, the roofless iteration of the mid-engine 458 Italia. Other than losing its lid and gaining some structural enhancements, the 458 Spider will be largely identical to its coupe counterpart.
Hooray for More V-8 Wail
Besides shaving the 458’s head, Ferrari altered the car’s throttle mapping, suspension tuning, and “engine soundtrack” specifically for topless motoring. The task of dialing in the sound of the 458’s tightly wound 4.5-liter V-8 for droptop duty seems to us like a two-step process. Step one: Remove roof. Step two: Rev engine. Regardless, the Spider’s soundtrack should be hugely satisfying, produced as it is by the same sonorous 562-hp engine as is used in the 458 Italia. That power is routed through the same seven-speed dual-clutch automatic as is used in the coupe to the same torque-vectoring differential. The 458 Spider also inherits the coupe’s F1-Trac traction-control and performance anti-lock-brake system.
Ferrari claims the Spider will run to 62 mph from a standstill in less than 3.5 seconds before romping on to a top speed in excess of 198 mph. In a recent comparison test, we kicked a 458 Italia to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds, so the Spider’s figure is probably a bit conservative.
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Ferrari’s photos—and a video below—put to rest any doubt as to the style of folding roof the 458 Spider will use. The car’s mid-engine layout makes a folding roof of any kind difficult to integrate, and after seeing the leaked photos of the car we guessed that only a relatively space-efficient soft top would fit beneath its low-slung tonneau cover. Ferrari, however, cleverly adapted its rotating-roof concept from the 575-based Superamerica to the 458 Spider.
The 458 Spider’s roof is a bit more complicated than the Superamerica’s rotating lid, and it hides under a double-hump rear deck when stowed (the Superamerica’s roof laid itself on top of the rear deck). Ferrari claims this solution is 55 pounds lighter than a soft top and takes up less space. The roof can fold itself down into a space ahead of the engine bay in 14 seconds, and the independently operable rear window doubles as a wind blocker. Ferrari believes the rear window to be so effective that occupants can converse normally at speeds above 124 mph. The roof mechanism is compact enough that Ferrari was able to keep a parcel shelf behind the rear seats.
To help combat flex, Ferrari did beef up the 458’s chassis to ensure structural rigidity top up or down, but isn’t sharing exactly what it strengthened. The company does, however, claim that the Spider will only outweigh the fixed-roof 458 by about 100 pounds. The 458 Spider will be on display in Frankfurt in September, and a good part of the production run is likely already spoken for. View Photo Gallery

The Car Black Un-Ferrari: Shaking Down the P4/5 Competizione

It's a haunting sound—the shriek in the distance of a brand-new prototype race car, alone on a deserted test track in the dead of winter. Muffled behind a rise in the land, the four-cam, 4.0-liter Ferrari V-8 blares. With each finger-snap shift of the sequential gearbox, the engine barks, raw gas detonating like rocket fuel in its blast-furnace-hot exhaust plenum. The sharp reports echo around us like gunfire.

It's early February at Vallelunga, a circuit 40 minutes north of Rome. We're here to witness one of this race weapon's many test sessions. The air is clear, brittle. Hatchet chops of 40-degree wind whack at our faces, the chill soaking in like cold whitewater at a midwinter surfing break.

Suddenly, the machine—the P4/5 Competizione—streaks into view, satin-black, lunging like a bad dog. Jim Glickenhaus, the car's owner, beams. "He's really on it now!" Glickenhaus's smile is sturdy, delighted to underwrite the appalling expense of creating this new car. Yet there is a boyish quality in the smile, too. As a young man, he adored the menacing Ferrari 330P4s and Ford Mark IVs of the Sixties, spiritual progenitors of the P4/5 Competizione. Today, he owns a roadworthy example of each of those immortals. Unthinkably, he drives the priceless yellow former Bruce McLaren/Mark Donohue Ford Mark IV and the only existing Ferrari P3/4 on New York public roads.

With the P4/5C, Glickenhaus means to relive the purity of racing in the mid-Sixties. In those days, a Le Mans entry wasn't allowed to carry sponsor stickers; the simple beauty of the race cars did the advertising. Fittingly, the black-and-white P4/5C sponsor stickers are miniatures aligned beneath the doors. He wants the car to be "free to be beautiful."

The P4/5 Competizione dives into the infield hairpin in front of us. Unpainted, its black corduroy carbon-fiber skin glints in the sun. It has about it a fierce modernity. But blink for an instant, and you'll see the specter of a 1967 Ferrari P4 racing across the legendary biographies of Gurney and Foyt, of Parkes and Scarfiotti.

