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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.

Ferrari families have 'agreement' to prevent takeover

With its initial public offering already a massive success, Ferrari is now officially a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. While anyone can buy those shares, don't expect investors to take control away from some of the top owners of the Prancing Horse anytime soon. To maintain their power, Enzo Ferrari's son, Piero, and Exor chairman John Elkann will sign a deal guaranteeing themselves nearly half of the automaker's voting rights, Bloomberg reports. As part of this arrangement, shareholders that agree to hang onto Ferrari stock for at least three years would receive additional voting rights in the company, and that would give Piero and Elkann a combined 48.7 percent of the automaker by banding together. While not quite complete control, the move should be enough to prevent a takeover of the business. "We have an agreement among the families to protect our interests in Ferrari," Piero said to Bloomberg. This agreement won't really become a concern until next year because only 10 percent of Ferrari will be traded for now. FCA will distribute another 80 percent to its shareholders in early 2016, and Elkann's Exor will be getting the largest portion of the Prancing Horse in the spin-off. Meanwhile, Piero holds the remaining 10 percent but has absolutely no intention to sell his stake in his father's business. The newly public Ferrari will push to grow volume with a goal of moving 9,000 vehicles annually by 2019. To reach that 30-percent boost, expect to see a new model every year, and some of them might use a new, modular platform that's reportedly under development. Related Video:

Ferrari makes 488 Pista official with 711 hp, racing tech, photos

Instead of letting the internet get the best of its new V8 Special Series coupe, a day after images leaked Ferrari released a batch of details and photos on its 488 Pista track-day weapon. The twin-turbo 3.9-liter V8 produces 720 of France's Cheval Vapeur, which equates to 710 of our U.S. horsepower, while torque churns in at 568 pound-feet. Those numbers outdo the 488 GTB by 50 hp and eight pound-feet, and will get the 488 Pista in its lightest guise from a standstill to 62 miles per hour in 2.85 seconds, with 124 mph arriving in 7.6 seconds. Maximum velocity tops out at 211 mph. We say "in its lightest guise" because Ferrari records the 488 Pista's weight as 2,821 pounds dry, but with an asterisk that explains said weight can only be achieved "With optional lightweight features." As of now we have no idea what those features are, but along with other lightweighting efforts like the carbon floor, they help amputate a total of 198 pounds compared to the weight of the standard 488. Ferrari says the goal was to make the upper reaches of the new Special Series V8 "easier to reach and control," so engineers poured the brand's racing toolbox over the 488 Pista. The front S-Duct and diffuser mimic the ramp angle on the 488 GTE World Endurance racer. The sixth evolution of Side-Slip Angle Control that oversees the electronic differential, the magnetorheological suspension, and the F1-Trac stability control, now incorporates Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer software that varies the brake caliper pressure. Even the livery was created to enhance the coupe's raciness, as if such ornamentation were needed. We've heard rumors that 488 Pista can lap Ferrari's Fiorano test track faster than the LaFerrari. A better comparison — one we're more eager to see, and one with a much better chance of happening — is that between Ferrari's latest and the McLaren 720S. Their specs are nearly identical. The McLaren produces 710 hp and 568 lb-ft from a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8, weighs 2,828 pounds in its lightest fitment, sprints to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, to 124 mph in 7.8 seconds, and has a top speed of 211 mph. Things that make you go, hmmm... We'll be at the Ferrari booth at the Geneva Motor Show as soon as the lights go up on this one. Related Video: