Ferrari, Ferrari 458, Frankfurt Motor Show

We recently told you about a report from German car magazine Auto Motor und Sport saying that Ferrari is planning to hold the world premiere of the open-top 458 Italia Spider at next month's 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.

While the report stated that the Spider would get a "soft top", Darren from Teamspeed came in contact with Carscoop and told us that the Italian exotic will definitely feature a retractable hardtop and that they have seen the car "first hand".

Well, it won't be long before we find out, but in the meantime, scroll down to check out the artist renderings of the 458 Italia Spider.

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Ferrari, Ferrari 599 GTB, Ferrari Scoops, Scoops

After the launch of the 458 Italia and more recently, the four-seater FF, Ferrari is now concentrating on the development of its next supercar, which will replace the 599 GTB Fiorano and is currently known by its F152 codename.

Our spy photographers caught up with a test mule of the F152 wearing a modified body shell of the current 599 GTO over a new chassis that is believed to share many components with the FF.

Ferrari's four-seat supercar will also lend its new 6.3-liter V12 with direct-injection technology to the F152, but further honed to develop around 700 horsepower. However, we won't see the FF's all-wheel drive system as Ferrari will keep the F152 strictly rear-wheel drive.

Power will likely be transferred to the road through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and an electronic differential on the rear-axle.

The 599's replacement will make extensive use of composite panels to further reduce the car's weight and boost performance and handling.

While Maranello continues to be silent on the matter, recent reports suggest that the production version of the Ferrari F152 may be revealed as early as next year at the 2012 Geneva auto show.

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F1: Ferrari Gives Up on 2011 Championship to Prepare Next Year’s Car

Truth to be said, Scuderia Ferrari had a bad start in the F1 season this year. Nevertheless, changes to the personnel and, more importantly, to the Ferrari F1 car's aerodynamic package gradually improved its pace considerably, yielding a win in Great Britain and four podium finishes for Fernando Alonso.

But even with Felippe Massa saying that nothing's over and Luca di Montezemolo claiming that he expects more wins in 2011, team principal Stefano Domenicali revealed to the Telegraph that the Scuderia will stop developing this year’s car in September.

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Oops…Van Bumps Ferrari 360 Modena Spider into the Sea after Brake Failure

When it comes to exotic sports cars like the Ferrari 360 Modena Spider and accidents, more often than not, mishaps are the result of speeding or bad road conditions, sometimes even both.

But that's not the case here as the Ferrari Modena Spider pictured half dipped into the sea was actually parked on the road when this accident occurred.

The incident took place at the Croatian island of Pag located in the northern Adriatic Sea on Monday morning when the driver of a van bumped into the Ferrari pushing the drop-top model into the sea.

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Ferrari to Drop the Top on New 458 Italia Spider at Frankfurt Motor Show?

Emerging from the rumormill are talks about Ferrari getting ready to reveal a convertible version of its new 458 Italia supercar at next month's 2011 Frankfurt auto show.

In a new report from Germany's Auto Motor und Sport magazine, sources close to Maranello say that like its predecessor, the 458 Italia Spider will be offered with an electrically operated cloth convertible top that disappears behind the front seats.

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F1: Ferrari's Montezemolo Expects More Wins this Season

Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that he expects the Scuderia to win more races this season. And this despite the fact that in the 11 first races of the year they have won only once, with Fernando Alonso in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Alonso lies fourth at the Drivers’ championship and his teammate Fernando Massa sixth, trailing championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 89 and 164 points respectively with just eight races remaining. In the Constructors’ championship, Ferrari is in third position, with 215 points, trailing Red Bull (383) and McLaren (280).

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F1: Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Report

It's probably getting kind of old, but a Red Bull has once again claimed pole position this year. This time Sebastian Vettel is the one who managed to break teammate Mark Webber's two previous pole positions, while also beating the two McLarens piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to start from the first row of the Hungaroring circuit on Sunday. Read more »

Ferrari World Design Contest Finalist Samir Sadikhov’s Xezri Supercar Concept in Detail

IED Turin graduate Samir Sadikhov took second place in the Ferrari World Design Contest with his Xezri concept, and now we have a full gallery of images as well as a video of the study.

Sadikhov explains that Xezri was named after, “a local wind which is in the western part of Caspian sea,” and that it exemplifies an innovative, high-technology solution to the needs of a lightweight car for both the road and track.

It is, he says, “a synthesis of its technological knowledge and its sporting experience,” that embodies, “the quintessence of Ferrari past and present and looks to the Ferrari of the future”.

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Video: Two Girls, a Red Ferrari F430, a Mediocre Parking Job

It's become something of spectator sport over in Europe and chiefly in London: people equipped with a handy cam waiting for a hot car to pass by to record it and upload the video on Youtube.

As with anything else in life, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it does not and our amateur producers are left with a bitter taste in the mouth.

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Ferrari Reports its Best Ever Six Months in Terms of Profits and Sales in History

Ferrari’s board of directors met yesterday to discuss the financial outcome of the first half of the year. And they came out with a broad smile on their faces: in the first half of 2011, Ferrari achieved its best ever profit and sales in a six-month period in its 82-year long history.

