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Ferrari launches upgraded 458 Challenge Evoluzione

Want to drive an eight-cylinder, mid-engined Ferrari? Assuming you can get your lucky little hands on one, you can drive a 458 Italia, 458 Spider or new 458 Speciale on the street. But the real action is where the road ends and the racetrack begins. Ferrari's Corse Clienti division offers versions for GT2 and GT3 racing, for Grand-Am (likely to be revised for the new United SportsCar Championship), and, of course, for its own Challenge racing series.
It's the latter version that Ferrari revealed it was upgrading last week, and now it's made its debut at the tail end of the rain-soaked Finali Mondiali event at Mugello. Although Ferrari only released limited details and just the one new photo, the new 458 Challenge Evoluzione upgrades on its predecessor as promised with obvious aerodynamic enhancements.
Those upgrades are "aimed at making the car even more driveable" for the customer racers who take part in the series, and seem to bridge the gap (at least visually) between the previous 458 Challenge and the more extreme racing versions that have to contend with more competition than its own kind. The upgrades are being rolled out as a kit that will be obligatory in the various Challenge series that will kick off around the world next year.

Ferrari LaFerrari is so nice, we say it twice [w/poll]

Forget about the F70, the F150 and the F150th Italia - this is the Ferrari LaFerrari. Earlier this morning we got our first official look at the successor to the Enzo throne, but now we bring you live shots of the LaFerrari straight from the Geneva Motor Show floor.
There is nothing about this car that isn't impressive - from its 949-horsepower hybrid powertrain returning breakneck acceleration to the aggressively curvaceous body creating a new evolution of design for the storied automaker. The best part of the LaFerrari's design is that there is no single focal point, but one of the more interesting elements of the car is its canopy-like cover protecting the occupants. Every detail of the car has been perfectly sculpted into the carbon fiber body creating an appearance that is probably only outdone by the car's overall performance, which Ferrari promises will include a top speed more than 217 miles per hour and a 0-62 mph time of under three seconds. Ferrari says the LaFerrari will be its fastest street car ever.
While it's hard to make criticisms about of the LaFerrari, there will undoubtedly be many regarding the car's name, but with a design and performance numbers like this, we're sure this car could've been called the Ferrari LaBradoodle and all 499 examples of the hybrid supercar would've been snatched up just the same. After checking out the details posted in a press release below, let us know if you think the Ferrari LaFerrari is a worthy successor to past Maranello supercars like the F40, F50 and Enzo.

Is the $1.4M LaFerrari sold out?

If you look at the stratospheric sticker prices on the latest generation of hypercars and wonder how an automaker could possibly justify it, bear in mind a few factoids. For one thing, even when the sticker prices start lower, they quickly balloon past the million-dollar mark. For another, automakers charge that much because they can, and don't seem to have much trouble selling them all.
Case in point: the new LaFerrari. While presenting the state-of-the-art supercar on CNBC, Ferrari North America CEO Marco Mattiacci revealed that all 499 examples that will be made of the hybrid hypercar - including those 120 earmarked for North America - have already been spoken for. This despite the $1.4 million asking price that makes it the most expensive Ferrari ever made.
Or the most expensive new Ferrari, we should say, because prices for the most collectable machines ever to roll out the gates at Maranello continue to rise. Figure you'll save a little and get LaFerrari's predecessor? Trading hands these days at prices approaching $2 million (around three times its original $660k MSRP), the Enzo is even more expensive. And that's just the scarlet tip of the iceberg.