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2015 Ferrari LaFerrari [w/video]

What a year it's been for enthusiasts who love high-performance, higher-dollar automobiles. The past twelve months or so have been consumed with the three horsemonsters of today's hybrid hypercar enlightenment: the Porsche 918 Spyder, the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari. Getting into just two of the three would be better than a lump of coal in one's stocking come holiday time, but for me, it'd still leave things feeling sadly incomplete, gnawing from within 'til the end of days.
Getting the call from Maranello, therefore, was even more fortunate and satisfying. The 918 Spyder - the only seriously green hybrid of the trio - shook me up with its sophisticated menu of technologies. The McLaren P1 remains more of a true hypercar than the Porsche, what with its e-motor designed to boost the lightweight beast to supernatural speeds above any terrestrial concerns like fuel efficiency. And now it's time for the Italian with the funny name, LaFerrari. No mistake about it: I've been waiting all year for this car a little more than I've been waiting for the other two.
This run of hypercars built up over the year like a famous three-part opera: The enthralling start of the drama sitting in the Porsche 918, tear-assing the heavier green dart around a track in Spain; then on to the UK with the lightness and quick heart of the biturbo V8 in McLaren's track-inspired P1, and it was all to be topped-off at Fiorano with the LaFerrari, fit for a Wagnerian finish.

Ferrari vs. Ferrari: Cut convertibles unloved by collectors?

The New York Times' Wheels blog has a really interesting story on a pair of Ferraris that are set to be auctioned off in Monterey during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. While the two cars are similar on the surface, their differing histories and Ferrari's attitude towards one of them has led to a sort of experimental auction process.
On the one hand, we have one of ten 1967 275 GTB/4 NART Spiders, in the classic Rosso Corsa and appearing at RM Auctions and seen above. On the other, we have a Fly Yellow version that started life as a 1965 275 GTB Coupe, and was converted into a NART Spider. Called a "cut" car, this particular replica is one of about 100 GTB Coupes that were converted into convertibles to satiate the climbing demand for ultra-rare Spiders.
This will mark one of the first times that an original NART Spider will go toe to toe with a replica of itself at auction, and will answer a number of questions about just how important provenance is in the collector car world. Head on over to The Times blog for the full story.

$64M Ferrari 250 GTO could be a fake

Remember that Ferrari 250 GTO that we reported on last week, supposedly listed on mobile.de for $64 million? Well, don't go putting down your deposit just yet, because it might be a fake.
According to noted Ferrari expert Marcel Massini, the vehicle listed on the German used-car website is a replica. "I can tell you that with 100 percent certainty," Massini told CNBC. "I know where all of these cars are today. And this is not one of the original GTOs."
Of course "replica" is a relative term when it comes to 250 GTOs. Other authentic classic Ferraris are sometimes rebodied to look like a GTO, but while they're not real GTOs, they are real Ferraris. We reported on such an "Evocazione" example (pictured above) based on a '65 Ferrari 330 GT a few years ago, around the same time that Matt Farah came across one based on a 365 GTB/4 Daytona alongside a Ford GT as well.