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Ferrari 400 Superamerica fetches record $7.6 million at auction

RM Auctions and its new partners at Sotheby's are no strangers to setting records at classic car auctions – especially when it comes to Ferraris. And now they've set another with the sale of this gorgeous 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Cabriolet. Sold as part of the father-and-son Paul & Chris Andrews Collection last weekend, chassis number 3309 SA fetched a whopping $7,645,000. That's a fair bit more than the similar, green over red, open-headlight example which the same auction house sold just a couple of months ago for $6.38 million, and far outstrips the $4,070,000 paid earlier this year at Gooding & Co.'s Scottsdale auction for a white Aerodinamico coupe. A 1963 Ferrari 400 Superamerica LWB Coupe Aerodinamico also sold for $2.86 million at the Andrews Collection sale. Succeeding the earlier 410 Superamerica, the 400 Superamerica was the Bugatti Veyron of its day: extremely expensive, exceedingly rare, and incredibly fast. Only 47 examples were made, seven of which were bodied by Pininfarina, and this was the last of them: a convertible with removable hard top and covered headlights. This was the show car which Ferrari exhibited at both the Geneva and New York auto shows upon its completion, originally in red over tan, before its first owner took it to the Bonneville Salt Flats. It subsequently bounced between a few owners over the following decades, undergoing restorations along the way and picking up numerous awards. It most recently served as the centerpiece of the Paul and Chris Andrews Collection in Fort Worth, TX, which RM Sotheby's liquidated over the weekend. The Superamerica was, of course, the top lot sold, but far from the only one: the auction featured another 15 seven-figure lots, including Packards, Duesenbergs, and more. All told, the event brought in a massive $53,887,585, setting a new record for a private automobile collection auction after every one of the lots sold.

2015 Japanese Grand Prix is a little Mercedes, a lot of zen

Just one week on from the issues in Singapore Mercedes-AMG Petronas appeared to have solved its clamp problems and everything else. Daniil Kvyat at Infiniti Red Bull Racing took the two Free Practice scalps on Friday, but when it came time for qualifying the front of the grid looked really familiar: Mercedes' Nico Rosberg took his second pole position of the season, Lewis Hamilton next to him in second. Kvyat had a hand in that, too, the Russian getting into a big accident in Q3 when he put two wheels on the grass heading into the hairpin and veered into the tire wall so hard that he flipped. That ended qualifying before a number of drivers had a chance to improve their times, Hamilton among them. That's how Valtteri Bottas got in third for Willliams ahead of Sebastian Vettel fourth for Ferrari. Felipe Massa had the second Williams in fifth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo lined up sixth for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, a team we're going to have to enjoy watching for the rest of the season since it might not exist come 2016. Romain Grosjean gave Lotus some good news by getting into eighth, the team so strapped for cash that it couldn't get into its hospitality area, so it held press conferences outside and ate at Bernie Ecclestone's Paddock Club. Sergio Perez took ninth for Sahara Force India, and Kvyat slotted into tenth after not setting a time. The Russsian's race would begin from the pit lane once his mechanics rebuilt his car. It wouldn't be a Formula One start lately without someone at the front having clutch problems. This time it was pole man Rosberg, whose power unit got too hot and put him a few horsepower down on Hamilton through Turns 1 and 2. That's half of how Hamilton took the lead from the lights going out, and the Brit kept it throughout the race. Rosberg, however, said his race was lost when Hamilton pushed him wide through Turn 2, a move Hamilton defended. Rosberg finished almost 19 seconds behind his teammate, a gap that probably isn't fully explained by that opening incident. Hamilton's race was so uneventful that we almost never saw him on camera – that is, we saw him so much less than we usually see him when he's out in front and unpressured that Nikki Lauda said he'd ask Ecclestone why the cameras avoided him. The conspiracy theory holds that FOM was punishing Mercedes for not supplying Red Bull with engines next year.

As the iconic Ferrari F40 turns 30, a look back at its development

July 21, 2017 marks the 30th anniversary, to the day, of the Ferrari F40's debut. The F40 is easily one of the greatest Ferraris ever produced: It was one of the first road cars to have a top speed of 200 mph, it celebrated the company's 40th anniversary, and it was the very last model that founder Enzo Ferrari was able to see to completion. To celebrate this historic car's anniversary, Ferrari collected some anecdotes from people who worked on the F40 project, and they reveal some interesting details about the car's development. Among these details was the timeframe for creating the car. Ermanno Bonfiglioli, Head of Special Projects at Ferrari at the time, said that the car was developed in just 13 months. That means everything from the styling to the engine were taken from an idea to a production car in barely over a year. The engine wasn't quite a from-scratch design, though, since it was based on the unreleased 288 GTO Evoluzione's 650-horsepower engine, but it still received many updates to become the 487-horsepower engine we know today. Bonfiglioli highlighted the engine's weight savings due to using magnesium for the oil sump, cylinder head covers, intake manifold, and transmission bellhousing. It was after driving one of those 288 GTO Evoluziones that Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fiorvanti learned about Enzo Ferrari's plan for the F40. He said that after telling Enzo his thoughts on the 288, Enzo told him he wanted to make a "true Ferrari." Fiorvanti also revealed that everyone, including Enzo, knew this would be the last car for the founder. From what Ferrari test driver Bario Benuzzi said about the F40, it certainly didn't start out as a "true Ferrari." He said, "The handling of the first prototypes were poor." But in the short development time, the F40 became the car Enzo wanted, and Benuzzi credits plenty of downforce and the light, stiff chassis. It didn't make the car easy to drive, though. Benuzzi said, "With no power steering, power brakes or electronic devices, it demands the skill and commitment of the driver, but generously repays it with a unique driving experience." Related Video: Featured Gallery Ferrari F40 Ferrari Coupe Supercars Classics ferrari f40