Ferrari is either getting strategic or careless. The company usually keeps details about its upcoming models hush-hush until the vehicle is ready to make its debut, but lately Maranello seems to have more leaks than a pasta strainer. The latest is a screen-cap that seems to confirm the speculated 430 Scuderia Spider. Based on the fixed-roof 430 Scuderia, the roadster version has been speculatively rendered and anticipated to debut at the company's upcoming mega-event at Mugello, the same place where they took the wraps off the FXX Evoluzione last year. The additional weight of an open-top version of the lightweight supercar is expected to be offset by the implementation of the company's new seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. The image above, which seems to confirm the model's imminence, comes from a video of the new Ferrari California that was just unveiled in Maranello and Los Angeles ahead of its debut at the upcoming Paris Motor Show. In the background of the video behind a Ferrari spokesman is a studio photograph of the rumored 430 Scuderia drop-top. We'll just have to wait until November 5 when the Ferrari Challenge heads to Mugello to know for sure.
Lies. Damn lies and speculation. Rumor would be another way to put it, as word of a potential convertible version of the 430 Scuderia spreads across cyberspace. Tentatively referred to as the 430 Scuderia Spider, the roadster would naturally be based on the lightweight, Enzo-rivaling 430 Scuderia supercar, but with the roof chopped off. Various reports have given conflicting information about what kind of roof mechanism would be fitted to the Spideria, including a retractable hard-top similar to that found on the new California, a manual cloth roof to keep weight down, or the same automatic fabric top from the conventional F430 Spider. Or maybe no roof at all, who knows. The wide range of speculation leads us to chalk this up to pure rumor. The removal of structural rigidity and the addition of weight would seem antithetical to the Scuderia's entire raison d'etre. However the prevailing reports suggest that the Spider will also get the California's new seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, be produced in a limited series of 300 and be unveiled on November 5 at the Ferrari Challenge weekend in Mugello... the same event where Ferrari unveiled the FXX Evoluzione last year. Jon Sibal, the skilled supercar illustrator we've come to know and trust, has presented a few renderings of what the 430 Scuderia Spider could look like, which in our eye looks right on the money.
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 you'll find a video of Michael Schumacher glad-handing the millionaires and their new rides around Ferrari's private on-site test track, posting hot laps and drifting around the wet handling course. Prepare to be jealous.
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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 incredibly wealthy customer.
The emergence of the purported Fioravanti F430 follows similar creations from Pininfarina, Giugiaro and Zagato (and reportedly soon from Touring) as well as the announcement of Ferrari's program to offer discerning (and financially unlimited) clients with custom models. The criteria call for leaving certain elements – including the crash structures and the running gear – intact, but apart from that it's open season. The Fioravanti take on the F430 includes a mildly re-sculpted front end, a heavily-modified rear section and an extensive remolding of many body panels in lightweight (and costly) carbon fiber. The vehicle looks about ready for delivery, so we hope we might get a chance for an up-close view at the upcoming Paris show in October.
At last month's Geneva Motor Show, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo surprised the industry by revealing that his company would be coming to the Paris Motor Show in October with a new model. Widely anticipated to be the oft-refuted new "entry-level" Ferrari, dubbed tentatively as the Dino or 430 GT California, the test mule has been spotted repeatedly making its way around any of the three circuits that the company owns in Italy.
These new spy shots reveal a nose as long as the 599 GTB Fiorano's or the 612 Scaglietti's, but while those models have to accommodate a long V12 under the hood, the new model is expected to carry a front-mounted V8 based on the architecture shared by the Ferrari F430, Maserati GranTurismo and Quattroporte and Alfa 8C Competizione. While the former is built by Ferrari at its factory in Maranello, the fact that the plant is already at capacity while demand continues to grow and the company continues to expand into new markets leads to speculation that the new model could be built alongside the others at Maserati's factory in nearby Modena. We're also interested to see whether the headlights reminiscent of the classic Daytona (like the one Ferrari also showed in Geneva) are just part of the camouflage, or if they will make it to production. One way or another, we'll see after the summer in the French capital.
Ferrari has been doing a booming business of late, particularly across the pond where the UK is now the third largest consumer of the Italian thoroughbreds behind the United States and Germany. More impressive is the fact that last year Ferrari GB sold 699 cars, compared to 15 years ago when it only sold 128.
While that's all well and good for the folks from Maranello, it's becoming increasingly difficult to actually get one of Ferrari's offerings in the UK. The longest stretch is for the 599, which demands its well-to-do potential purchasers wait 36 months for the sleek V12 coupe. If you're willing to "downgrade" to the 612 Scaglietti, the wait is still two years and buyers opting for the "entry-level" F430 have to hold on to their promissory notes for up to 30 months.
Emerging reports indicate that Ferrari will unveil an E85 ethanol-powered version of the 430 Spider tomorrow at the North American International Auto Show, and it looks like they're right because we ran into this car on the show floor today. Labeled as the 430 Spider Bio Fuel, the roadster runs on the familiar mix of 85% natural ethanol and 15% gasoline, which reports suggest yield a modest 2% increase in power. That's enough to bring the 4.3-liter V8's output up to 500 from the standard 490 with torque rising 4% and fuel economy improving by 5%.
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