1980 Ferrari 308 Gtsi on 2040-cars

Auto blog

F1 Race recap: 2016 Russian Grand Prix same as it ever was

The three-year-old Sochi Autodrom that hosts the Russian Grand Prix combines beautiful scenery with a hallmark turn 3, a tricky turn 13, and two long DRS zones. So far, however, those haven't added up to exciting races after the first lap. Despite an in-race issue with his car's MGU-K, Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg aced the weekend with his first career grand slam: pole position, fastest lap of the race, leading every lap, and victory. Behind him, not much happened on the leaderboard after an incident-filled opening lap. The drama started at turns 2 and 3. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel lined up in seventh on the grid because of a five-place gearbox penalty, Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat sat next to him in eighth. Kvyat hit the back of Vettel's Ferrari in the braking zone for Turn 2, shoving Vettel into Daniel Ricciardo – Kvyat's teammate. Kyvat then clobbered the back of Vettel's car at the entry to Turn 3, spinning the German into the wall and out of the race. Kvyat probably regrets saying before the race that he would show Vettel "no mercy" on the first lap. At the back of the grid at Turn 2, Haas F1's Esteban Gutierrez hit Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Manor's Rio Haryanto. Gutierrez continued, both the Force India and the Manor retired. A brief Virtual Safety Car period ensued, then the actual Safety Car emerged for three laps while marshals cleaned up the track. Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg nailed the restart and took off for the rest of the race. Teammate Lewis Hamilton battled his own gremlins all weekend but still finished second, 25 seconds behind Rosberg. During the final qualifying session on Saturday Hamilton's car suffered the same MGU-H failure as in China two weeks ago. The problem relegated him to tenth on the grid. In the race, Hamilton fought his way to second place by Lap 19 out of 53 laps and began closing the 13-second gap to Rosberg. On Lap 37, the gap now under eight seconds, Mercedes told Hamilton his car had a water pressure issue. The malfunction forced the Briton to manage his race and settle for second. Afterward, Hamilton said he was certain he could have won if not for the malfunction. The rest of the top ten barely changed throughout the contest. The first five positions on Lap 21 crossed the finish line in that order 32 laps later. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took the final podium position ahead of the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Final Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta sells for $10 million

All Ferraris are expensive, but some are more expensive than others. The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta is the current king of the mountain, with just 209 examples built, at least so far. A few weeks ago, the Italian automaker announced it would be building one last example, putting the total production number at 210. The car went up for auction this past weekend, and, with a final sale price of about $10 million, the car more than doubled the initial estimates of $3.5 million to $4.7 million. What's a few more million if it's all going to charity? The LaFerrari Aperta is basically the open-top version of the standard LaFerrari. The 210th example was built to celebrate Ferrari's 70th anniversary as an automaker. We're not sure that the owner of the 209th model will be too happy that their car is slightly less special, but we're sure they can drown their sorrows with a screaming V12. The 210th model will wear a special livery that's basically a few white stripes over classic Ferrari-red paint. $10 million is a lot of dough for a car that hasn't actually been built yet. Technically, the winning builder bought the rights to the 210th car, not the car itself. According to Autoweek, all proceeds from the auction will benefit Save the Children, an organization that helps disadvantaged children around the world. The LaFerrari Aperta just beat out this gorgeous 1 959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider by Scaglietti that sold for $9.5 million. Related Video: News Source: RM Sotheby's Green Ferrari Auctions Convertible Supercars ferrari laferrari ferrari laferrari aperta

Chevy ad compares Spark EV with Ferrari 458 Italia

Chevrolet's new commercial for the 2014 Spark EV emphasizes the little hatchback's performance over pretty much everything else, and it even goes as far as to compare it to a Ferrari 458 Italia. That's right, the electric bubble is pitched in the commercial as having a higher torque figure than the Ferrari - and it does, with a massive 400 pound-feet ready to be unleashed.
That doesn't translate into a quicker car, however, as the 458's V8 with 570 horsepower and not-exactly-quaint 398 lb-ft gives it a 0-60 time of 3.0 seconds compared to the Spark EV's 7.6-second run.
"We think the fun-to-drive element is an area for us to differentiate ourselves," Sam Basile, executive chief engineer for GM's global minicars and emerging-market vehicles, told Automotive News.