Ferrari 456m Gta on 2040-cars

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24 Hours of Le Mans live update part three

We tasked surfing journalist Rory Parker to watch this year's live stream of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. What follows is an experiment to experience the world's greatest endurance race from the perspective of a motorsports novice. Parker lives in Hawaii and has an associates degree in dropping f-bombs. For Part One, click here. Part Two is here. Really hoped I'd be able to grab an hour or two of sleep before the sun rose over Le Mans. Dark dark dark, couldn't figure out what was going on. Commentators struggled at times as well. But I couldn't do it. Endurance racing is just too exciting. Grabs my attention with both fists. Screams, "watch these men DRIVE!" A neighbor invited me over for drinks. Told him, "Can't do it, gotta watch Le Mans!" Maybe not exactly. I'll admit, at times my attention wandered. I did a load of laundry. Ate some snacks. Half listened to the commentary. Threw a hump at my wife. I learned that Patrick Long, driving #88, is big brother to Kevin "Spanky" Long. Spanky's a bit of a legend in the skate world. Always weird how top notch talent can run in families like that. Kind of surprised I've never heard that before. Worked for a skate mag for a years, met Spanky a handful of times. Someone must've told me that he has an older brother who drives race cars. Dash cams at night are scary. High powered headlights in the P1s reach almost 300 meters. Cars outrun that distance easy. Seems like they're just steering into the black and hoping for the best. But that can't be the case. People'd be dropping dead let and right. Very amused by how the guys in GT are like, "Dude, stop flashing your fucking lights before you pass." But the LMP's are all, "Suck a dick! I do what I want." Top three stayed neck and neck nearly all night long. As the sun gets ready to creep back over the horizon the top three are separated by only eleven and a half seconds. Toyota 5 and 6, Porsche 2. Audi 8 is two laps behind Porsche, beleaguered 7 is dealing with constant trouble eleven laps from the front. GTE Pro sees Ferrari 82 in first, Ford 68 and 69 right behind. To win you've gotta drive perfect, build perfect. Fours cars retired so far. I'm beginning to appreciate the endurance aspect a little more fully. Only really considered the drivers at first. The mental and physical stress driving these cars at these speeds at length would inflict. But keeping the damn things running is the real deal. To win you've gotta drive perfect, build perfect.

Ferrari Driver Academy heads to Florida for the winter

Retirees and Girls Gone Wild camera crews aren't the only ones who go to Florida for the winter. So is a contingent of aspiring formula racing drivers taking part in the new Florida Winter Series being set up by the Ferrari Driver Academy.
The program is being set up in response to a lack of suitable weather at circuits in Europe, which would otherwise keep rising stars in formula racing from honing their skills during the off-season. Toyota runs an off-season series in New Zealand, but Ferrari is heading to the most southern of these United States to give its prodigies some much-needed track time.
Set up as more of a training program than a competitive championship, the FDA Florida Winter Series is based around a field of 15 aspiring drivers piloting the Formula Abarth-spec Tatuus FA010B, with a 195-horsepower engine furnished by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and an engineer for every three cars in the series.

Ferrari investors want assurance on goals, SUVs on eve of vehicle reveal

MILAN — Ferrari's new boss has his work cut out on Tuesday to convince investors that the supercar maker can hit mid-term targets he described last month as "aspirational." The company's share price slid more than 8 percent on Aug. 1 after Louis Camilleri said he saw "risks" ahead, with investors worrying he may have sought to lower expectations on the targets set by his predecessor, Sergio Marchionne. Former tobacco exec Camilleri was appointed Ferrari CEO in July, succeeding Marchionne, who died from complications following surgery. The sudden change jolted investors who had expected Marchionne to remain as CEO and chairman until 2021, having more than doubled Ferrari's value since taking it public in 2015 and pledged to double core earnings (EBITDA) to 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by 2022. It also left Camilleri to finish scripting a strategy to show how the company known for its racing pedigree and roaring combustion engines would shift toward making a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and hybrid cars while increasing shipments without sacrificing its exclusivity. "Investors want to hear whether Ferrari confirm the 2 billion euro figure, which was already seen as ambitious and now somewhat put in question by the new CEO," said Emanuele Vizzini, general manager at Milan-based investment fund Investitori Sgr. "And how they plan to expand the portfolio, including an SUV." 'Nurture what he's found' When Camilleri faces investors at Ferrari's Maranello headquarters on Tuesday he is not expected to stray far from his predecessor's script. Marchionne had orchestrated Ferrari's spinoff from parent Fiat Chrysler, positioned it as a luxury icon rather than a carmaker and managed to do what few thought possible: sail through a self-imposed cap of 7,000 cars a year without sacrificing pricing power or its exclusive appeal. "Ferrari is running almost on autopilot ... Camilleri should not take any risks at this stage but nurture what he's found," said Carlo Gentili, CEO at asset manager Nextam Partners. When Ferrari's share price hit a record high of 129.50 euros in June, the company that sold slightly fewer than 8,400 vehicles last year was worth about 24 billion euros. That is almost as much as Fiat Chrysler <FCHA.MI>, which shipped 4.7 million cars. With profit margins above 30 percent, strong pricing power and a healthy customer waiting list of more than a year, Camilleri inherits a business that is firing on all cylinders.