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Hot Wheels loses Ferrari diecast contract to Chinese company

If you're anything like this writer, chances are you've got a diecast model or two kicking around the house. And if one of those models replicates a Ferrari, chances are it's made by Hot Wheels. The Mattel brand secured an exclusive contract from the Maranello automaker in the late 1990s, but the latest word from Hemmings has it that Ferrari has ended its partnership with Hot Wheels and awarded it instead to the May Cheong Group. Unless you're an avid diecast collector, you may not have heard of May Cheong, but you may have heard of its brands Maisto and Bburago. Both brands are longtime players in the model car market, but it's the Bburago part of the deal that's particularly interesting. Founded in Italy, Bburago made a name for itself largely due to the scale Ferrari models it made back in the day. But when the Prancing Horse marque awarded the exclusive contract to Mattel, and with increasing competition from the Far East, Bburago collapsed. May Cheong swept in and scooped it up, and now the Italian model brand, along with its onetime rival Maisto, will be producing diecast Ferraris once again. Whether Bburago will use any of its old tooling to resume production of Ferrari scale models or start from scratch with all-new equipment remains to be seen, as does the matter of whether either it or Maisto will be able to produce the same quality of models as Hot Wheels has with some of its higher-end offerings. Like most collectors, this writer's looking forward to finding out. Looks like it's time to buy another display case.

Ferrari Driver Academy heads to Florida for the winter

Retirees and Girls Gone Wild camera crews aren't the only ones who go to Florida for the winter. So is a contingent of aspiring formula racing drivers taking part in the new Florida Winter Series being set up by the Ferrari Driver Academy.
The program is being set up in response to a lack of suitable weather at circuits in Europe, which would otherwise keep rising stars in formula racing from honing their skills during the off-season. Toyota runs an off-season series in New Zealand, but Ferrari is heading to the most southern of these United States to give its prodigies some much-needed track time.
Set up as more of a training program than a competitive championship, the FDA Florida Winter Series is based around a field of 15 aspiring drivers piloting the Formula Abarth-spec Tatuus FA010B, with a 195-horsepower engine furnished by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and an engineer for every three cars in the series.

Ferrari planning six-cylinder Dino revival?

Ferrari swore up and down when it was developing the California that it wouldn't be an "entry-level" model. Whether that ultimately proved to be the case or not is up for debate, but it seems that the Prancing Horse marque is now preparing to launch a properly more accessible model in the near future. According to Motor Trend, Maranello is working on a new six-cylinder sports car to serve as the point of entry for new customers – especially in China. Tax implications there could mean the V6 would displace less than 3.0 liters, but likely pack a pair of turbochargers to ensure that output and performance live up to the Ferrari standard. Tipped to arrive in 2019, the six-cylinder model could materialize as a revival of sorts of the Dino line. Named after Enzo Ferrari's first-born son, the Dino sub-brand used mostly six-cylinder engines to take on the Porsche 911 on and off the track. The Dino 206 GT emerged in 1968, evolved into the larger-displacement 246 the following year and ultimately gave way to the very different, eight-cylinder, four-seat 308 GT4 in 1973, later to be rebadged as a proper Ferrari once the Dino brand was put to rest in '76. It's worth noting that Ferrari developed the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 for the Maserati Ghibli and Quattroporte, which would presumably serve as the basis for the new entry-level Ferrari. Though FCA typically endeavors to keep its brands from competing directly with one another, Maserati is due to release a production version of the Alfieri sports car concept within the next couple of years, powered by that same engine, and could share its underpinnings with the Ferrari model in question. The six-cylinder Prancing Horse could carry a price tag of around $180,000 to take on the likes of the Porsche 911 Turbo, Mercedes-AMG GT, Audi R8 and the Sports Series which McLaren just kicked off with its new entry-level 570S. Related Video: News Source: Motor TrendImage Credit: Newspress Ferrari Coupe Performance v6 ferrari dino