2006 Ferrari F430 Spider Convertible 2-door 4.3l Exceptional Blk/blk on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Scuderia Ferrari displaces relatives of missing passengers at Malaysian hotel

The action and glamor of a Formula One race coming to town is usually more than enough to shine an international spotlight on a host country, but Malaysia has made headlines recently for another reason entirely. That, of course, would be the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370. But with the two events coming together, something's going to have to give, and unfortunately in this case, it's the grieving families of the flight's passengers.
The clash came to a head when the Scuderia Ferrari came to town to set up for next weekend's race. Team members were booked to stay at the Cyberview Hotel in the capital of Kuala Lumpur, arrangements which F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone points out were likely to have been made long ago. The trouble is that over a dozen relatives of MH370 passengers who had come in from China were still staying at that hotel while awaiting word on their loved ones' fates, and with the hotel apparently filling up fast ahead of the grand prix weekend, those family members were forced to leave.
Just where they've gone, we don't know, but while the development may not look good for Ferrari or for F1, it strikes us as one of those unfortunate situations where no one is really to blame. The race has been booked for months, the team likely made their reservations long before the flight went missing, the hotel is obliged to honor the reservations and the grieving families need somewhere to stay. The tendency to point fingers often prevails, but in this situation we're afraid no one is to blame but the circumstances. That, and the still as-yet unknown cause of the flight's mysterious disappearance.

LaFerrari racing prototype spotted in Southern Europe

Rumors have been circulating for a few months now that Ferrari could be gearing up to challenge for outright victory at Le Mans once again with an LMP1 racer of its own. First the head of the sports racing division hinted at the prospect, then the head of the Formula One team lent it more credence, and most recently, the chairman of the company itself confirmed the possibility. We've even heard some rumors over who could drive the thing. But what we haven't seen yet is any solid proof that the Prancing Horse marque has actually been working on such a racecar.
That could be what we're looking at it here, but then again, it might not be. Spied undergoing testing in Southern Europe, this camouflaged test mule appears to be based on the new LaFerrari supercar, but with some key modifications that indicate this isn't the road-going version. The revised aero is a dead giveaway, with that giant front splitter jutting out like a swollen lip and a massive rear wing protruding from the back. The headlights are different, it's got center-lock wheels fitted at each corner and there's a big snorkel air scoop protruding from the engine bay.
What's clear is that this is test mule has definitely been set up for the race track. The only question is, to what end? Even with all the add-ons, it's still nowhere near as extreme as the purpose-built prototypes that Audi, Toyota and Porsche will be fielding in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year, and it's missing key features like the mandatory center tailfin. It could be a platform for testing components to use on an upcoming LMP1, but if not for the aforementioned Le Mans rumors, our money would have been on something else - be it a GT racing version of LaFerrari like Maserati did with the Enzo-based MC12, or a customer track toy to follow in the footsteps of the (also Enzo-based) FXX and the 599XX that followed.

'Ferrari' is an oft-banned search term in China, but why?

The Internet has been a boon for car enthusiasts; after all, information about any car ever made is available at a few taps of the keyboard, whenever you'd like. Unfortunately, some Chinese motor heads are not quite as lucky because state censors have been intermittently banning searches for Ferrari on the country's micro-blogging sites, according to Time.
The problem has nothing to do with Maranello's supercars; it's what they represent. The Prancing Horse has become the symbol for so-called "princelings," wealthy young Chinese who use their parents' privileges in the Communist elite to afford luxuries.
The first bout of censorship came in 2011 when the son of then-high-ranking politician Bo Xilai was spotted cruising around Beijing in a red Ferrari, a vehicle much more expensive than he should have been able to afford. It started trending on Chinese social media, and censors began blocking searches for Ferrari in the car's red color. The Italian brand was censored again briefly in 2012 when a Chinese investor crashed his Prancing Horse into two other cars in Singapore.