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Ferrari 458 Challenge's door pummeled by passing Mazda

Sometimes, following the simplest rules of driving can make the biggest of differences. For example, had the driver of this Ferrari 458 Challenge racecar checked his mirror before getting out, maybe a passing car wouldn't have plowed into the door. Oops. A viral video has been making the rounds this week showing a nightmare scenario between a track-focused Ferrari and a pedestrian Mazda sedan. The Ferrari is seen slowly driving through a tight street before stopping to talk to somebody through his extremely tiny race-adapted window. The driver is told to park on the side of the street, while onlookers take photos and video. Unfortunately, the driver was so focused on parking and getting out, that he opened his door without checking for incoming traffic. The door swings open right before what appears to be a Mazda 3 drives through the street. The door is obliterated, and the video stops. The 458 Challenge debuted in 2010. It has a 570-horsepower V8 from the 458 Italia, but its weight, handling, and driving characteristics were significantly altered for racing. The gear ratios and transmission were adjusted for better low-end torque, it has stiffer springs and a lower stance, upgraded brakes, and thinner body panels. Right now on DuPont Registry, there are a variety of 458 Challenges for sale ranging from about $125,000 to roughly $200,000. All said, Challenge Ferraris are intended for track use only. Maybe the driver should have listened?

The 24 Hour War: Adam Carolla's new documentary brings the Ford-Ferrari battle back to life

Long before the GoPro or even videotape, races were filmed by guys standing next to the track with 16-millimeter cameras. The images kind of shook, they didn't always hold focus, and over the years all the color has faded out of the film. It all conspires to make the endurance racing battle between Ferrari and Ford in the 1960s seem like ancient history. What Adam Carolla and Nate Adams' new documentary The 24 Hour War does best is make that inter-corporate battle feel as if it happened yesterday. Yeah, if you're an obsessive you've likely seen most of the shaky-cam race footage used here before. But what you haven't seen are the interviews that frame the war and explain the egos and engineering behind the legends. It's not a perfect movie, but it's the sort of movie only fanatics could make. And it's easier to appreciate if you're a fanatic too. The first 25-or-so minutes of the documentary are taken up with histories of both Ford and Ferrari and an overview of how ridiculously deadly motorsports were in the Sixties and earlier. It's all interesting (if familiar) stuff, that could have been handled in about a third the time with some brutal editing. Still, the two protagonists in the story are well drawn: the racing-crazed Enzo Ferrari, who only builds road cars to stay solvent; and Henry Ford II, who after being thrown into the deep end of the Ford Motor Company management in 1943 at the age of 25, wasn't going to be humiliated after Ferrari pulled out of a deal to sell him the sports car maker. With one notable exception, the filmmakers were successful in rounding up practically everyone involved who is still alive for an interview. That includes Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, Pete Brock, Bob Bondurant, Piero Ferrari, Mauro Forghieri, Carlo Tazzioli, and even Ralph Nader. There are good archival insights from the late Carroll Shelby. But where's A.J. Foyt? After all, he co-drove the stupendous Ford GT40 Mark IV with Dan Gurney to victory at Le Mans in 1967. The interviews make the movie worthwhile, but it cries out for more technical depth about the cars themselves. Yes, the GT40 was complex and engineered practically like a production car, but there's no mention of how the Lola Mk VI and Eric Broadley kicked off the development. There's only a superficial explanation of what made the American-built Mark IV such a leap forward.

Ferrari releases teaser video for 458 Speciale

As is the specs weren't enough, Ferrari is helping us get ready for the reveal of the 458 Speciale at the Frankfurt Motor Show with a short teaser video. You won't get much in the way of a full-body modeling session, naturally, but there are plenty of close-ups of its intakes, scoops, vanes, seriously racy bucket seats and lots and lots of carbon fiber.
And showing how omnipresent on-camera surveillance can sometimes be a good thing, the harder 458 has already been caught being tinkered with in digital photos taken at Maranello. For the moving pictures, however, there's that video below.