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Race Recap: Belgian Grand Prix is new skirmishes, same war [spoilers]

It's been four weeks since we last saw a Formula One race, when Lewis Hamilton improbably put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas in P1 in Hungary. Even more improbably, he held onto the first spot at the finish of the race, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen in the Lotus and Sebastian Vettel in the Infiniti Red Bull.
Resuming the season at Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit this weekend, Hamilton picked up his recent - and just as improbable - pole-setting form by putting the Mercedes in P1 for the fourth time in a row. The effort came during a qualifying session visited by intermittent rains and dry spells, his 54th trip to the front of the pack, tying Niki Lauda.
But neither the fireworks and surprises, the mid-field full of backmarkers, nor the tire strategies and timing choices changed the mission for the drivers in with a chance at the title: finish in front of Vettel.

How this Ferrari 250 GTE became Rome's most famous police car

We're used to seeing fancy cars gifted to or bought by certain international police forces today, but the story of this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE goes well beyond a gift. Because Rome's anti-organized-crime unit, Squadra Mobile, was doing a terrific job in the early '60s, the Italian president asked what they wanted as a token of appreciation. The answer, meant as a joke, was "A Ferrari." The president, in all seriousness, got them two.
One was almost immediately destroyed during testing, the other remains in the care of Alberto Capelli today, whose father began attending military and government auctions just after World War II. Petrolicious visited Capelli to hear the 51-year-old tale of the most precious cop car you're going to see for a while, and it involves outlaws, a French gangster in a Citroën, a policeman who was offered a spot on the Ferrari factory team by Enzo himself, and more. It's a fantastic yarn, and you can watch the whole story below.

1955 Belgian GP movie tells the story of Spa

With the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix happening this weekend, Shell reminded a few guests what the Spa-Francorchamps track and Belgian countryside were like in 1955. That year the petroleum company made a 30-minute movie about the grand prix - this is back when the track was called the Francorchamps National Circuit, near the town of Spa, and a list of its important corners didn't include a mention of Eau Rouge - where it was doing the same thing it still does today: working on fuels and lubricants via its technical partnership with Ferrari.
To create the mood, journalists were invited to a vintage cinema where they mingled with Ferrari F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and other extras in period fifties gear, and watched a screening of 1955 Belgian Grand Prix. You can scroll down for a screening of your own, as well as the press release, minus the petits-fours and pinups.

Ferrari releases teaser video for 458 Speciale

As is the specs weren't enough, Ferrari is helping us get ready for the reveal of the 458 Speciale at the Frankfurt Motor Show with a short teaser video. You won't get much in the way of a full-body modeling session, naturally, but there are plenty of close-ups of its intakes, scoops, vanes, seriously racy bucket seats and lots and lots of carbon fiber.
And showing how omnipresent on-camera surveillance can sometimes be a good thing, the harder 458 has already been caught being tinkered with in digital photos taken at Maranello. For the moving pictures, however, there's that video below.

Luca doesn't believe in electric cars, but Ferrari will build more hybrids

Confirming what we'd long suspected, the hybrid powertrain in the Ferrari LaFerrari was not a one-time thing. "I don't believe in the electric cars, but I strongly believe in hybrids," Ferrari boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo tells Bloomberg. It's unclear when we'll see another hybrid Ferrari, though, as the automaker's current lineup is quite fresh - the oldest model is the California, which was updated for the 2013 model year - but make no mistake, there are more electrified cars coming from Maranello. "The answer is yes," Montezemolo told Bloomberg when asked about hybrids, although he was quick to add "without exceeding." It's that last part that is key for enthusiasts of the gas engine.
Ferrari's move towards hybrid powertrains reflects a pair of trends in both the political and motorsports spheres. Politically, automakers, even exotics, are being pushed to produce cars with cleaner emissions, or in many cases, no emissions at all. Look no further than the Range Rover Hybrid, which was just announced. Formula One's push towards hybridization and smaller engines is also informing decisions at Ferrari, with the LaFerrari already using hybrid tech already inspired by the sport.
Still, it's reassuring to know that while Ferrari is pushing forward with future technologies, that the gas engine won't go the way of the manual transmission in Maranello - at least in the near term.

Ferrari 458 Speciale speeds toward Frankfurt

When the doors open at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a few weeks, there'll be loads of new cars and new versions of existing ones. And as far as the latter category goes at least, this will undoubtedly be what show-goers will look forward to most.
What we have here is the Ferrari 458 Speciale - the successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia, and the hard-core version of the 458 Italia. It was expected to carry the name Monte Carlo, but then Ferrari has never been fond of letting the press dictate what it would call its cars. But forget the nameplate: what really matters is what it's got to offer.
For starters, the award-winning, high-revving 4.5-liter V8 has been retuned to deliver 605 cv (596 hp by our standards), up from 562 hp in the standard 458, while torque remains the same at 398 lb-ft. But the other side of the power-to-weight ratio (quoted at 2.13 kg/cv) is the extra mass Ferrari has cut out of the equation: the 458 Speciale's dry weight is quoted at 1,290 kg (2,844 lbs), representing a significant drop from the 458 Italia's 1,485 kg (3,274 lb) curb weight.

