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Ferrari 458 Speciale speeds toward Frankfurt

When the doors open at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a few weeks, there'll be loads of new cars and new versions of existing ones. And as far as the latter category goes at least, this will undoubtedly be what show-goers will look forward to most.
What we have here is the Ferrari 458 Speciale - the successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia, and the hard-core version of the 458 Italia. It was expected to carry the name Monte Carlo, but then Ferrari has never been fond of letting the press dictate what it would call its cars. But forget the nameplate: what really matters is what it's got to offer.
For starters, the award-winning, high-revving 4.5-liter V8 has been retuned to deliver 605 cv (596 hp by our standards), up from 562 hp in the standard 458, while torque remains the same at 398 lb-ft. But the other side of the power-to-weight ratio (quoted at 2.13 kg/cv) is the extra mass Ferrari has cut out of the equation: the 458 Speciale's dry weight is quoted at 1,290 kg (2,844 lbs), representing a significant drop from the 458 Italia's 1,485 kg (3,274 lb) curb weight.

Winningest Ferrari ever feted by Petrolicious

When Petrolicious showed its video starring the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO, we weren't sure it could be topped. Now, barely two weeks later, it has. Somehow, the video crew of one of our favorite YouTube series has gotten its mitts on one of the rarest, winningest, and most unique Ferraris to ever rove the planet.
This is a 1957 Ferrari 625/250 TRC, a customized stunner originally owned by Ferrari importer John Von Neumann that won a number of races across the country during its heyday. There's a lot more to this car than its wins at the Grand Prix of Mexico, Laguna Seca, Riverside and Pomona (and others), though.
See, this car was originally bought by Von Neumann alongside a second 625/250 TRC. Both cars were already rarities, sporting a 2.5-liter four-cylinder race engine sourced from Ferrari's Le Mans efforts. Von Neumann took things a step further, acquiring a 3.0-liter V12, which was then shoehorned into the sleek TRC's body. Yes, wee little Ferrari with a big ol' engine. It's a hot rod, and is one of the best looking, best sounding cars we've ever seen.

BMW, Ferrari, VW cars use tungsten mined by terrorists

Bloomberg Markets is reporting that BMW, Volkswagen and Ferrari have been using tungsten ore sourced from Columbia's FARC rebel terrorists. The extensive story focuses on Columbia's illegal mining trade and calls into question the provenance of the rare ore that is used not only in crankshaft parts production, but is also found in the world's computing and telecommunications industry for use in screens.
The ore is mined by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army), and exported to Pennsylvania, where it is refined. The refined ore is then sent over to Austria, where a company called Plansee turns it into a finished product. Now, it's important to note that we aren't talking about the world's supply of tungsten here. In 2012, Plansee's American refinery purchased 93.2 metric tons of tungsten, valued at $1.8 million. That's peanuts, with the entire Colombian tungsten mining industry producing just one percent of the world's supplies.
That doesn't make indirectly supporting FARC any more acceptable, though. BMW, VW and Ferrari are all committed to not accepting mineral supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also in the grips of a guerrilla insurrection funded, in part, by illegal mining. The same commitment would figure to extend to Colombian mining, but as BMW points out, it's difficult for a multi-national manufacturer to know where every item in its supply chain comes from. A company spokesperson says as much, telling Bloomberg, "These few grams out of the billions of tons of raw materials passing through the BMW supply chain are of no practical relevance."