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Ferrari launches upgraded 458 Challenge Evoluzione

Want to drive an eight-cylinder, mid-engined Ferrari? Assuming you can get your lucky little hands on one, you can drive a 458 Italia, 458 Spider or new 458 Speciale on the street. But the real action is where the road ends and the racetrack begins. Ferrari's Corse Clienti division offers versions for GT2 and GT3 racing, for Grand-Am (likely to be revised for the new United SportsCar Championship), and, of course, for its own Challenge racing series.
It's the latter version that Ferrari revealed it was upgrading last week, and now it's made its debut at the tail end of the rain-soaked Finali Mondiali event at Mugello. Although Ferrari only released limited details and just the one new photo, the new 458 Challenge Evoluzione upgrades on its predecessor as promised with obvious aerodynamic enhancements.
Those upgrades are "aimed at making the car even more driveable" for the customer racers who take part in the series, and seem to bridge the gap (at least visually) between the previous 458 Challenge and the more extreme racing versions that have to contend with more competition than its own kind. The upgrades are being rolled out as a kit that will be obligatory in the various Challenge series that will kick off around the world next year.

Ferrari's stock price falls off a cliff

The stock price skidded. The stock price stalled. Use whatever automotive analogy you want. It was a bad day for Ferrari on the New York Stock Exchange. Warning that sales growth would slow because of the economic slump in China, Ferrari NV watched its stock price slump accordingly. Shares of the company were down more than 13 percent in afternoon trading, falling to $34.64. Sprung from the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles less than four months ago, Ferrari's stock has lost a third of its value since its October initial public offering and is nearly half the price of its $62 high set days after the IPO. In a conference call with investors, chairman Sergio Marchionne said the company expected to ship approximately 7,900 vehicles this year. Marchionne said the company would be "fine" over the long term as long as it maintains a decades-long philosophy of maintaining strong demand. That means Ferrari won't follow some of its sports-car competitors who have broadened their vehicle portfolio's with the addition of SUVs. Marchionne bristled at such a suggestion. "You have to shoot me first," he told Bloomberg. But never say never? Previously, Ferrari had restricted its output to 7,000 vehicles per year. The company is already past that number, and Marchionne foresees the possibility that it could rise to approximately 9,000 by 2019. In a regulatory filing, Ferrari said, "we believe we can grow in a controlled manner while preserving the exclusivity of our brand by continuing to explore controlled growth in emerging markets to capitalize on the substantial wealth creation and the growing affluent populations in those markets." For now, those markets won't include China. Shipments there decreased 22 percent in 2015, even as worldwide output increased. Related Video:

1995 Ferrari F50 Berlinetta Prototipo heads to auction

We've seen our fair share of classic and exotic cars head to auction, but it's rare to see something as special as this 1995 Ferrari F50 Berlinetta Prototipo on offer to the general public.  Prototipo, of course, is Italian for "prototype," indicating this example's status as the very first example of the F40 successor ever built. It saw duty as a development vehicle, auto show star, and media evaluation tool. That's right: if you ever read a "first drive" review of the 1995 Ferrari F50, chances are this is the car your favorite auto scribe was driving.  Per the listing, it was also the model for Shin Yoshikawa's cut-away illustration and several scale models (including those sold by Burago, Maisto and Tamiya) and its likeness was even depicted on postage stamps.  After this world tour, the Prototipo returned to the Ferrari factory for a complete rebuild, after which it was sold (as promised ahead of time) to Jacques Swaters, a personal friend of Enzo Ferrari. It remained in the Swaters collection until 2007, when it was sold to a Ferrari collector in Burbank, California. It has since changed hands several times. While it may have lacked the raw, angular aggression of its F40 predecessor, the F50 was no less stunning (or less special) as a result. Its ferocious 4.7L V12 made more than 510 horsepower and 345 lb-ft of torque, which is still plenty respectable even today, especially considering it weighed just a little over 2,700 pounds. That combination was good for a 0-60 run of just 3.7 seconds on the way to a 202-mph top speed.  As CassicCars.com points out, fewer than 350 examples of the F50 Berlinetta were ever produced.  The F50 Berlinetta Prototipo will cross the block Wednesday, Jan. 15th, 2020, at the Worldwide Auctioneers event in Scottsdale, Ariz.