Ferrari 348 Gts Spider 1995 on 2040-cars

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Ferrari shows California with unique upholstery at Goodwood

Order up a new Ferrari and you can get it just about any way you want it. That's what the company's Tailor Made program is all about. And it's showcasing some of the possibilities at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend with the unique cabrio you see here. This one-of-a-kind Ferrari California T has been done up in a special blue and white livery. Its three-layer Bianco Italia paintjob is overlaid with a pair of offset blue stripes, complimented by a set of 20-inch alloys in blue and silver. The interior is similarly done up in blue and white, but it's the material with which that's done that's the most interesting bit. Maranello has upholstered and trimmed the interior of this particular California with a new high-tech material called Mycro Prestige. It's less than a millimeter thick and weighs only a third of what the leather would, but it's flameproof and water resistant while being porous and breathable. Sort of like Alcantara, but more advanced. Of course these are only some of the options Ferrari can offer through its Tailor Made program. Clients are set up with their own personal designer who'll walk them through the endless choices available through three collections, dubbed Scuderia, Classica and Inedita, the latter offering the most out-there choices. So if what you really want is a Prancing Horse swathed in cashmere or denim, Ferrari will be only too glad to oblige your open checkbook. Related Video: "TAILOR MADE" FERRARI CALIFORNIA T SHOWCASES NEW LIGHTWEIGHT MYCRO PRESTIGE FABRIC Maranello, 24 June 2015. Ferrari will be showcasing a very special "Tailor Made" California T at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, inspired by the passion and colours of Polo and Horse racing. The California T encapsulates the ethos of personalisation, with a Bianco Italia three-layer exterior with a double-asymmetric stripe in Blu Hellen mirrored by a sumptuous Blu Sterling interior with Bianco elements and highlights. The car is finished off with 20" forged wheels which have been painted in Blu Hellen and Argento Nurburgring. This particular California T showcases a new high-tech "Mycro Prestige" fabric material that has been specifically made exclusively for Ferrari. Mycro Prestige is a highly resistant material that offers an exceptional level of grip, and, thanks to its unique mixture of fibres which are only 0.7mm thick, it is only one-third the weight of traditional leather.

1995 Ferrari F50 Berlinetta Prototipo heads to auction

We've seen our fair share of classic and exotic cars head to auction, but it's rare to see something as special as this 1995 Ferrari F50 Berlinetta Prototipo on offer to the general public.  Prototipo, of course, is Italian for "prototype," indicating this example's status as the very first example of the F40 successor ever built. It saw duty as a development vehicle, auto show star, and media evaluation tool. That's right: if you ever read a "first drive" review of the 1995 Ferrari F50, chances are this is the car your favorite auto scribe was driving.  Per the listing, it was also the model for Shin Yoshikawa's cut-away illustration and several scale models (including those sold by Burago, Maisto and Tamiya) and its likeness was even depicted on postage stamps.  After this world tour, the Prototipo returned to the Ferrari factory for a complete rebuild, after which it was sold (as promised ahead of time) to Jacques Swaters, a personal friend of Enzo Ferrari. It remained in the Swaters collection until 2007, when it was sold to a Ferrari collector in Burbank, California. It has since changed hands several times. While it may have lacked the raw, angular aggression of its F40 predecessor, the F50 was no less stunning (or less special) as a result. Its ferocious 4.7L V12 made more than 510 horsepower and 345 lb-ft of torque, which is still plenty respectable even today, especially considering it weighed just a little over 2,700 pounds. That combination was good for a 0-60 run of just 3.7 seconds on the way to a 202-mph top speed.  As CassicCars.com points out, fewer than 350 examples of the F50 Berlinetta were ever produced.  The F50 Berlinetta Prototipo will cross the block Wednesday, Jan. 15th, 2020, at the Worldwide Auctioneers event in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Stellantis and LG launch joint venture for North American battery plant

Stellantis has struck a preliminary deal with battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) to produce battery cells and modules for North America, as the world's No. 4 automaker rolls out its 30 billion euro ($35 billion) electrification plan. Global automakers are investing billions of euros to accelerate a transition to low-emission mobility and prepare for a progressive phase-out of internal combustion engines. Stellantis and LGES's joint venture will produce battery cells and modules at a new facility with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh), the two firms said on Monday. No financial details of the deal were provided. The plant is scheduled to start production by the first quarter of 2024, with groundbreaking expected in the second quarter of 2022, the companies said in their statement. Its location is under review and will be announced later. Stellantis, formed in January from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA, has said it wants to secure more than 130 GWh of global battery capacity by 2025 and more than 260 GWh by 2030. The batteries produced under the deal will supply Stellantis' U.S., Canadian and Mexican assembly plants for installation in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, supporting its goal of e-vehicles making up more than 40% of its U.S. sales by 2030. The company, whose brands include Peugeot, Fiat, Opel and U.S. best-sellers Jeep and Ram, earlier this year announced it would invest more than 30 billion euros through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup. Stellantis has said it would build three battery plants in Europe and two in North America, including at least one in the United States. Intesa Sanpaolo analyst Monica Bosio said the deal was positive, and a further step ahead in Stellantis' electrification process. It comes weeks after Stellantis and its partner TotalEnergies agreed to open up their battery cell joint venture ACC to Daimler, to expand their European sourcing of battery cells. Stellantis is also targeting more than 70% of sales in Europe to be of low-emission vehicles by 2030, and aims to make the total cost of owning an EV equal to that of a gasoline-powered model by 2026. Related video: Green Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Ferrari Fiat Jeep Maserati RAM Citroen Lancia Opel Peugeot Vauxhall Electric Hybrid EV batteries LG