Second day of RM's Monterey auction continues the million dollar madness

RM Auctions' two-day event during the Monterey car week is pretty much a matter of appetizer and main course. Friday night's appetizer saw a trio of multi-million-dollar Ferraris, along with a pre-war Mercedes-Benz and a Jaguar D-Type. You can read all about those beauties right here. But as we said in that post, the action would really happen on Saturday night. The prices listed below include RM's ten-percent commission fee, and, as you'll see, the auction house did pretty well for itself.
We've already told you about the $27.5 million winning bid for the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder, with all the profits headed to charity. While there were more seven-figure winners on night two, the overall prices weren't quit as high as we saw on Friday night. The Ferrari F50 (pictured above) shown during the car's Geneva debut back in the 1990s and with only 1,100 miles on the clock took $1,677,500 (on a $1.25 to $1.6 million estimate). Another winner was a 1935 Hispano-Suiza K6 Cabriolet, which brought in $2,255,000 on a $1.5 to $2 million estimate. A 1974 McLaren M16C Indianapolis, the race winner of the 1974 Indy 500, brought home $3.52 million, essentially doubling its expected price of $1.25 to $1.75 million.
The night wasn't a success for everybody, though. The 1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S Torpedo Roadster, which took Best In Show at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance failed to reach its $10-million expectations, selling for $8.25 million. That's not peanuts by any stretch, but a car that only goes for about 80 percent of its expected price isn't something to be enthusiastic about. A 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage, which was expected to go for $3 to $4 million only took in $2,090,000.

Seven-figure cars highlight day one of RM's Monterey auction

RM Auctions is one of several houses holding auctions during the Monterey weekend, and Friday night's festivities got quite pricey. Seven-figure vehicles were not at all uncommon during the first day of the two-day event, with the 1953 Ferrari 375 MM Spider, seen above, crossing the block for $9,075,000.
Other big earners included a pair of rare Ferraris, a 1950 166 MM Barchetta and a 1955 750 Monza Spider, which took $3,080,000 and $4,070,000, respectively. Outside of the red Italians, a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special captured $7,480,000 while a stunning, color-appropriate 1955 Jaguar D-Type took $3,850,000. We've got images of these vehicles, and a few other stunning examples of last night's auction, in the gallery above.
Thought it seems impossible, tonight's auction is expected to see even more high-dollar action. The winner of the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours, a 1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S Torpedo Roadster is expected to command over $10 million. Also crossing the block will be a car we reported on a few weeks back - a supremely rare 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder. One of only 10 in the world, it's expected to take anywhere from $14 to $17 million when it hits the stage tonight.

Kimi Raikkonen moving to Ferrari?

Kimi Raikkonen, easily one of our favorite current drivers in Formula 1, may be making a move from Lotus to Ferrari, according to a Finnish tabloid called Ilta-Sanomat. Raikkonen, who won the driver's championship in 2007 with the Italian brand, is in high demand and is also rumored to have options on the table from Red Bull and his current team.
Of course, a move by Kimi to Ferrari means at least one of the Maranello-based outfit would need to find another ride. Driving ace Fernando Alonso has publicly voiced his displeasure with the Ferrari chassis, and rumors have the Spaniard considering a move to Red Bull to replace Mark Webber. Buckle up, folks, this Silly Season is shaping up to be bumpy...

Hennessey twin-turbo Ferrari 458 boasts 738 hp, 0-60 in 2.8 seconds

Hennessey Performance Engineering, hot off the heels of its Bugatti Veyron-crushing Venom GT, set its sights on modifying one of the finer Ferrari models. The resulting HPE700 Twin Turbo 458 is a badder, faster 458 Italia with a twin-turbo upgrade that adds 168 horsepower to the already potent 4.5-liter V8. That's 738 hp, which, paired with the extra 134 pound-feet of torque, for a total of 532 lb-ft, is good for a 2.8-second 0-60 run.
Low-inertia ball-bearing turbochargers are used to boost the power, and an air-to-water intercooler makes sure the air surging into the combustion chambers is as cool and dense as possible. Twin wastegates and blow-off valves relieve extra boost pressure and, in addition to a new stainless-steel exhaust system, add some new noises to the 458's soundtrack. The V8 is boosted to a relatively mild 7 psi maximum and maintains 6 psi on its way up to redline. A reflash of the engine control unit brings the package together. HPE is confident enough about its wares that the $59,995 upgrade also comes with a one-year/12,000-mile warranty.
The HPE700 Twin Turbo 458 is set to be unveiled on Friday at the Concorso Italiano located at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch, which is part of California's Monterey Car Week festivities. It also can be viewed on Saturday in the paddock at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Monterey Historics Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion vintage car races. Check out the press release below for the full details, as well as a video of the Ferrari in action.