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Glickenhaus' FIA championship-winning P4/5 Competizione comes home [w/video]

The sexy Ferrari P4/5 Competizione, a cross between the lightweight F430 Scuderia and the race-only F430 GT2 with special Pininfarina bodywork, spent some time in Europe notching a few race victories. But it finally has made its way back to the US and into owner Jim Glickenhaus' collection, where it met its sister car and inspiration, the original P4/5.
During its short-but-sweet two-year racing campaign, it competed in just two races but left a big impact. We'd call any lap of the Nürburgring that's under seven minutes a victory, but, with the help of a hybrid drivetrain, the P4/5C qualified for the 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours with a lap of 6:51. That's faster than any Ferrari-powered vehicle has ever gone around the 'Ring. The car then went on to win the EXP-1 class (for experimental vehicles), for a World Championship, and finished the race 12th overall in a field of 170 cars. Not bad at all.
For those who haven't kept up on the P4/5C, the hybrid powertrain was introduced to the one-off racecar for 2012 after it had attempted the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2011 with negligible results. A Ferrari 4.0-liter V8 was joined by a Formula One-style Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), good for a combined 563 horsepower.

LaFerrari Spider among Maranello's future product plans

Niche though its products may be, Ferrari typically rolls out a new model every year. 2009, for example, saw the introduction of the California. In 2010 came the 458 Italia, followed by the 458 Spider in 2011. In 2012 we greeted the FF, and in 2013 both the F12 Berlinetta and 458 Speciale. This year the hyper-exotic LaFerrari was joined by the California T, and you can bet that Maranello will keep up that pace by rolling out new versions of and replacements for each of these models in succession.
Among the plans which Car and Driver reports Ferrari has afoot will be an open-top LaFerrari Spider - something which the Prancing Horse marque hasn't done at the top of its range since the F50, which came exclusively with a removable hardtop. The 6.3-liter hybrid V12 will likely carry over unchanged, as will most of the other parameters, but for the joy of experiencing 1,000 horsepower with the wind in your hair - and the exclusivity of being one of the just 50 owners - we're told to expect a price tag roughly double that of the existing $1.35 million coupe.
Of course, Ferrari has more plans than simply chopping the roof off its hybrid hypercar. In Geneva next March, the House that Enzo Built is tipped to introduce a Modificato version of the 458 with a twin-turbo V8 producing around 670 horsepower - over one hundred horses more than in the new California T. A refresh for the all-wheel-drive FF is also said to be underway for 2016, when it will receive a less awkward roofline and the possible addition of a V8 base version alongside the V12 that will remain naturally aspirated. As it will in the updated F12 due the following year.

Why the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari debuted in Charlie’s Angels | The Car Stays in the Picture

The irregular series, The Car Stays in the Picture , covers the sometimes bizarre backstories of the real stars of movie favorites: the cars. In our last one, we covered the iconic Porsche 928 from Risky Business. This time, it's a homely hypercar's unusual footnote in history. The inelegantly named, and inelegantly styled, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari was, a technological triumph when it was unveiled in 2002 at the Paris Motor Show. The successor to the equally, but distinctly, unlovely F50, it was Maranello's latest ultra-exclusive supercar. It had a price tag and spec sheet to match: 6-liter V12, 6-speed Formula One-inspired electrohydraulic transmission, 660 hp, $650,000. It was also, at that fateful reveal in the City of Light, fresh off of a plane from Malibu, where it had just touched North American soil for the first time – or at least North American sand. It had been driven on a beach by a bikini-clad Demi Moore, in her star turn as a villain in the second filmic reboot of the 1970s Jigglevision TV show, Charlie's Angels, subtitled, appropriately enough Full Throttle. All of which begs the automotive question we love to ask at The Car Stays in the Picture: How the hell did something like this ever happen? "It was a combination between us having a very strong connection in Hollywood, and knowing the dealer, Giacomo Mattioli of Ferrari of Beverly Hills, that has always been quite prominent, used by a lot of movie directors," says Marco Mattiacci, the vice president of the Ferrari and Maserati brands in North America at the time. "But one of the things we were doing then was trying to find placements for Maserati. And we had to leverage that appeal of Ferrari." The Enzo was thus something of a Trojan Prancing Horse, with the re-launch of Maserati USA hiding inside – a carrot leading not a stick, but a trident, or maybe some slightly less familiar vegetable, like broccoli rabe. "In that movie, there was the Enzo. But there is also a 2002 Maserati Spyder. That was more of the key product placement. We had to place the Maserati," Mattiacci emphasizes.