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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.

Petrolicious documents the motorsport-changing Ferrari 512M

Petrolicious has had plenty of beautiful cars and big-time personalities in its videos, but today's interview is sees one of the series' most well known subjects - US Formula 1 commentator David Hobbs.
Hobbs is an accomplished racer, capturing a number of podiums and a pair of class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in addition to short stints in F1 and at the Indianapolis 500. One of his Le Mans runs was behind the wheel of this, the Ferrari 512M, a car that's notable for two things - running a 1971 season that included the 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen 6 Hour races. The other thing it's known for? Failing to win a single one of those enduros.
Still, the Ferrari 512 is one of the Italian marques most iconic 1970s racers and Hobbs' example is a proud member of that breed, delivering a delicious 5.0-liter V12 exhaust note that makes this an easy video to sit through.

Model waves checkered flag too soon at F1's Canadian Grand Prix

MONTREAL — Formula One said on Sunday it will review its procedures after the Canadian Grand Prix ended in confusion and embarrassment when a celebrity waved the checkered flag a lap too soon. The gaffe did not affect the outcome of the race, which was won by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, but the German said he was left double-checking his lap counter while checking in with his pit before carrying on to run the full 70 laps. "Fortunately we had radio, fortunately I had the lap count in the car, and the pitboard was accurate — but if you lose radio and maybe the pitboard is not there, then you back off," said Vettel after notching his 50th career win. "I was just worried, I told them also on the last lap, then people don't jump on the track, waving flags and celebrating, because we're still going at full pace." The official results were later determined based on the 68th lap to avoid any impact the early flag might have had. Formula One race director Charlie Whiting said the error was caused by simple miscommunication between the official starter and crew in the starter's tower, which resulted in model Winnie Harlow — a friend of Mercedes world champion Lewis Hamilton — waving the flag prematurely. "It was a miscommunication between the start platform and the guy they call the starter here," explained Whiting. "He thought it was the last lap and asked them at the top to confirm it, they confirmed it. "They thought he was making a statement when in fact he was asking a question. "He told the flag waver to wave it a lap early. It was as simple as that, it wasn't anything to do with the fact it was a celebrity flag waver. "The celebrity was not to blame." Celebrities are often given the honor of waving the checkered flag at motor races, which has occasionally resulted in unintended flubs. Brazilian soccer great Pele famously reacted too late when Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won at Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit in 2002, brandishing the flag instead as the later finishers appeared. While the incident on Sunday produced shrugs and even a few chuckles, there were also very real safety concerns, as course workers often come out of their safety areas to stand alongside the track waving flags. "We need to review procedures and make sure we have a very simple procedure for every circuit," added Whiting. "We're dealing with different human beings, different countries, different languages and it's not always absolutely perfect.