2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia Spider 16M - Car News

Ferrari has unveiled the convertible version of its lightweight and track-ready 430 Scuderia. The new roadster will get "16M" added to its name in honor of Ferrari's 16th Formula One Constructors' Championship. Ferrari will build 499 Scuderia Spider 16Ms at a price that is expected to start at more than $320,000. The new ragtop Scuderia is reportedly 170 pounds lighter than the standard F430 Spider, which weighed 3640 pounds according to our scales. It features a customized iPod Touch to control the audio system and gets a snazzy carbon-fiber shell for the roll hoops. Power will come from the 430 Scuderia's 503-hp, 4.3-liter V-8. Ferrari claims the Scuderia Spider 16M is the fastest street-legal open-topped Ferrari around its Fiorano test track. Keep Reading: 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia Spider 16M - Car News

 

2009 Ferrari California - Video

A family affair: Looks a little like Ferrari has come up with another Mondial. The California is Ferrari's first retractable-hardtop convertible. Keep Reading: 2009 Ferrari California - Video

 

2009 Ferrari California - Second Drive

Ferrari breaks tradition in a big fat way. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in automotive applications, visual perception can be mitigated by sensors located in the viscera and the gluteal region, inducing a sort of benign myopia. And that perception can also be colored by viewing the subject through the rose-colored filter of a brand steeped in glory. Behold the new Ferrari California. To the jaundiced eye, the rakish Pininfarina lines culminate in haunches that are just a little too big to be called graceful. You might argue that, in some cultures, an ample booty is seen as sexy, and that some haunch-heavy designs work very well, e.g., the Porsche Cayman. But the Cayman's haunches are wide, suggesting power. The hindquarters of this new Ferrari are both broad and tall, suggesting . . . well, suggesting a design that had to deal with more than just making room for luggage, though luggage volume was one of the priorities. The result, to our eye, falls a little short of DDG (drop-dead gorgeous), and if the front end hints at earlier Californias—the 250GT (1957–63) and the 365 (1966–67)—the hefty stern does not. However, Californias uno and due were classic cloth-top spiders. Numero tre has a two-piece power folding hardtop that stows itself under the decklid in 14 seconds, the first Ferrari so equipped. The benefits have become familiar: sun in face and wind in hair with the top down (nicely damped by a wind blocker that snaps in place behind the front seats); coupe quiet with the top up. Remarkably quiet, in fact, up to about 90 mph, when wind noise begins to build around the hefty A-pillars. Getting the roof sections stacked under the decklid and leaving luggage space for something bigger than a wallet obviously added dimension at the rear. And the design team also had to build in a trunk passthrough for longish cargo. Not to mention the mechanism for a pair of pop-up rollover bars behind the front seats. Or a quartet of exhaust pipes. And a big aero diffuser down low. And a decklid spoiler up high. Oh, yeah, can't forget about the rear-mounted seven-speed transmission, either. Keep Reading: 2009 Ferrari California - Second Drive

 

Save the Earth: Drive a Ferrari

How's this for a convenient truth? Priuses spew out 78 times as much CO2 as Ferraris. Amid the huffing and puffing on Capitol Hill and elsewhere about jacking corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) for new vehicles to 35 mpg by 2020 (or up to 50 mpg if you happen to live in California) while reducing tailpipe emissions to the level of an ant fart, it seems the world has overlooked this surprising statistic: Toyota Priuses are78 times more toxic to the environment than Ferraris. Furthermore, they consume 78 times the amount of gasoline. The Math That's right. While we're sure to be called out on this by our more persnickety readers, the math breaks down thus: Since the beginning of the 2004 model year, when the current Prius debuted, Ferrari has sold roughly 7900 cars in North America. Annual mileage for the average Ferrari is tough to estimate, as some are destined to remain zero-mile collectors' items while others are daily drivers, but according to a Ferrari spokesman, Ferraris sold in North America get driven "right around 5000 miles per year for V-12 models, less with the V-8s." Assuming, then, that the average Ferrari is driven 4500 miles per year, the total fleet mileage for this fresh herd of prancing horses is 35,550,000 miles per year (all too few of them with our hands on the reigns). The average Ferrari CO2 emissions level hovers somewhere near 400 g/km, or 644 g/mile, according to Ferrari. Over the 35 million or so miles that the fleet of North American Ferraris will travel in the next year, they will be responsible for approximately 23 million kg of CO2. Fuel consumption, at an average of about 14 mpg combined for the Ferrari fleet, will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 million gallons of gas. Sound like a lot? Keep Reading: Save the Earth: Drive a Ferrari

 

Ferrari may supply engines for Honda's ex-F1 team

Ross Brawn, who joined the Honda F1 team as Technical Director in 2007 after an extremely successful stint across the paddock at Ferrari, has said that the now-ownerless ex-Honda F1 team he manages would like to ink a deal with its Italian competitor for engines to power its Formula 1 racers. Now that Honda has officially pulled its factory support from the program, the team will need a good, reliable powerplant if it has any chance remaining competitive, and Ferrari already supplies engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso and Force India in addition to its own Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro factory effort. Regardless of what powerplant Brawn's team chooses, it isn't likely to get an early shot at testing. At this point, the team is just looking to stay on the track as it attempts to find itself a new buyer and any success found on the track for the '09 season would just be icing on the cake. Thanks for the tip, Eric! [Source: F1 Fanatic - Photo: Tim Wang CC 2.0]