Filed under: Euro, Ferrari
The Nürburgring has become an absolute Mecca for automotive enthusiasts and racing fans across Europe and around the world. Setting new ‘Ring records has become a vaunted pursuit, and any automaker worth its bolts brings its latest sportscar prototypes to test there. Among those marques is Ferrari, which in addition to three racing circuits that the company owns and operates in Italy, comes to the Nürburgring for proper shakedowns. (Witness Schumacher’s reported crash there in a 430 Scuderia prototype just last month as an example.)
Reports now…
Filed under: Euro, Ferrari
Ferrari has announced that it is canceling its contracts with every single one of its European dealers. The move is part of a restructuring plan for the company’s European, Middle Eastern and African operations, justified by compliance with new European Union regulations and the streamlining of communication between the Maranello and the dealerships.
The cancellation of the contracts will take effect June 30, 2010, by which time many dealers expect to have theirs renewed. However, somewhere between a third and a half of the outlets may…
Filed under: Car Buying, Videos, Supercars, Ferrari
Click above to watch the video
Not that the deal would need to be sweetened, but buying the latest Ferrari supercar comes with perks. For a group of European customers who came to Maranello to take possession of their new 430 Scuderias, that included a hands-on advanced driving course to show them what their new rides could do. And who better to demonstrate the capabilities of the fastest car ever to lap Fiorano than the driver who helped develop it? Follow the jump and…
Filed under: Concept Cars, Spy Photos, Supercars, Ferrari, Special/Limited Editions
The automotive web lit up this weekend with speculation over a mysterious Ferrari photographed running development laps around the Fiorano test track.. While some suggest this could be the successor to either the F430 or the Enzo, observers were confused by the complete lack of any apparent effort to disguise the car’s bodywork. The latest reports now indicate that the vehicle in question is a one-off rebodied F430 custom made by Italian design house Fioravanti for what must be an…
Filed under: Convertibles, Sports/GTs, Videos, Supercars, Ferrari
With Ferrari’s road and race cars taking advantage of the latest emerging technologies, someone inside the marketing department in Maranello has taken the bold initiative to bring the company’s PR into the same realm by utilizing popular electronic media. For its latest supercar, the highly-anticipated Ferrari California, the company has been releasing bits and pieces on a dedicated, flash-enhanced website, and the latest installment has just hit cyberspace.
For this episode, Ferrari has teamed up with the wiz-kids at Polyphony Digital who…
Filed under: Government/Legal, Porsche, Volkswagen, UAW/Unions
Porsche wants to purchase Volkswagen, this much we know. But before that happens, the huge labor union at VW needs to agree on terms with Porsche management. This, as you may imagine, is proving a bit more difficult than Porsche had hoped, prompting the automaker’s senior labor leader Uwe Hueck to lash out at the heads at VW. Not surprisingly, his initial attack received a response from Bernd Osterloh, the head of VW’s labor union. It seems that some major sticking points exist that the…
Filed under: Euro, Volkswagen
It seems Volkswagen has breathed a collective “Oops!”, and is now working to turn its design ship around. VW was known for neat, differentiated designs with great interior details. While this stayed true in some parts of the world, in the U.S., Volkswagen design turned into chrome shield grilles fronting identical bodies in various sizes.
When Martin Winterkorn was lured back from academia, “he looked at Volkswagen’s upcoming designs and binned the lot.” Audi’s design chief was brought in. VW started over on the Golf, which…
Filed under: Motorsports, Volkswagen
Click above for high-res gallery of the VW Scirocco GT24
Ever since 2006, when Peugeot, Skoda and Mitsubishi pulled their factory works teams out of the World Rally Championship, the WRC has been desperate to attract another major automaker back to reinvigorate the series. Emerging reports suggest that Volkswagen has been inquiring about joining the championship after the company’s motorsport chief Kris Nissen visited the Finnish rally to meet with series officials and team leaders.
Despite being one of the largest automakers in the world, the Volkswagen…
Filed under: Economy, Euro, Hatchbacks, Volkswagen
Click above for high-res gallery of the VW Golf VI
Following the internet’s unofficial, unscheduled and probably unwanted (at least by Volkswagen) reveal of the sixth-generation Golf this week, VW has thrown its cards on the table and revealed its hand. Along with high-res images, VW has revealed that the new Golf will launch this October in Europe and then find its way to markets in Africa, Asia, Australia and North America. Unfortunately, the company did not specify the U.S. (could just be Canada,…
Filed under: Time Warp, Auction Action, Lamborghini
Most car enthusiasts know about the Lamborghini Miura, one of the most beautiful and desirable cars from the ’60s and ’70s, but few know about the one-off Miura Jota and subsequent SV/J models. The Jota was built in 1970 as an experimental car to test new ideas for the upcoming Miura SV. It featured a lightweight body with extra vents, a split sump engine (implemented on later SV models), “Megaphono” exhaust pipes, and a bevy of bespoke features. After the car was…
