1975 Ferrari 308gt4 on 2040-cars

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2015 Ferrari California T [w/video]

I'll never forget the day I bought my very first Ferrari. It was a bright-red F40, I'd saved up for it for what felt like an eternity and I couldn't wait to get home so I could park it next to my other four-wheeled piece of pride and joy, a stealth-black Lamborghini Countach, so I could compare their blunt-edge, wedge-like shapes and massive spoilers in microscopic detail.
The year was 1987, and the event felt like the pinnacle of my life's achievement. Though both of my Italians had been die-cast in 1/18th scale, I coveted the two supercars with the verve of a true collector, taking in the intricacies of their engine bays, opening their doors and turning their working steering wheels. In reality, the two could have hardly been more different, and yet they both looked like finely crafted perfection to my seven-year-old eyes, their questionable day-to-day practicality completely overshadowed by their unquestionably exotic shapes.
More than two decades later, I'm belting myself into the driver's seat of the 2015 Ferrari California T, the first turbocharged Ferrari since the F40 went out of production in 1992. The Tuscan countryside spreads out ahead, a twisting barrage of two-lane roads on the agenda, and I can't help but reminisce of my much younger self as I twist the red key and thumb the equally red ignition button on the steering wheel.

Vettel hopes to pull off some Ferrari 'tricks' to end Mercedes F1 dominance

MONTREAL — Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari has a few tricks up its sleeves for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix and will need to conjure up something special if it is to end Mercedes' magical run. Six races into the season, Vettel is not ready to wave the white flag and concede the title to Mercedes, which has racked up six straight wins, five of them with 1-2 finishes. But the German admits the battle had reached a critical juncture. "The next races will be really crucial for us to try and get back to the front and give a much harder time to Mercedes," said Vettel, who finished second in Monaco last month for Ferrari's best result so far this season. "It will be crucial to do it rather sooner than later, but at the moment I am not too fussed, I am not looking at, 'OK this is the date.' "Clearly we are behind, clearly there is a big margin between Mercedes and the rest and we have to lose that gap and get ahead otherwise it will be difficult to turn around. "That is as much realism as you can get."Vettel won from pole position in Canada last year and Mercedes has suggested the high-speed circuit could again favor Italian rivals whose season has yet to get into gear. But Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will like their chances as well on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Hamilton was fastest in Friday's early practice, but damaged his car when he hit the wall in the afternoon. The five-time world champion sits 17 points clear of Bottas at the top of the standings and in his bid to equal Michael Schumacher's seven Canadian Grand Prix victories between 1994 and 2004. Not that Mercedes needed another boost, but Hamilton and Bottas will have new and upgraded engines in their cars for this weekend's race. Ferrari has already introduced its first upgraded powerplants of the season, but Vettel was optimistic tweaks to the car would benefit them on a circuit that plays to some of their strengths. "There is always little tricks you can do, the question is whether they make a difference," Vettel said. "But I am not sitting here trying to paint things black we haven't done a single lap this weekend so I am quite optimistic it was a strong track for us last year. "We have some tricks up our sleeves whether they work or not we will see.

Ferrari wants upcoming SUV to stand out in increasingly crowded segment

Whether you like it or not, Ferrari's highly controversial SUV is well on its way to production. The Purosangue won't be the firm's first four-seater; its family tree is full of luscious 2+2s. But it will be the first high-riding model with the Prancing Horse emblem on its nose. Conquering this territory is presenting the brand with unique engineering challenges. Independent from Fiat since 2016, Ferrari isn't exempt from the need to save money through economies of scale, so it will build the Purosangue on a modular platform shared with other upcoming front-engined cars. The SUV will offer a height-adjustable suspension, and an available plug-in hybrid powertrain, according to British magazine Autocar. The publication added the gasoline-electric setup will be built around a new, twin-turbocharged V6, but a flagship model with V12 power will likely slot at the very top of the range. Mid-range model might use a V8. The design brief Ferrari gave engineers and designers was relatively simple: The Purosangue needs to stand out from the other luxurious SUVs on the market. It can't be a copy of the Lamborghini Urus, the Bentley Bentayga, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, or whatever Maybach is cooking up. Michael Leiters, the company's chief technical officer, thinks his team has nailed it. "I think we've found a concept and a package which is on one side a real SUV, and will convince SUV customers to buy it, but on the other side there's a huge differentiation of concept to existing SUVs," he enigmatically told Autocar. He stopped short of providing more concrete details, including his definition of a real SUV. We're not expecting the Purosangue to follow a Jeep Wrangler down the Rubicon Trail, or to outpace a WRC car on a rally stage, but it should be capable of light off-roading.  The Ferrari Purosangue is tentatively scheduled to make its debut in 2022, meaning it might arrive for the 2023 model year, and pricing will almost certainly start north of $300,000. It's one of 15 new models the firm plans to release by 2023 in a bid to fatten its profit margins without diluting its image