Would you like to win $500? Are you a little bit psychic? Does the schadenfreude of rich suckers smashing up their exotic rides run a sweet, happy little chill down your spine? Then Wrecked Exotics has a contest for you! The website wants to know when you think they'll find proof of the first Ferrari 458 Italia crash. To wit: "The Ferrari F430, predecessor to the F458, has been involved in 96 documented crashes since 2004. The Ferrari 360 (predecessor to the F430) has been involved in 403 documented crashes since 1999."
Aside from our answer of "who cares?" the person prognostic enough to guess the date closest to the first 458 Italia crash wins $500, as well as the honor and fame that goes along with participating in the world's first known automotive death pool. Now, of course, we'll be seeing the newest mid-engine Ferrari in about two weeks time at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but as Wrecked Exotics points out, "The Ferrari F458 goes on sale summer 2010 but Ferrari employees will be test driving the car long before then. A crash can happen any time, including BEFORE the launch date."
Up for grabs and with 56 bids registered bids, we have eBay item number: 270287784055. The lucky top bidder gets a Ferrari 360 Modena and an Acura NSX, but only needs one parking spot. The product description explains the impossible, while almost making this thing sound appealing. "The best parts of both cars were used to build an exclusive new vehicle. The appearance comes from the Ferrari 360 Modena, the quality and reliability from [a] Honda NSX... this is definitely no comparison to the Toyota MR2, Peugeot 306, or Pontiac Fierro [sic] conversions..." So you get a 94,000 km, 300 hp, Acura NSX with a custom body and interior that make it look something like a Ferrari 360. Lighter, more reliable, and cheaper to maintain than a Ferrari, presumably more lust-worthy than a stock-bodied NSX, and all for just EUR 25,500. While the front and rear views might make you think it's a real Ferrari at first glance, that NSX greenhouse makes any other angle a dead giveaway. The builder didn't do a bad job, but it's just another project that has us scratching our heads and asking, "Why?" It's in Zurich, Switzerland if you're interested.
If you've ever had the pleasure of hearing a Ferrari Challenge Stradale run, you'll know that there are few sounds like it in all of autodom. When revved towards its 8,500 RPM redline, it takes on a raspy snarl that makes the regular Ferrari 360 V8 sound positively tame in comparison. Now just imagine taking that sound and multiplying it by 21. You see, 21 Challenge Stradale owners recently got together in Southern California to celebrate this special edition F-car, and in the process may have set some kind of record.
Arizona had claimed a record a while back when they had just nine of these beasts in one place at one time. Whether or not that was official, the 21 cars that turned up in the L.A. area last weekend clearly have it beat. It's the most we've ever seen at once so until you can show us otherwise, we'll award them the blue ribbon. After the Carrera GT drive last month, this was a nice follow-up.
After the jump you are going to see and hear these cars in action, but before we get to that we wanted to point out that within this pack there were examples in black, silver, yellow, TdF and Bugatti blue, as well as two different shades of Rosso. Such diversity.
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Somewhere, a father in Melbourne weeps. There were 16 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradales imported to Australia and New Zealand. There are now 15. A proud dad gave his son the keys to his so-rare-it's-almost-extinct Ferrari, and his son got a little too frisky with the audacious redhead. She didn't appreciate his advances, he lost control of the situation, and that little redhead introduced him to a pole... at a high rate of speed by the looks of it.
And as if that didn't beat all, the kid had to call home. While news crews watched. And filmed. Only to have newspapers and blogs spread the story around the world. No word on what his father said, but it probably rhymed with "Why I oughta @#%$*&%!"
Police say the driver was speeding, which means he must not have seen these commercials. But now, at least, he has a theme song, so sing along: "To you other kids all across the land, take it from me, parents just don't understand..."