The numbers speak for themselves: net profits for the first half of the year reached €91.8 million, a 23.5% increase over the same period last year. Its revenue rose by 19.6%, to €1,080 million, and sales by 11.8% with 3,577 units delivered, including track racers like the 458 Challenge and limited editions such as the SA Aperta, but without any contribution from the brand-new FF.

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Ex-Beatle George Harrison's Classic Ferrari Going Under the Hummer

A Ferrari 365 GTC is up for sale by Ferrari specialist Talacrest at no less than $600,000. If you're wondering why it's priced so high the answer is because its current owner discovered that the blue coupe once belonged to ex-Beatle musician, George Harrison. Read more »

Report: Red Bull Mulling to Build Road Cars with the Help of Infiniti

Enzo Ferrari didn’t initially intend to manufacture road cars when he started his Scuderia Ferrari team in 1928. It wasn’t until almost two decades later, in 1947, that the first road car bearing the prancing horse, the V12 125S, was produced mainly to finance his team’s racing activities.

Ferrucio Lamborghini founded Lamborghini Trattori in 1948, a successful manufacturer of tractors and other agricultural equipment. In 1959, he opened an oil heater factory, and later started producing air conditioning equipment. Naturally, he became very wealthy.

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F1: 2011 German GP Race Results

Last Sunday, after the finish of the German Grand Prix there was a McLaren, a Ferrari and a Red Bull on the podium. No surprise there. So what else is new? Red Bull and McLaren obviously have the best cars from the start of the season, winning all the races except the previous one. Especially Sebastian Vettel has such a big points lead, that he looks to have this year’s driver’s title in his pocket even with half the season remaining. Read more »

Fail: Cop Impounds Ferrari but Doesn’t Know How to Start it Up….

A British police officer trying to impound a Ferrari F430 Spider (probably somewhere in London) was caught on film by a by-passer having a hard time figuring out how to start up the exotic Italian supercar.

Too bad for us but...luckily for him, the man behind the video camera was nice enough to point out the shiny red ‘ENGINE START’ button on the steering wheel (honestly, how can you miss it?). Watch the amusing clip after the jump.

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Ferrari Unleashes 458 Italia Grand Am

Italian sports carmaker Ferrari has set its eyes on the North American Grand Am series, which it plans to compete in with the new 458 Italia Grand Am that was given its track baptism today at the Fiorano circuit completing several laps in the hands of Maurizio Mediani and Jaime Melo.

Developed in cooperation with Michelotto Automobili, the racing model is based on the European GT3 version of the 458 Italia but features less efficient aerodynamics as well as a detuned V8 delivering 500-horses due to the different regulations in the American series.

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Ferrari World Design Contest: And the Winner is….

For the past few months, design students from 50 universities across the globe took up Ferrari’s challenge of designing a future supercar for the famous Italian brand. Now, following the completion of the second phase in which seven schools were chosen to move to the final round, we have a winner.

Drum-roll please…and the winners of the Ferrari World Design Contest are…the students from Seoul’s Hongik University. The South Korean school finished first ahead of the second-placed IED of Turin in Italy and London’s Royal College of Arts.

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Video: Scuderia Ferrari's First Visit to the Moscow City Racing Event

This past Sunday, Russia’s capital city hosted the annual Moscow City Racing event. It was the fourth time in a row that the racing show was organized in Moscow and the first to feature the Ferrari Formula 1 team.

After the press conference, Scuderia Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella first drove a California in the usual parade, and then last year’s F10 Formula 1 car on the streets of Russian capital.

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Felipe Massa: “Ferrari Can Still Win F1 Title”

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, who lead by 110 and 80 points in the Constructors and Drivers Championships respectively, are clearly the team and man to beat this season in Formula 1. And in the last race, in Silverstone, someone stepped up to the challenge and did just that: Ferrari and Fernando Alonso were at the top spot of the podium flanked by the two Red Bull drivers. Read more »

D'oh! Ferrari 458 Italia Driver Starts Drag Race with Dodge Viper in…Reverse!

Before you watch the following video, take a minute to ponder this: You are sitting behind the steering wheel of an exotic, brand new Italian supercar, getting ready to drag race a V10-powered Dodge Viper on the quarter mile strip in front of a crowd of 100, or perhaps even more people. But when the race begins you start rolling backwards…

Oh yes, that’s right; the owner of the Ferrari 458 Italia that you’re about to see in the clip and who was pitted against a Dodge Viper at the ICAR motorsports complex situated just outside of Montreal in Canada, paddle shifted his car’s dual clutch auto transmission into reverse!

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Ferrari Says No to Plans for Limited Production New Stratos

“Despite Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s excellent assessment of the New Stratos after his test drive at Fiorano, Ferrari does not consent to construction of the planned limited run by either Pininfarina or any other Ferrari-dependent suppliers.”

And with the above short statement, Ferrari announced to Michael Stoschek, the man behind the 21st century interpretation of the famous Lancia Stratos of the ‘70s, that it won’t let him use its chassis, engines nor allow any of its suppliers to participate in the build.

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