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Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.

Ferrari 250 GTO heading to The Quail with no reserve

It's not every day that a Ferrari 250 GTO changes hands. It is, after all, one of the most highly coveted cars ever made, and there were only 39 of them built in the first place. So when one goes up for sale, it tends to fetch millions. Tens of millions, actually, and the prices keep escalating.
Throughout most of the 1980s they were trading hands for six figures. In 1989 one sold for $10 million. A few months later, $13 million. Prices fluctuated in the 90s, but by 2012, one sold for a whopping $35 million, eclipsed the following year at $52 million. Nobody knows what the next one will sell for, but we're about to find out.
That's because Bonhams has got one consigned for its upcoming auction at the Quail Lodge during Monterey weekend next month. And it's offering it without reserve, meaning that it could sell for the opening bid (however unlikely), it could break the previous record or it could land anywhere in between or beyond.

Glickenhaus' FIA championship-winning P4/5 Competizione comes home [w/video]

The sexy Ferrari P4/5 Competizione, a cross between the lightweight F430 Scuderia and the race-only F430 GT2 with special Pininfarina bodywork, spent some time in Europe notching a few race victories. But it finally has made its way back to the US and into owner Jim Glickenhaus' collection, where it met its sister car and inspiration, the original P4/5.
During its short-but-sweet two-year racing campaign, it competed in just two races but left a big impact. We'd call any lap of the Nürburgring that's under seven minutes a victory, but, with the help of a hybrid drivetrain, the P4/5C qualified for the 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours with a lap of 6:51. That's faster than any Ferrari-powered vehicle has ever gone around the 'Ring. The car then went on to win the EXP-1 class (for experimental vehicles), for a World Championship, and finished the race 12th overall in a field of 170 cars. Not bad at all.
For those who haven't kept up on the P4/5C, the hybrid powertrain was introduced to the one-off racecar for 2012 after it had attempted the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2011 with negligible results. A Ferrari 4.0-liter V8 was joined by a Formula One-style Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), good for a combined 563 horsepower.