2018 488 Spider on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Newlyweds crash rented Ferrari into a house

A newly married couple had a rough wedding day when they crashed their rented Ferrari into a house in Burnley, Lancashire. Lancashire Road Police tweeted a photo on April 17 of a white Ferrari 458 Spider that crashed into a row house. The crash folded the hood nearly in half and completely destroyed the car's front fascia but no one was injured, according to the Daily Mail. The car, worth a cool 240,000 pounds, or 342,500 dollars, is owned by a rental company called Platinum Executive Travel. The son of the company's owner, Aleem Iqbal, made a statement on Twitter after the crash, assuring his tens of thousands of followers that he was not at the wheel of the mangled Ferrari when it went into the wall. "Thanks for all the kind messages," Iqbal tweeted from his personal account. "I wasn't at the wheel and nobody was injured that's the main thing, have had a lot worse in business." In a follow up tweet he stated, "At least people in Burnley will have something to talk about for a few weeks." Iqbal's statement about worse things happening in his business is true, and this is not the first of PET's pricey supercars to be destroyed. Within a five-week period in 2014, arsonists destroyed four of PET's cars worth more than 500,000 pounds or 713,000 dollars. In one attack, a Lamborghini Aventador rented for a wedding was torched outside a house in Luton. Iqbal called that attack a "vile act of jealousy" targeting the family of the newlyweds. Weeks later, two Audi R8 Spyders and a Bentley Flying Spur were firebombed at the PET offices in Yardley. The Daily Mail has contacted Platinum Executive Travel for an official statement about the Ferrari crash, but has not received a response. The driver and passenger of the wrecked Ferrari were not identified. Related Video: News Source: The Daily Mail, The Mirror, TwitterImage Credit: Lancashire Road Police Weird Car News Ferrari Driving Performance Supercars rental car

Ford GT dominates Le Mans qualifying, gets slapped with performance adjustment

Fifty years after Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove the Ford GT40 to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford is poised for a historic return to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Ford GT took the top two qualifying positions in the LMGTE Pro class, and four of the top five. Ferrari's 488 filled in the rest of the spots in the top seven, the first two from AF Corse. In other words, we're primed for a reboot of the classic Ford-Ferrari feud at this year's race. Or not, as the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, announced sweeping pre-race Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments this morning that make this year's GT class anybody's race. In LMP1, last year's overall winner Porsche locked up the top two spots with the 919 Hybrid and will lead the entire field at race start. Toyota's two-car factory effort followed with qualifying times 1.004 and 2.170 seconds behind the pole lap. Audi rounds out the manufacturer-backed LMP1 class in fifth and sixth. Full qualifying results can be found here. The storyline for the GT cars is perfect - some say too perfect. Ford's class-leading times came after BOP adjustment to the Corvette Racing C7.R before qualifying. BOP is intended to level the playing field in the class by adjusting power, ballast, and fuel capacity. (Check out this explainer video for more, or even just if you love French accents.) But the process is riddled with unknowns and ripe for accusations of sandbagging. That is, if the Ford cars were intentionally slow in practice they could hope for BOP adjustment to improve their race chances. On the Corvette side, last year's GTE Pro winner went from the top of the field to the bottom, barely improving from practice to qualifying. If you think Le Mans is as rigged at the NBA Playoffs, well, it's not that simple. Because if Ford and Ferrari held back until qualifying - the eighth-place Porsche 911 RSR is three-and-a-half seconds off the class pole time - it was a pretty dumb strategy. This morning, the ACO tried to put things back in order by limiting the boost in the Ford GT's twin-turbo V6 and adding 11 pounds of ballast. Ferrari was also given extra weight but allowed more fuel capacity. The Corvette and Aston Martin teams were both given breaks on their air restrictors, which will allow their engines to make more power. Both Ford and Porsche also received extra fuel capacity.

Watch Chris Harris drive the Ferrari 458 Spider like an "idiot"

Chris Harris gets to abuse his fair share of cars that we can only dream about driving, so why not add the Ferrari 458 Spider to that list. After somehow borrowing the keys to a Ferrari-owned 458 Spider, Harris spends about five minutes driving the 570-horsepower, open-air supercar like an "idiot" (his words, not ours).
In reality, it's impressive to watch the $257,000 (base price) 458 Spider being drifted and pushed hard into every turn. Not surprisingly, the car handles the "bad behavior" very well, but what is amazing is how easy it is for Harris to talk to the camera despite the top being down and the engine being at full throttle almost the entire time.
If you like watching Ferraris get sideways, you will most certainly enjoy Harris' video, which is posted below.