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Alonso and Rossi to field Ferrari at Le Mans?

The plot thickens and just keeps thickening when it comes to Ferrari's potential return to Le Mans. Antonello Coletta, the head of Ferrari's sports car racing program, first suggested that the new regulations being implemented by the ACO could potentially see the Prancing Horse marque compete in the top-tier LMP1 class. His thoughts have since been echoed by Stefano Domenicali, the head of the Scuderia's F1 team, and by chairman Luca di Montezemolo. And now we're hearing rumors over its potential driver lineup.
Word has it that Ferrari could send Valentino Rossi and Fernando Alonso to pilot its prototype at Le Mans in 2015 or 2016. The rumors were tweeted by Mark Webber (embedded below), who recently left F1 to drive for Porsche at Le Mans - and could amount to pure speculation, to some inside track on hard news or (as is often the case) something in between. One way or another, both Rossi and Alonso are multiple world champions in their fields with strong ties to Maranello and would make a formidable lineup - particularly if paired, we'd venture, with Ferrari's test driver Marc Gené, who won at Le Mans with Peugeot in 2009.
Although the Rossi connection would seem the greater stretch, it might actually make the most sense of the two. With nothing left to prove on two wheels, the seven-time MotoGP champion has been talking about leaving the series. He's test-driven Ferrari F1 cars on several occasions and raced the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series last season. The move would be a rare departure for Alonso, however, who has raced almost exclusively in open-wheel single seaters his entire career, and would need to balance the program with his F1 commitments. That is, assuming he doesn't get fed up with chasing after Sebastian Vettel and teaming with Kimi Raikkonen by then.

Seeing Red: 70 Years of Ferrari at the Petersen Museum

When the Petersen Automotive Museum completed its extensive 14-month renovation and reopened its doors in December of 2015, automotive enthusiasts were treated to a refreshed 95,000 square feet of exhibit space boasting 25 separate galleries. At the time of opening our favorite of those was the Precious Metal exhibit in the Bruce Meyer Family Gallery, featuring some of the world's most desirable cars all painted in silver. While we're sad the Precious Metal exhibit is no more, the gallery is now filled with something perhaps even better - an exhibit celebrating the 70th anniversary of Ferrari called "Seeing Red". The theme of a single color has been maintained (red, of course), and the gallery features eleven of the most significant road and race cars built by the Prancing Horse in the last seven decades. Leading the herd is a stunning 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, one of just 39 built and widely considered to be one of if not the most desirable collector car in the world. The last one that sold at auction brought a record $38 million. Following up the 250 GTO is an achingly gorgeous 1958 250 Testa Rossa and then a 1965 250 LM that won Le Mans outright in 1965. A Mille Miglia winner, a 1949 166 MM Barchetta, is also on display. Perhaps the most historically significant car in the collection, however, is a 1947 Ferrari 125 S. Although this particular vehicle's history is difficult to trace, with many early race cars being wrecked, cut up, or combined with other cars, many believe this example, chassis 010I, to be the very first car to carry the Ferrari badge. Not surprisingly, the 125 S was a successful race car, winning six of the thirteen races in which it competed. The rest of the gallery is a celebration of belle macchine, which includes a 1955 Ferrari 857 Sport, a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB, Michael Schumacher's 2006 Ferrari 248 F1, a 1976 Ferrari 312 T2 driven by Niki Lauda to victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, and a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari. "We're so thrilled to bring some of the world's most beautiful Ferraris to the Petersen," said Bruce Meyer, founding chairman of the Petersen's Board of Directors. "Seeing that Rosso Corsa paint and the beautiful curves of the body work is always enough to make your heart skip a beat.

Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.