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Maranello cracks down on rent-a-Ferrari rackets

A crackdown by policy makers in Maranello, Italy, means that visitors to Ferrari's headquarters and museum can't as easily experience the brand's famously sonorous engines for themselves. Several businesses in the city had rented the Prancing Horse's sports cars to tourists for brief drives, but the screaming powerplants got on locals' nerves enough to force new rules to curtail these joyrides. According to CNBC citing an Associated Press report, the various rental businesses had 37 Ferraris and offered a variety of packages to tourists. For example, a 10-minute drive in a F430 Spider was as inexpensive as 80 euros ($87 at current rates). The drivers wanted to get the most from their brief time at the wheel and often sped around the city. While there were no major accidents from the vehicles, the local cops still pulled over 450 of these folks through the first nine months of 2015. The new legislation in Maranello and Fiorano limits the times the test drives can happen and bans the companies from luring customers outside of the Ferrari museum. "We have lost 80 percent of business," the owner of one of these firms said in the report. The rental agencies already challenged the measures in court but lost. It doesn't offer quite the same experience, but Ferrari fans can still get the occasional earful from the brand's engines by staking out the Fiorano test track. We often see the company's future and sometimes classic models there making wonderful noises. Related Video: News Source: CNBCImage Credit: Marco Vasini / AP Photo Government/Legal Ferrari Driving Safety Performance Supercars test drive maranello

Steve McQueen's Ferrari 275 GTB/4 To Be Auctioned In Monterey

We know from many, many years of watching classic car auctions, that there are certain qualities that ensure big money. For example, putting tiny silver horses and/or yellow badges on a red car will probably bring in a lot of cash. This is doubly true if said car hails from the 1950s or 1960s, and it's triply true if some dude drove it around in circles or if a celebrity owned it. That, friends, is how you make the serious dosh at auction. Considering that, we should expect big, big things when this 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 crosses the block at the big RM Auctions event during the festivities surrounding the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Terrence Steven McQueen, better known as Steve McQueen and even better known as the coolest actor of the 1960s and 1970s, originally purchased this car while filming Bullitt in San Francisco, which should provide a big boost to its sale price. As previously reported, this car has undergone a full restoration and has received its certification from the team at Ferrari Classiche. Beyond that, though, we're kind of in the dark about this beauty. We don't even have a rough guess of how much it'll go for. That's where you come in. Considering that the price of classic Ferraris is increasing with all the regularity of Old Faithful, how much do you think McQueen's 275 will call for when it hits the stage in August? Head into Comments and let us know.

Chief justice invokes 'Ferris Bueller' Ferrari in Supreme Court car case

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with the scope of police authority to search vehicles without warrants, with Chief Justice John Roberts referencing the shiny red Ferrari taken for a joyride in the 1986 comedy film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" to make a serious legal point. The justices heard arguments in two cases in which convicted defendants are seeking to have key evidence against them thrown out because it was obtained by police officers through vehicle searches conducted without a court-issued warrant. One case involved a stolen motorcycle that was covered by a tarpaulin and parked on private property next to a house in Charlottesville, Virginia. The other involved a rental car stopped by police in Pennsylvania — driven by a man who was not named on the agreement with the rental agency — in which heroin was found. At issue is whether police in the two cases violated the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. In the motorcycle case, Roberts and other justices seemed concerned about issuing a broad ruling in favor of law enforcement that would let police officers not just inspect the immediate area outside a property without a warrant but also potentially inside a house if a vehicle is located there. Under the Fourth Amendment, police need a warrant to search a house unless there is an emergency situation. In the case of convicted defendant Ryan Collins, the motorcycle was a few feet from the house. In "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" starring Matthew Broderick, three teenagers skip school and take a ride in a red 1963 Ferrari Modena Spyder California that was parked inside a showroom-type garage apparently attached to a house. After mentioning the film's car, Roberts asked Trevor Cox, the state of Virginia's lawyer who was defending the police search, whether he was arguing that police "can just go in" to a house without a warrant because a car is "mobile and they got it in there somehow (so) they can get it out." Roberts also mentioned comedian Jay Leno, known for storing a large collection of cars. Other justices voiced similar concerns, including Neil Gorsuch, who seemed troubled about police officers being able to search garages and other outbuildings without a warrant. "Not many people live in their garage. Some people do, some people do, and in barns, but usually they're reserved for cars and for animals.