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This '61 Ferrari 250 GT SWB could be yours for eight figures

The 250 GT SWB Berlinetta ranks among the most desirable of Ferraris, and this one has been under the same ownership for the last 47 years. Now it's coming up for auction. Chassis No. 2917GT served as the Prancing Horse marque's centerpiece at the 1961 Paris Motor Show, where it was displayed in light blue. Its first owner, however, only owned black cars, so he had it repainted. It changed hands a few times over the years, and was repainted in classic red somewhere along the way. That's the color it remains today. Its current owner is described as a well-regarded collector living in the Brittany region of France and has reportedly taken exceptional care of it, driving it regularly and bringing in the best mechanics to service it. But after nearly half a century in his care, he's letting it go. Artcurial will be handling its sale during the Le Mans Classic on July 9. We're waiting on word regarding how much the auction house expects it to sell for, but the records at Sports Car Market have similar examples selling in the past couple of years for upwards of $10 million. Given the apparent condition of this particular specimen, we don't doubt that it'll fetch top dollar. THE EX-PARIS MOTOR SHOW 1961 FERRARI 250 GT SWB BERLINETTA IN SAME OWNERSHIP FOR 47 YEARS – LE MANS CLASSIC, SALE 9 JULY 2016 – Paris – Artcurial Motorcars has raised its international profile in recent years by offering some of the world's rarest and most valuable cars at auction. The top ten most expensive cars ever to sell at auction include two cars from each of Artcurial Motorcars' last two Retromobile sales: the ex-Bardinon 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti that sold on 5 February 2016 for 32.1Mˆ / 35.7M$ – a world record price (in ˆ and GBP) for a car sold at auction – and the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider from the Baillon Collection that fetched ˆ16.3M / 18.5M on 6 February 2015. Artcurial Motorcars is also known for consigning important cars that are new to the market, a key feature of the star car in the next sale at Le Mans Classic on 9 July. The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta #2917GT has been in the hands of the present owner some 47 years, and has had just five owners from new. This remarkable car was displayed new at the 1961 Paris Motor Show, presented in a light blue Azzuro.

Petrolicious goes running up that Hill in a Ferrari 250 GTO

We might not ordinarily run a seven-minute clip of in-car footage. But this is no ordinary car, it's not being driven by any ordinary driver, and it wasn't put up by just any YouTube user. This is video of a Ferrari 250 GTO once raced by Phil Hill, being driven by his son, Derek Hill, in a hillclimb for Petrolicious. The footage was captured during the making of a previous clip, entitled The Ferrari 250 GTO Speaks for Itself and released over a year ago. Since it was left over after production, the Petrolicious uploaded it here for our enjoyment. Of course the GTO should require no introduction, being one of the most sought-after classics the world has ever known. And neither should Derek Hill. While the former's clout goes without saying, Hill's skills warrant repeating. The late legend Phil Hill was one of the few Americans to succeed in European racing in the 1960s, with a Formula One World Championship title and three Le Mans wins to his name. Derek may never have reached his father's level of success, but he's won races and titles in both formula and sports-car racing, and was among the last to professionally race a Bugatti when he campaigned an EB110 at Daytona back in 1996. The point is, the guy can drive, and you can see that much for yourself from the video above. Related Video:

Ferrari wants more hybrids to lift volume to 10,000 cars a year

Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne is looking towards hybridization as the way of bumping the Italian automaker's production figures to 10,000 vehicles per year by 2025, reports Automotive News. To do this, Marchionne plans to hybridize every vehicle with a Ferrari badge starting in 2019. As Automotive News points out, Ferrari is dedicated to delivering roughly 8,000 vehicles this year. The automaker has plans in place to raise that figure to 9,000 cars by 2019. Raising its volume numbers to 10,000 vehicles a year, though, would require Ferrari to meet certain fuel economy and emissions requirements, which it currently does not have to do, reports Automotive News. According to Automotive News, in addition to producing more hybrids, Marchionne is also interested in producing Ferraris that appeal to a larger demographic, helping to increase sales. As Automotive News points out, the recent biturbo V8 GTC4Lusso T is an example of this trend, being both more useable and less expensive than its V12 counterpart. Performance will still be a priority. The CEO believes hybrid powertrains are a way to "yield additional performance," reports Automotive News. This isn't the first time Marchionne has spoken about increasing Ferrari's production as the CEO hinted at upping the automaker's output to 10,000 vehicles annually back in 2014. At that time, Marchionne also revealed that Ferrari would come out with a new car every year between 2014 and 2018. More recently, Ferrari announced plans to increase production to approximately 9,000 cars per year by 2019. Related Video: