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BMW hires Ferrari chief engineer Fedeli

There's going to be a little bit more Prancing Horse in some future BMWs because the Bavarian brand is hiring Ferrari chief engineer Roberto Fedeli to join the company in November. Fedeli's new position is still somewhat of a mystery though, and he reportedly might be lending his talents to the high performance M division or possibly even Rolls-Royce. When asked by Automotive News Europe, BMW said that it "currently can't say what his role will be."
Regardless of his new job, Fedeli was a big get for BMW because of his strong résumé. He has been with Ferrari since 1988 and led the engineering for the famous Italian automaker's vehicles since 2007. Fedeli tendered his resignation in September at around the same time that chairman Luca di Montezemolo announced his decision to leave the company. However, Ferrari told ANE that there was no connection between the two events.

1956 Ferrari 250 Tour de France could fetch $11M [w/video]

Highly valuable and arrestingly gorgeous classic Ferraris come up for auction all the time. Most of them derive from the 250 series: GTOs, SWB Berlinettas, Lussos, Testa Rossas. And when they do, they almost invariably fetch big bucks. But there's something about this one that just stops us in our tracks. The long wheelbase, the simple but elegant lines, the French blue paintjob and minimalist racing livery.... That it happens to have an unsurpassed racing history only sweetens the deal, as we're sure collectors are bound to find out when bidding opens in Monterey next month. This 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione was one of just 14 made, and one of just nine built by Scaglietti without the louvers on the remaining five Zagato-bodied examples. But what sets it apart is its racing history. It belonged to the legendary Marquis Alfonso de Portago, a Spanish nobleman and gentleman racer who rose to celebrity status in the early 1950s. Renowned for courting both women and danger, de Portago took to motor racing in 1953, proved a quick study, and was signed by Ferrari in '56. Portago drove this very car to victory at the notoriously challenging Tour de France, which included two hill climbs, six circuits, and a drag race over the course of six days. With his longtime compatriot and co-pilot Edmund Nelson (whom he befriended as a child living in New York's Plaza Hotel where Nelson worked the elevator) at his side, the Marquis dominated the event. So kicked off a series of four consecutive wins Ferrari would take at the famously grueling race, cementing this model's name as a result. The duo won a number of other races in this car, which proved practically undefeated in their hands. Tragically, Portago and Nelson were killed in a crash at the Mille Miglia mere months later, putting an end to their lives as well as that of the Italian road race. The car subsequently passed through the hands of a number of notable collectors on both sides of the Atlantic, underwent a ground-up restoration in the early 1990s, and has won top honors at numerous events, including Pebble Beach, Meadow Brook, and the Louis Vuitton concours d'elegance. It's now going up for auction for the first time in 23 years as part of RM Sotheby's array at Monterey this summer.

LaFerrari XX prototype pushed so hard that its suspension fails

Ferrari has a real challenge on its hands. It made the new LaFerrari hybrid hypercar so extreme already that it left little room to crank it up to 11 and turn it into an XX development prototype like it did with the Enzo and the 599 before it. So it's really going to have to push the envelop to take it that extra step.
That's what it has apparently set out to do with this LaFerrari prototype at Monza, where the Prancing Horse marque was spotted preparing the upcoming LaFerrari XX. In fact, testers ran the prototype so hard that they broke the car's right rear suspension. Which is bound to happen, we guess, when you try to find that extra bit of performance in a vehicle that's already one of the most capable ever devised, but only goes to show how much deeper Ferrari will have to dig to find that even sharper edge.
Either that or Ferrari's working on some sort of four-wheel steering system with automatic camber adjustment... See for yourself in the video below.