2011 Ferrari California, Red / Tan 224k Msrp on 2040-cars

Auto blog

John Lennon's first car being sold at auction

This is what you get as your first car after you've just passed your driver's test at the age of 25: a 1965 Ferrari 330GT 2+2 Coupe. Of course, that's assuming your name also happens to be John Lennon and you've just helped record Ticket to Ride with the rest of your Beatles cronies.
When news of Lennon getting a driver's license made the newspapers in England, luxury car makers parked outside his mansion with offerings and this is the one he chose, painted Azzuro Blue with a blue interior. He paid 6,500 pounds, said to be equivalent to 110,000 pounds today ($170K US).
Bonhams will be auctioning the blue Italian at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 12. It was just one of 500 built, has been restored to its original condition, has matching numbers and its original license plate number. The pre-auction estimate is between 180,000 and 220,000 pounds ($278K - $340K US).

Toyo Tires will bring another wild catalog of rides to SEMA

Toyo Tires carts all kinds of toys to SEMA every year, the rubber company planning another 30 or so automotive exhibits this year in two locations. One of them, the Baja 911, comes with a pedigree not usually associated with the bewildering wares hawked at the Las Vegas show. TJ Russell was once lead fabricator for Singer Vehicle Design, now he's the head of Russell Built Fabrication in Sun Valley, CA. Sticking with the marque he knows well, Russell started with a 1991 Porsche Carrera 4 cabriolet, fitted the interior with a full roll cage, then built a hardtop around it to design a desert runner channeling the old Rothmans safari 911s. Underneath that bodywork lives a box-plate trailing arm suspension with 12 inches of travel, working 15-inch Fifteen52 FIA-approved Gravel wheels and 30-inch Toyo Open Country A/T II tires. Power comes from a purpose-built 3.8-liter air-cooled flat-six with about 350 horsepower — 100 hp more than stock — in a car that weighs 400 pounds less than the original. Oh, and as documented on Instagram with the tagline "All race outside, all business inside," the interior's full of quilted, cross-stitched leather, and Toyo says Russell's going to do a low-volume run of the Baja 911 starting early next year. ruffian-ford-mustang-sema-01 View 10 Photos Chris Ashton built a 1970 Ford Mustang Fastback called the Ruffian Mustang, inspired by the Trans Am Racing Series. The exterior changes are more subtle than one might think – the chin spoiler, hood scoop, and side mirrors are barely exaggerated versions of those on the original car, the intake vents astride the front lights and the steel bumpers teleported from 1970. Changes outside include de-chromed and flush-mounted glass, vented hood, front fenders that are dropped an inch, rear fender vents, dual side-exit pipes, and gargantuan fender flares over staggered Signature One wheels and Toyo Proxes 888 tires. The interior's fitted with a roll cage and race car workings. In spite of the Boss 427 badging, the engine's a 625-hp Chevrolet LS3 V8. button-built-ferrari-355-sema-01 View 13 Photos The Button Built Ferrari BB355TT picks up from last year's stanced BB328GTS widebody that gave many Internet denizens heart attacks. Laid up on a 1999 355 Berlinetta, the BB version appends a widebody kit designed Mitchell Button, rendered by Khyzyl Saleem and drenched in Azzuro la Plata, a color from Ferrari's Scagliette palette first used on a 1967 275GTB Le Mans racer.

Vettel sticks with Ferrari for three more years in 'a no-brainer' move

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel ended speculation about his immediate Formula One future by signing a three-year contract extension with Ferrari on Saturday. The Italian team, the sport's most successful and glamorous, said the new deal covered the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons but gave no further details in a statement of just 30 words. There will be inevitable questions about possible release clauses, not to mention speculation about how many tens of millions of dollars the 30-year-old German will be earning over the period. But the news, at the Belgian Grand Prix and a week before his team's home Italian race at Monza, will allow Ferrari to concentrate on fighting for the championship without distraction. "I love this team. I love the people who are working for this brand," Vettel told reporters later. "Ferrari has something unique, something that other teams don't have. People talk about a legend. To me it appears that this legend is still alive because of the people who work for it, day in, day out. "In a way, it was a no-brainer to continue. We haven't yet achieved what we wanted to achieve but things are looking pretty good, and obviously we have a long road ahead of us," he added. The four-times champion, who joined Ferrari from Red Bull in 2015, is 14 points clear of Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton in the current standings with nine races remaining. The German had been out of contract at the end of this season and there had been speculation about a possible switch to Mercedes -- a move that would have sent a tremor through the paddock. Hamilton, a triple world champion who has one more year left on his Mercedes contract, laughed off that possibility earlier in the week when he told reporters that his rival did not want to be his team mate. Niki Lauda, the Mercedes non-executive chairman, told Sky Sports that there had been talks with Vettel but team principal Toto Wolff said that was not the case. Vettel's Finnish team mate, Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has already agreed a contract extension for 2018, keeping Ferrari's line-up unchanged for next year. Raikkonen, 37, and Vettel get on well, with the Finn playing the role of loyal sidekick to the team's main championship contender. Mercedes are now likely to retain Finland's Valtteri Bottas, who joined in January from Williams as a replacement for now-retired 2016 champion Nico Rosberg on a one-year deal with options.