2005 Ferrari F430 Spyder, F1, 6,900 Miles, Carbon Fiber, Loaded, Huge Msrp on 2040-cars

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Ares Design turns the Ferrari GTC4Lusso into a 412 revival

Ares Design has a second project on the go for this year, after its beautiful Ares Design Coupe for the Bentley Mulsanne. The Modena, Italy, coachbuilder released renderings of its Project Pony — Ares gives "Project" codenames to cars in development — that turns a Ferrari GTC4Lusso into a modern 412. The conversion is the next in the firm's Reborn Legends group, coming after the reimagined Ferrari 250 GTO based on the 812 Superfast. This particular writer is ambivalent about the GTC4Lusso and a huge fan of the 412, so I think Project Pony an outstanding way to turn a shrug into "Buy with One-Click." For those unfamiliar, the 412 was a passionately unloved four-seat Ferrari from the 1980s, the last in a series of front-engined V12 grand tourers that began with the 1972 365 GT4 2+2. Named for the displacement of a single cylinder, the engines got larger and more advanced, through to the 412 that ended production in 1989. The 1985 model introduced the brand's first automatic transmission, a General Motors unit just as derided as the rest of the car, but which sold better than the manual. This was the era when Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. made the 308 a must-have poster, when Don Johnson's Testarossa made every boy question the payroll policies of the Miami Police Department, when the 288 GTO showed what a car would look like if it were half "The Godfather" and half Sophia Loren, and the F40 generated gravitational waves. The 412, meanwhile, lived in a damp hut on marsala dregs and stale polenta. Ares Design retained the GTC4Lusso's side vents but without the strakes, the door handle, and taillight arrangement. Every other exterior line got redrawn. New carbon fiber body panels include pop-up headlights in front and transverse vents on the hood. The bread-van profile gives way to a sharply raked C-pillar that falls into a gently sloped trunk just long enough to balance the front end. The rear diffuser shoots up to mimic the original coupe. Chrome frames the side glass and B-pillar for an authentic '80s look, with the retro 412 wheels the finishing touch. The reupholstered 2+2 interior replaces the rounded forms on the instrument panel with squared-off angles, down to the square vents instead of the original round units. There's a round steering wheel, too, as opposed to the flat-bottomed GTC4Lusso wheel.

Logic3 classes up headphones with Prancing Horse

White earphones too bland for you? Black too slow? Your otherwise high-end cans just not expensive enough? Logic3 hopes to remedy your plight with its new line of Ferrari-branded earphones and headphones.
Logic3's Cavallino line is intended for the well-heeled audio enthusiast with aluminum housings covered in hand-stitched, lambskin leather. The Scuderia collection is also built with aluminum but instead of leather, the earphones' colors closely match those of the Ferrari F1 team. Yellow badges and aluminum grilles complete the look.
Both lines also include over-the-ear headphones and Bluetooth compatible dock station speakers. The Scuderia line headphones mimic the look of hearing protection worn by F1 pit crews.

Ferrari 488 GTB turbocharges its way towards Geneva debut

Automakers left, right and center are embracing turbochargers as the best way to get more power out of a smaller package, and that includes performance automakers like Ferrari. In line with the latest FIA regulations, the Prancing Horse marque turbocharges its Formula One single-seater, and followed the same route with the California T. And now it's done the same with the replacement for the 458 Italia. Dubbed the 488 GTB, Maranello's latest mid-engined V8 supercar arrives forty years after the debut of the 308 GTB that launched Ferrari into the segment. It packs a 3.9-liter turbocharged V8 offering up 661 horsepower and 560 pound-feet of torque. That represents a 64-horse increase over even the extreme 458 Speciale, and an even more impressive torque boost of 162 lb-ft, despite a decrease in displacement by approximately 600cc. (Ferrari isn't saying exactly how many turbochargers its new forced-induction engine carries, but we're likely looking at a pair of twin-scroll turbos.) The new engine is said to be enough to propel the new 488 GTB to 62 miles per hour in three seconds flat, to 124 mph in 8.3 seconds and on to a top speed in excess of 205 mph. And at 1 minute 23 seconds, the 488's lap time at Fiorano is also a good half second faster than the naturally aspirated Speciale and two seconds faster than the Italia. Ferrari says it dedicated significant efforts to keep the engine responsive and the exhaust note enthralling despite the introduction of forced induction – the first time a turbo has been used in mid-engined, eight-cylinder Prancing Horse, since the F40. Of course there's more to the 488 GTB than the turbocharged engine. It also features a revised Side Slip Control 2 (SSC2) system, working in tandem with the F1-Trac and E-Diff systems to keep the supercar on the razor's edge without sliding off of it. The revised bodywork also generates 50 percent more downforce – thanks in no small part to the active diffuser that necessitated moving the exhaust pipes upwards – and a more slippery shape than any production Ferrari yet. The interior has likewise been revised with new control clusters, air vents, instrument panel and infotainment system for optimized ease of use. The new Ferrari 488 GTB – shorthand for Gran Turismo Berlinetta – is set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month, but you can scope it out now in the high-res image gallery above and the full details in the press release below.