2013 458 Italia, Rosso Corsa/nero on 2040-cars

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Ferrari 250 GT California nets $17 million at Amelia Island

The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider is famed for its feature (in replica form) in "Ferris Beuller's Day Off" and as one of the more valuable Ferrari models. This year's Gooding & Company auction at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance have has cemented that with a high-dollar example. This 250 is indeed a real example, one of just 56 ever made, and only 37 with those desirable covered headlights. This was the first time this particular example was ever offered for sale to the public in its 55-year history, and it fetched $17.16 million at the Florida concours over the weekend. That's not quite enough to take the record for this highly sought-after model. According to Sports Car Market, that still belongs to the barn-find example that Artcurial sold last year for over $18 million. But it did beat its own pre-sale estimates, and was enough to top Gooding's list as well as that of Amelia Island. Related Video:   Gooding & Company Sets Amelia Island Record for Single Lot and Celebrates More Than $60 Million in Sales from its 2016 Amelia Island Auction - 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Fetches $17,160,000, a Gooding & Company Record - Selections from The Jerry Seinfeld Collection Total More Than $22.2 Million AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (March 13, 2016) – Gooding & Company, the auction house acclaimed for selling the world's most significant and valuable collector cars with the tradition of presenting some of the greatest collections to ever come to market, realized $60,162,150 in a single day at the company's 2016 Amelia Island Auction. The most talked about event of the week did not disappoint, as President David Gooding and Auctioneer Charlie Ross sold 69 of 79 lots for an impressive 87% sales rate, which resulted in an astounding average price of $871,915 per car sold. The standing-room-only crowd also witnessed the company achieve nine new world auction benchmarks. There were highlights throughout the auction, including the $22,244,500 garnered by Selections from The Jerry Seinfeld Collection and the star of the day, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider which commanded a price of $17,160,000. "We are delighted with our auction results and are proud of the new auction records we have set, which demonstrates that there is a strong demand for high quality cars," stated David Gooding, President of Gooding & Company. "The room was electric from the beginning and the crowd's intensity only grew when Mr.

The pre-race and first in-race report from Le Mans

The 2013, 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun, tragedy marking the opening laps with the death of Allan Simonsen. We're at the track now as a guest of Audi and plan to stay through the evening, and even we haven't been able to find out what caused the accident - the only video is from just after the incident, and beyond the statement from ACO there's been no more news. The Aston Martin in the LM GTE Am class and its all-Danish drivers had taken pole in its class and was one of the favorites to win.
The pre-race report will come first, and even thought we can't spoil the race because we're only five hours into it at the time of writing, we'll put all of the news at the end in case you don't even want the updates.
Or you can go straight to the high-res galleries above.

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.