In addition to its epic supercars and growing roster of motorsport victories, Ferrari has emerged as a branding and merchandising powerhouse. But with its range of licensed paraphernalia ever increasing, the company's largest market has until now only had two retail outlets out of 20 worldwide Ferrari Stores. To that end, Ferrari has opened two more locations of its merchandising outlets in the United States: one in Miami and another in Hawaii.
The Miami location at the upscale Aventura Mall has 2150 square feet of retail space, while the Honolulu location has 3230 square feet of floor space on two levels at the Royal Hawaiia Center. They join the previous locations in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, along with eight Italian stores and ten more around the world. Having recently strolled into a Ferrari Store at the Milan Malpensa airport, we can tell you the stores are packed full of Prancing Horse-emblazoned merchandise. Just don't stop in there expecting to book a test drive.
We've all heard of party buses, right? For some folks, even the best party bus isn't exciting enough. When Christine Morteh, in Miami, Florida, decided to start a party bus business, she offered open bar for $40, stops all along South Beach, and... girls in G-strings, lap dances, and for $100, oral sex. Well, that sex-for-money bit is called "prostitution," and even in Miami, it's illegal. Who knew? Undercover detectives took a ride on the big black bus, made sure everything was as illegal as promised, and then shut down the party. In addition to Madame Morteh, 75 employees and customers were arrested. The excuse "I'm just trying to get to Ft. Lauderdale, how many more stops is that?" apparently didn't cut it.
If you've got the Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway TiVo'd and are waiting to watch it, read no further. Chances are that you haven't or aren't going to, though. Because while a spirit of camaraderie prevailed at Homestead, there wasn't a large live or television audience to witness it. Bear in mind, of course, that we're talking about American oval-track racing, whose stock-car counterpart ranks as the largest spectator sport in the country... only by those standards does a headcount of some 20,000 people in the stands count as small. By any other measure, though, the inaugural race of the reunited open-wheel series was a big success, its 26-car field ranking as the largest starting grid of any race (other than the Indy 500) either of the erstwhile separated series has had since 2003.
Ford has been desperately short of hit products in recent years, one of the exceptions being the Edge. With that in mind, Ford is keen on capitalizing on that popularity in much the same way as they have with the Mustang: variants. Ford is adding the Edge Sport to the roster, which incorporates a package of visual enhancements that don't really do too much to improve the sport factor. It does, however, look pretty cool and it gives Dearborn the opportunity to cash in on some of the potential profit margin that presently goes straight to dealers and third-party tuners.
Edge Sport gets the big-wheel look, with painted 20-inchers coming as standard equipment and polished 22" units being an extra-cost option. The obligatory body kit includes sill extensions and lower valences front and rear. The headlights and taillights also get a factory dress-up via smoked gray lenses. Inside, the seat materials are upgraded. One odd note centers around the trim adorning the vents in the instrument panel. The ones in the center stack have chrome trim while those at the outer ends of the dash have a matte grey finish. The bodywork of the Edge Sport will be available in blue, red, silver or black. The look is clean and attractive, and the blue photo car's visual accoutrements remind us of of the Mercury Milan VOGA that was shown in Miami back in '06. That's no bad thing, though we'd love to see this exact car with an EcoBoost V6 underhood, to give that "Sport" moniker some real teeth.
