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Ferrari 458 Speciale Spider will make Paris debut

The news out of Ferrari is coming nearly as fast as its wonderful sports cars, as of late, with CEO Luca di Montezemolo stepping down and a special model for America upcoming. Now, it's looking increasingly likely that the 458 Speciale Spider is making its world debut at the 2014 Paris Motor Show in early October, confirming earlier rumors.
Di Montezemolo had already confirmed that the Prancing Horse would unveil a new car in Paris, but exactly which model it would be had been a mystery. However, an unnamed Ferrari insider has recently confirmed to 4WheelNews that it would be the droptop Speciale.
As the name suggests, the special model takes the sonorous 4.5-liter V8 engine from the 458 Speciale with 597 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque and drops it into the convertible hardtop from the Spider. According to the source, the special Ferrari is also getting new wheels, stripes and seats, but the folding top might mean losing the coupe's transparent engine cover.

Steve McQueen's Ferrari 275 GTB/4 to be auctioned in Monterey

We know from many, many years of watching classic car auctions, that there are certain qualities that ensure big money. For example, putting tiny silver horses and/or yellow badges on a red car will probably bring in a lot of cash. This is doubly true if said car hails from the 1950s or 1960s, and it's triply true if some dude drove it around in circles or if a celebrity owned it. That, friends, is how you make the serious dosh at auction.
Considering that, we should expect big, big things when this 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 crosses the block at the big RM Auctions event during the festivities surrounding the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
Terrence Steven McQueen, better known as Steve McQueen and even better known as the coolest actor of the 1960s and 1970s, originally purchased this car while filming Bullitt in San Francisco, which should provide a big boost to its sale price.

'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.