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Ferrari F12 TdF shrieks like a banshee on the Gumball

With all the exotic metal (or carbon) participating in the Gumball 3000 rally each year, it takes something truly exceptional to turn heads. The new Ferrari F12 TdF is up to the challenge. For those who may have missed the reveal back in October (and this week's episode of Top Gear), the F12 TdF could very well be the ultimate naturally-aspirated twelve-cylinder Prancing Horse. And by "ultimate," we mean possibly the last, before turbochargers and hybrids take over Maranello completely. Named after the legendary Tour de France (for automobiles, not cyclists), Maranello's latest is based on the F12 Berlinetta, but like the 599 GTO before it, the TdF pushes the envelope even further. Its 6.3-liter atmospheric V12 revs all the way up to 8,900 rpm, producing a monstrous 769 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque along the way – enough, in other words, to put the Lamborghini Aventador SV (and most anything else) to shame. It'll reach 62 miles per hour from a standstill in less than three seconds, top out at over 211 mph, lap Fiorano faster than any road car this side of LaFerrari, and slide around all day and all night with its four-wheel steering system. And it screams. Don't take our word for it: turn up the speakers, hit "play," and listen to the F1-like shriek it emits out in the wild. Related Video: News Source: Marchettino via YouTube Ferrari Coupe Performance Videos ferrari f12 gumball 3000 ferrari f12 tdf

This rare vintage Ferrari is not like the others

This particular Ferrari profiled by Petrolicious is attached to many of the vital names we've come to associate with the brand, like Dino, Scaglietti, Ascari, and Formula 1. What it doesn't have is the kind of engine we've come to associate with Maranello: at the front of that delicious bodywork is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 172 horsepower. The car is a 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II Scaglietti-bodied spider, its engine derived from the 2.0-liter engine used in the Ferrari 500 race car that Alberto Ascari used to win the F1 World Championship in 1952 and 1953. We can only wonder if any of today's cars will provide the same joy at being a barn find as this one did for its affable owner, retired US Navy Admiral Robert Phillips. He discovered it in the back of a dealership in 1960 - it had been sitting unused in Ohio and California for years - and almost walked away from it. He only bought it when he realized it had a four-pot engine. He paid two-thirds of his yearly salary at the time for it, the handsome sum of $2,225. In today's money that's about $18,000. Phillips says there are only three left with the original engines, so odds are that his car's value is exponentially more than the inflation-adjusted purchase price. One of them is going on the block with RM Auctions next month which looks a lot like this one, and they've listed it as "Price on Request." Phillips is our kind of owner, though - one who believes his car is meant to be driven, and who wants to pass it on to another driver when the time comes. His vehicle has quite the history, too, making its way to the Americas thanks to a call from the president of Venezuela to Enzo Ferrari. Check out the video for its beautiful story. Related Video:

Raikkonen likely to retire from F1 after 2015 [w/poll]

Though his irreverent demeanor party-goer image might suggest otherwise, make no mistake about it: at 34 years old (and with 37-year-old Mark Webber out of the race), Kimi Raikkonen is the oldest driver in Formula One. He's three months older than Jenson Button, a good year older than his former wingman Felipe Massa, three years ahead of Adrian Sutil and a good decade beyond the latest crop of up-and-comers on the grid. So it's only natural that we should start wondering how much longer he'll stick around, and now we may have our answer.
Speaking with motorsport journalists at the British Grand Prix this past weekend, the 2007 World Champion and winner of 20 grands prix, Raikkonen indicated that the next season will likely be his last. According to numerous racing news outlets, when asked how long he plans to stay on the grid, the famously terse Finn responded: "Until my contract is finished, and then I will probably stop. That is what I think is going to happen."
Kimi was a relatively unknown entity when Sauber gave him his first drive in F1 back in 2001, upon which he finished in the points on his first race. He moved to McLaren the following season, racked his first podium finishes, and took his first win the season after that. He finishes second behind Fernando Alonso the next season, well ahead of the rest of the pack, and switched to Ferrari two seasons later in 2007, winning the world championship on his first season in red. After just three seasons, Ferrari showed him the door and Kimi left F1 entirely, trying his hand at everything from the World Rally Championship to NASCAR. He returned to F1 with Lotus in 2012, and in a rare move for Maranello, was invited back for this season on a two-year contract.