FROM (RECENT) PAST TO PRESENT

The P4/5C was conceived to win one race: the demonically difficult 24 Hours of the Nürburgring this June, where it will be driven by a four-man team that includes the great Finnish former F1 driver Mika Salo. The car was designed under engineer and project manager Paolo Garella—late of Pininfarina—in four months, from June to September 2010. Taking full advantage of the latest computational fluid dynamics software, the car was conceptualized and fine-tuned in digital space, eliminating the time and huge expense of testing a prototype in the wind tunnel. It is, of course, an evolution of Glickenhaus's Enzo-based Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina road car that made its debut in 2006 (Garella held the reins on that project, too). The 2006 P4/5 was conceived as a modern homage to his Ferrari P3/4; today's P4/5C takes this homage one rung higher on the same ladder.

The Competizione is so thoroughly convincing that the aggressive Italian racing magazine Autosprint put the P4/5C on its February cover, identifying it, alongside the 2011 Ferrari F1 car, as one of Maranello's racing weapons for this season. Autosprint couldn't believe the car wasn't covertly executed by the factory.

It was not. The car is 100-percent Glickenhaus's, splitter to Gurney flap. He hired the respected L.M. Gianetti organization and telemetry mavens N.Technology (the two entities teamed up under the name ProTo) to develop the car. Ferrari was annoyed at the confusion but ultimately shut its gums. The P4/5C offers no direct competition to the F430 GTC, Ferrari's GT2-class entry, and will race in the E1-XP2 class (astutely provided by the FIA for wild cards like this one), although it easily could win spectators' hearts with its speed and winsome looks. The fan vote is one competition Ferrari is accustomed to winning, so we could see the prancing horse getting its mane into a twist once more.

As a concession to law and order, however, the P4/5C was designed from the beginning to abide strictly by GT2 rules, even though it won't be homologated per class regs. You'll note that "Ferrari" doesn't appear in the P4/5C's official name, despite the fact that it draws much of its chassis and drivetrain from a Ferrari 430 Scuderia. Initially, the designers planned on using a decade-old Ferrari 333SP chassis and engine as the basis of the P4/5C. But when the team learned that the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring rules allowed neither a carbon-fiber chassis nor the 333SP engine, the donor Scuderia was purchased and its running gear upgraded to full GT2 F430 GTC status (this explains the engine's smaller displacement).

The car carries a GT2 intake restrictor plate, limiting it to 450 hp at 6900 rpm compared with the stock F430's 483 hp at 8500 rpm. (The drivers we spoke with, however, unanimously agreed that the P4/5C positively begs for 200 more hp.) It also will carry a lump of ballast to bring it up to the 2712-pound (1230-kg) GT2 minimum weight. On the plus side, this ballast can be strategically located in the feather-light car to give it better weight distribution. Before being tested, its weight distribution was 40/60 percent, front to rear. At Vallelunga, placing the ballast forward helped the balance, but finding enough front-end downforce proved challenging.

Mounting the P4/5C bodywork to the Scuderia chassis required some fabrication. There was concern that the P4/5C body, closely modeled on the 2006 P4/5 road car, would not fit low enough to look right. The problem was finessed, however, and the P4/5C skin slipped on at the ideal elevation. The P4/5C's sleek shape and narrow Ferrari P4–style greenhouse compensate for its weight and horsepower penalties by providing ample airflow to the GT2-spec rear wing, which generates excellent rear downforce and low drag. Salo told us the rear downforce was so great that traction control is probably unnecessary, and we would think the low power figure and racing tires also help in that regard.

Ferrari 458 Italia gets a sexy new accessory view picture car and view hot girl

Ferrari 458 Italia gets a sexy new accessory view picture car and view hot girl

The Ferrari 458 Italia is one of sexiest cars Ferrari has ever launched, but add in a spicy little number next to it and all of a sudden the heat feels like it has been turned up that much more. We can’t think of a better way to market just how hot the 458 Italia is than to grab a good photographer and a scantily clad model and start snapping pictures. We’re just wondering if this young lady actually managed to solve that engine problem.

Priced at $225,000, the Ferrari 458 Italia is powered by a 4.5 Liter V8 engine equipped with the traditional Ferrari flat crankshaft. This combination produces a total of 570 HP at a rather high 9000 RPM which gives the future super car a power output of 127 HP/Liter. Weighing in at only 3,042 pounds, the new Ferrari will rocket from 0 to 60 MPH in just 3.4 seconds and won’t stop until it hits a top speed of 202 MPH.

Ferrari 458 Italia gets a sexy new accessory view picture car and view hot girl





Ferrari 458 Italia gets a sexy new accessory view picture car and view hot girl







Ferrari 458 Italia gets a sexy new accessory view picture car and view hot girl


by topspeed.com