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Ferrari Driver Academy heads to Florida for the winter

Retirees and Girls Gone Wild camera crews aren't the only ones who go to Florida for the winter. So is a contingent of aspiring formula racing drivers taking part in the new Florida Winter Series being set up by the Ferrari Driver Academy.
The program is being set up in response to a lack of suitable weather at circuits in Europe, which would otherwise keep rising stars in formula racing from honing their skills during the off-season. Toyota runs an off-season series in New Zealand, but Ferrari is heading to the most southern of these United States to give its prodigies some much-needed track time.
Set up as more of a training program than a competitive championship, the FDA Florida Winter Series is based around a field of 15 aspiring drivers piloting the Formula Abarth-spec Tatuus FA010B, with a 195-horsepower engine furnished by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and an engineer for every three cars in the series.

Why the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari debuted in Charlie’s Angels | The Car Stays in the Picture

The irregular series, The Car Stays in the Picture , covers the sometimes bizarre backstories of the real stars of movie favorites: the cars. In our last one, we covered the iconic Porsche 928 from Risky Business. This time, it's a homely hypercar's unusual footnote in history. The inelegantly named, and inelegantly styled, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari was, a technological triumph when it was unveiled in 2002 at the Paris Motor Show. The successor to the equally, but distinctly, unlovely F50, it was Maranello's latest ultra-exclusive supercar. It had a price tag and spec sheet to match: 6-liter V12, 6-speed Formula One-inspired electrohydraulic transmission, 660 hp, $650,000. It was also, at that fateful reveal in the City of Light, fresh off of a plane from Malibu, where it had just touched North American soil for the first time – or at least North American sand. It had been driven on a beach by a bikini-clad Demi Moore, in her star turn as a villain in the second filmic reboot of the 1970s Jigglevision TV show, Charlie's Angels, subtitled, appropriately enough Full Throttle. All of which begs the automotive question we love to ask at The Car Stays in the Picture: How the hell did something like this ever happen? "It was a combination between us having a very strong connection in Hollywood, and knowing the dealer, Giacomo Mattioli of Ferrari of Beverly Hills, that has always been quite prominent, used by a lot of movie directors," says Marco Mattiacci, the vice president of the Ferrari and Maserati brands in North America at the time. "But one of the things we were doing then was trying to find placements for Maserati. And we had to leverage that appeal of Ferrari." The Enzo was thus something of a Trojan Prancing Horse, with the re-launch of Maserati USA hiding inside – a carrot leading not a stick, but a trident, or maybe some slightly less familiar vegetable, like broccoli rabe. "In that movie, there was the Enzo. But there is also a 2002 Maserati Spyder. That was more of the key product placement. We had to place the Maserati," Mattiacci emphasizes.

Enzo Ferrari would have turned 120 yesterday

Former race driver-turned company founder Enzo Ferrari was born 120 years ago Sunday, and the Italian sports car maker is celebrating the anniversary with a photography exhibit of his life at the Enzo Ferrari Museum, on the site of his birthplace in Modena. The exhibit includes images of il Commendatore during various stages of his life, from childhood to his career as an Alfa Romeo race driver, then a manager and manufacturer. Ferrari died Aug. 14, 1988 at the age of 90. Born outside of Modena, Italy in 1898. His father, Alfredo, owned a small metal engineering shop that built bridges and roofs for the state railway. Enzo started out as an Alfa Romeo racing driver in 1924 but quickly transitioned to his true talent, preparing the race cars under the Scuderia Ferrari name. He ran Alfa Romeo's factory team before striking out on his own, first under the name Auto Avio Costruzioni in 1939, then as Scuderia Ferrari, which he founded in 1929 in Modena, fielding mostly Alfa racing cars and motorbikes. The 125 S was the first official car to bear his name in 1947, powered by a V12. Ferrari under his watch went on to produce other classics including the 288 GTO, the Dino series and the 365 Daytona. The iconic businessman reluctantly agreed to start producing street cars only thanks to the pleading of his accountants, who argued for the need for revenue to cover the overhead of racing and two different factories destroyed during World War II bombings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. According to a 1979 People Magazine profile, he once reacted indignantly to the distraught wife of a Ferrari race team driver who was anguished over her husband risking his life "for a hunk of iron." "It's not just a hunk of iron," Ferrari replied. "It has a heart and soul, and I give if life." Nowadays, Ferrari is looking to expand its product portfolio to hybrids and an SUV, the latter of which might've made Enzo squirm. "He was a man with extraordinary vision and ability to manage people and resources as well as a strong entrepreneurial spirit and exceptional courage," current Ferrari Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a statement.