1995 Ferrari 355 Coupe on 2040-cars

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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.

Ferrari IPO may turn out to be good news for enthusiasts

Sergio Marchionne's strategy to spin off Ferrari from FCA and make the Italian automaker a publicly traded company has been met with ire from a vocal contingent of enthusiasts ever since rumors about the plan began to surface a few years ago. Some of these particularly pessimistic automotive pundits have voiced fears that with stockholders in the mix, it would not only spell the demise of the exclusive Italian supercar maker as we know it, but would in fact "ruin" the company. Call me dense, but I fail to see what the issue is. That isn't to say that I don't understand what's causing the fear. When profitability becomes a higher priority for a brand that's historically relied on exclusivity to keep its products in the highest echelons of desirability, there's a high potential for internal philosophical conflict. And then there are concerns about the sorts of products that Ferrari might develop that aren't the high-performance sports cars that the brand is known for. But individuals with those apprehensions seem to forget that Ferrari has already lent its name to a multitude of things that are not LaFerraris, 488 GTBs, or F12 Berlinettas, including clothing, headphones, and even laptops. But let's assume for a moment that the core anxiety is about future vehicles – including the unspeakable notion that Ferrari might develop an SUV. Why wouldn't Ferrari build an SUV, especially after seeing how incredibly successful that endeavor has been for Porsche? I think it's likely that Ferrari will put engineers to task creating some sort of crossover or high-rolling cruiser with room for the whole family at some point in the near future. And why wouldn't it, after seeing how incredibly successful that endeavor has been for Porsche? After all, the Cayenne accounted for more US sales in 2013 than the Boxster, Cayman, 911, and 918 combined, and it only gave up about a thousand units of sales last year to make room for the Macan crossover, the latter of which Porsche sold nearly as many of as it did Boxsters and Caymans. People want these vehicles, and they're willing to pay quite a bit of money for them. If we use Porsche's recent trajectory as a foreshadowing metric for what's in store for Ferrari, the future actually looks pretty good. After all, those SUV sales keep plenty of cash in Porsche's coffers for the low-volume projects that we enthusiasts love, like the 918 Spyder and the 911 GT3 RS.

Ferrari F40 GT goes all Farmkhana for Tax the Rich

Tax the Rich has thrown a number of Ferrari supercars around the farm in bouts of eyebrow-raising madness. It's featured a 288 GTO, a couple of F50s, even an Enzo. All it was missing was an F40, but its latest video installment corrects that in spectacular style. The self-styled Farmkhana gurus haven't just brought out any old F40 for this video, but a competition-spec F40 GT – and one with considerable pedigree. Chassis number 74047 was the sixth of only seven built, showcased after its construction at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show and converted to racing specification by Michelotto in 1991. The factory's racing partner managed to squeeze a massive 590 horsepower out of it, dropped the suspension, upgraded the brakes, and generally turned the beast way up past eleven. Privateer racer Luca Sartori campaigned it in the Italian GT Championship in the early '90s, winning races at Imola, Monza, and Mugello. The long and short of it is that this is a rather spectacular supercar, even among the rarified breed of F40 racecars. Which only makes it that much more shocking to see what they've done with it in this video. We'll let you watch the two-minute clip yourself to see how it unfolds, but suffice it to say it does not end well. Or at least that's what we're lead to believe.