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Would you pay $2 million for a Ferrari F50? [w/video]

The F50 may not have been the finest of Ferrari's flagship supercars, but it remains a collector's commodity just the same – and its value keeps rising. F50s are already trading hands at upwards of $1 million apiece – and this year, at least one is expected to fetch upwards of $2.5 million. Ferrari launched the F50 in 1995 as the successor to the legendary F40 that came before. It eschewed the twin-turbo V8 that powered the 288 GTO and F40 for a naturally aspirated V12, setting the stage for the Enzo and LaFerrari that followed in the series. That high-revving 4.7-liter engine, according to Ferrari, was derived from the unit used in the actual F1 car from 1989 (known as the F1-89, naturally). This engine served as a stressed member of the chassis, mounted behind a carbon-fiber tub. With its removable hardtop, the F50 remains the only model in Maranello's flagship series (excluding the Enzo-based Maserati MC12) that offered an open cockpit. It was all very F1-like, but was barely any faster (if at all) than its iconic predecessor. Only 349 F50s were made, each carrying a half-million-dollar price tag. That would be a good $750k in today's money. Still, it is part of a highly collectible series. Only 349 were made, each carrying a half-million-dollar price tag that seemed astronomic at the time in the mid-'90s. That'd be about $750k in today's money, but it's still a far cry from what they're trading at these days. Last year alone, RM Sotheby's sold two F50s at auction: one in May at Villa d'Este for just under $1.4 million, and another at Pebble Beach (as part of the Pinnacle Portfolio) for nearly $2m. This compared to just a few years ago when they were selling for six figures, not seven, prior to 2013. At this early point in the year, two major auction houses have already announced consignments of F50s. RM has one (pictured above) on the docket that's estimated to sell for a good $1.5m. It's sure to be one of the top sellers in a couple of weeks at its sale in Paris during the Salon Retromobile (where Artcurial has another Ferrari for sale at over $30m). Gooding & Company has one lined up as part of the Tony Shooshani Collection. That example (depicted in the video below) was displayed at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show and was owned by Jacques Swaters (of Ecurie Francorchamps fame). It has only 1,100 miles on the odometer and is expected to fetch between $2.5m and $2.9m, which would set a new record for the model.

Ares Design turns the Ferrari GTC4Lusso into a 412 revival

Ares Design has a second project on the go for this year, after its beautiful Ares Design Coupe for the Bentley Mulsanne. The Modena, Italy, coachbuilder released renderings of its Project Pony — Ares gives "Project" codenames to cars in development — that turns a Ferrari GTC4Lusso into a modern 412. The conversion is the next in the firm's Reborn Legends group, coming after the reimagined Ferrari 250 GTO based on the 812 Superfast. This particular writer is ambivalent about the GTC4Lusso and a huge fan of the 412, so I think Project Pony an outstanding way to turn a shrug into "Buy with One-Click." For those unfamiliar, the 412 was a passionately unloved four-seat Ferrari from the 1980s, the last in a series of front-engined V12 grand tourers that began with the 1972 365 GT4 2+2. Named for the displacement of a single cylinder, the engines got larger and more advanced, through to the 412 that ended production in 1989. The 1985 model introduced the brand's first automatic transmission, a General Motors unit just as derided as the rest of the car, but which sold better than the manual. This was the era when Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. made the 308 a must-have poster, when Don Johnson's Testarossa made every boy question the payroll policies of the Miami Police Department, when the 288 GTO showed what a car would look like if it were half "The Godfather" and half Sophia Loren, and the F40 generated gravitational waves. The 412, meanwhile, lived in a damp hut on marsala dregs and stale polenta. Ares Design retained the GTC4Lusso's side vents but without the strakes, the door handle, and taillight arrangement. Every other exterior line got redrawn. New carbon fiber body panels include pop-up headlights in front and transverse vents on the hood. The bread-van profile gives way to a sharply raked C-pillar that falls into a gently sloped trunk just long enough to balance the front end. The rear diffuser shoots up to mimic the original coupe. Chrome frames the side glass and B-pillar for an authentic '80s look, with the retro 412 wheels the finishing touch. The reupholstered 2+2 interior replaces the rounded forms on the instrument panel with squared-off angles, down to the square vents instead of the original round units. There's a round steering wheel, too, as opposed to the flat-bottomed GTC4Lusso wheel.

You can apply to attempt to break the world record for fastest blindfolded driver [w/video]

The Guinness-certified world record for "fastest speed for a car driven blindfolded" is 186.12 miles per hour, set by Mike Newman in a Porsche GT2 last year at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in England. Then earlier this year, Newman said he'd go for the 200 mph mark - something he might want to talk to fellow Bruntingthorpe speed demons Vmax200 about. UK firm Extreme Motorsport, which seems to have been set up solely to set blindfold driving and riding records, wants to wrest the record from Newman using a Ferrari 458 Challenge and the even longer runway at Elvington Airfield in York, England.
Strangely, it appears the terms "legally blind" and "blindfolded" equate to the same thing. The Guinness record and Extreme Sports say "blindfolded," but Newman and the man who held the record before him, Turkish pop singer Metin Sentürk, are legally blind and neither of them wore blindfolds during their record attempts.
No matter - the real point is that Extreme Motorsport is casting about for a driver to set a new record. The could-be-shady part is that Extreme is pretty vague about what's involved; they'll provide the car or the motorcycle, but you have to "choose a charity and pledge to give them all the funds you raise above the entrance fee and for any other personal expenses you may need to participate in the challenge." Extreme doesn't give any indication of how much that entrance fee might be.