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Scuderia Corsa ready to recapture glory at Le Mans

There's nothing else in this world like endurance car racing. Be it a relatively short race like the 6 Hours of Nurburgring or 24-hour endeavors like Le Mans or Daytona, drivers and cars alike are put through long and grueling racing that either ends in triumph or heartbreak. At this year's Detroit Grand Prix, we had a chance to sit down with Scuderia Corsa drivers Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen just hours before they left for France to participate in first practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Scuderia Corsa competes in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship team in the GT Daytona class. This is the second year Balzan and Nielsen have partnered, and the relationship has been fruitful. The pair won the class championship in 2016 and are currently sitting in second for 2017. Despite being in the sport longer, this will be Balzan's first attempt at Le Mans. The pair will be joined by American Bret Curtis in the race, usually racing against Balzan and Nielsen behind the wheel of a BMW. "There's a lot to prepare for with this race," Balzan said. "Christina raced there last year, so she's helping me prepare. It's not like any other race, even something like Daytona. There's a lot of preparation that goes into this race." Everything from food intake to sleep schedules has to be adjusted and set appropriately. There's 24 hours of on-track action bookended by pre-race prep and a post-race cool down. Your body and mind must adjust accordingly, and it's not as simple as drinking a few cups of coffee and munching on an energy bar. Scuderia Corsa is the defending class champion at Le Mans, though not with Nielsen behind the wheel. The team is backed by Ferrari and competes with 488 GT3s, a stripped out, lightweight, race-only version of the 488 GTB. The cars share a version the 3.9-liter turbocharged V8, but the rest of the car has been extensively modified, bearing little resemblance beyond styling. "The cars don't share much with the regular car," Balzan said. The interior is all removed and the suspension and aero are all different. It looks similar, but it's really changed. It drives like a totally different car." That's par for the course with GT cars. While they might share more in common with road cars than something like the Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype, the world of race cars and production cars are far removed. That said, Balzan and Nielsen both enjoy the road car correlation.

Ex-Ferrari chairman sounds off on IPO

Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo preferred to put exclusivity over profits when he ran the company, and the lower volume still meant huge amounts of cash for the business. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne has since taken over Ferrari, but that hasn't stopped di Montezemolo from voicing his opinions. "I hope that the clients will remain more important than the analyst or the investor or the financial markets," di Montezemolo said prior to his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported. The former chairman argued that once on the stock exchange, a company would need to maximize profits quarter after quarter to keep investors happy. Conversely, di Montezemolo said Ferrari's years of success came from an "exclusivity in terms of number of cars, exclusivity in terms of how you deal with the clients." When di Montezemolo left Ferrari last year, he and Marchionne were scuffling about the future of the brand, including the health of the Formula 1 program. With the change in leadership, the company has reversed course in some ways. Where volume was previously kept around 7,000 units annually, the carmaker has set a new goal of closer to 10,000. The paperwork was filed for the IPO, and Marchionne thinks the company could be worth over $11 billion. The actual shares are rumored to go on sale in October. Related Video:

Here's the first production Ferrari Sergio, and it's already been delivered

Not even three months after its production announcement, Ferrari has already delivered the first Sergio, a wildly modified 458 Spider meant to honor Sergio Pininfarina, founder of the eponymous design studio that has turned out so many memorable prancing horses. Unsurprisingly, the roofless Ferrari, the first of six, was delivered to the Middle East, going to the SBH Royal Auto Gallery in the United Arab Emirates' capital, Abu Dhabi. Ferrari handed over the keys at the Yas Marina Circuit, which is currently playing host to the Finali Mondiali Ferrari, the same place the FXX K debuted earlier this week. With a 605-horsepower, 4.5-liter V8, the Sergio can hit 60 miles per hour in just three seconds, although this particular Ferrari is about a lot more than performance. The Pininfarina styling is the real focus here, giving a few lucky owners the opportunity to enjoy concept-car styling in a road-legal machine. Unlike the original Sergio, that debuted at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, though, the production model is somewhat tamer. Blame the necessity that is the windshield. That, though is the most significant change in evidence. All the very best parts of the concept car have seemingly made it through to production, including the lovely forward-swept rollbar and the stylish black element that defines the profile. Take a look up top for the official images from Ferrari, and then scroll below for Maranello's press release. The first Ferrari Sergio arrives in the UAE Abu Dhabi, 5th December 2014 – The first Ferrari Sergio has arrived in the United Arab Emirates. It has been delivered today to its new owner, the SBH Royal Auto Gallery in the UAE, at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit, where the Finali Mondiali Ferrari are being staged and which is home to the Ferrari World theme park. Designed by Pininfarina, just six of this incredibly limited edition roadster are being built. The car was created to celebrate the spirit and core values of the historic Cambiano company in the 60th anniversary year of its collaboration with the Prancing Horse. Needless to say, Sergio was the only possible choice of name for the model, in homage to great Sergio Pininfarina, who sealed the unique, longstanding partnership with Ferrari. The Ferrari Sergio is a genuinely radical car. It is both exclusive and spare in the sense that every single element aboard is focused entirely on performance.