Ferrari building six copies of invite-only supercar

Ferrari building six copies of invite-only supercar

CNBC.com - October 27, 2014

Ferrari just got even more exclusive. The Italian luxury automaker is gearing up to start production on its invite-only supercar known as the Ferrari Sergio, and only six people will be able to get their hands on one.

The concept car, unveiled at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, was designed in collaboration with Italian firm Pininfarina, and each model is expected to sell for millions, though Ferrari would not disclose an exact price.

But if you wanted to be one of the lucky six, you're too late as Ferrari has already pre-sold all the Sergio cars. Long-standing Ferrari clients are the only ones who got the invites.

 A spokesperson from the automaker told CNBC the final orders are being confirmed and production will start "shortly", with the aim of delivering the final product to clients next year. Ferrari will have to make changes to the design unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in order to comply with road laws so the design is likely to be different from the original concept which had no windshield or mirrors.

Ferrari has made a point of being exclusive by capping the number of vehicles it makes each year to 7,000 and the move has paid off financially. The brand, owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA-IT), reported revenues of 1.3 billion euros ($1.65 billion) in the first half of the year, a 14.6 percent rise from the same period in 2013.

The company also has a "one off" program where enthusiasts with deep pockets can design a bespoke car from start to finish and have it made at Ferrari's Maranello headquarters. The Sergio buyers' identities have not been revealed but in the past big names like Eric Clapton have purchased custom made cars.

 The Sergio is based on the Ferrari's 458 Spider mechanical base and technologic components. The doors rise up rather than open outwards and the company said the car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3.4 seconds.

Ferrari has pursued a similar exclusive approach with another car in its range – the LaFerrari supercar . Only 499 are being made, and after its debut at the Geneva Motor Show last year, over 1,000 people had already requested the car. But similar to the Sergio, you don't choose the car, Ferrari chooses you.

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McLaren's P1 And Ferrari's LaFerrari: BATTLE OF THE SUPERCARS!

By Business Insider October 27, 2014 3:55 PM

The McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari are two of the superbaddest supercars in the supercar world.

Business Insider checked out the McLaren last year in New York. We're still waiting to get an up-close with the LeFerrari, successor to the Enzo and Ferrari's new flagship supercar.

Both are gorgeous. Both are hybrids. Both cost more than $1 million.

We crunched the numbers — considering power, speed, looks, and more — to find out if one is better.

[And earlier version of this post was written by Alex Davies.]

NAME: The P1 name links the car to McLaren’s legendary F1, the former fastest production car in the world.

NAME: LaFerrari is Italian for “The Ferrari.” In English or Italian, it's a bit confusing.

NAME: McLaren takes this one, easily.

McLaren P1: 1

LaFerrari: 0

HORSEPOWER: The P1 pairs a V-8 engine that delivers 727 hp with an electric motor, yielding a total of 903 hp.

HORSEPOWER: The LaFerrari is also a hybrid, combining a 6.3-liter V-12 engine with two electric motors. Total horsepower: 950.

HORSEPOWER: Ferrari ties it up.

McLaren P1: 1
LaFerrari: 1

TOP SPEED: The McLaren has an electronically limited top speed of 217.5 mph.

TOP SPEED: The Ferrari tops out at 217 mph.

TOP SPEED: Too close to call. We'll given them each a point.

McLaren P1: 2
LaFerrari: 2

ACCELERATION: The P1 goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 3 seconds, and can hit 186 mph in 17.

ACCELERATION: The Ferrari's 0 to 60 mph time is also under 3 seconds, but it reaches the 186 mph mark in just 15 seconds.

ACCELERATION: Ferrari for the win.

McLaren P1: 2
LaFerrari: 3

EXTERIOR: The P1 has some beautiful styling cues, especially the fighter jet bubble windshield and nostril-like air intakes in the hood, which are reminiscent of the swooping McLaren logo.

EXTERIOR: The LaFerrari is also a gorgeous car, with rear view mirrors that look like the stalks on the Pagani Huayra.

EXTERIOR: This is a close (and subjective) call, but we give it to the P1.

McLaren P1: 3
LaFerrari: 3

WITH THE DOORS UP: In a classic pose for any car with scissor or gullwing doors, the P1 cuts an impressive figure.

WITH THE DOORS UP: But this view of the Ferrari gives us shivers.

WITH THE DOORS UP: An easy point for the LaFerrari.

McLaren P1: 3
LaFerrari: 4

INTERIOR: For extraordinarily complex cars, both have impressively simple interiors. The P1 continues the fighter jet theme with a glass canopy overhead. To save weight, there’s no sound deadening, but customers will want to hear all 903 horses.

INTERIOR: The LaFerrari’s interior is similarly minimalistic. We like the unorthodox, three-button (Launch, R, Auto) gear shifter, big shifter paddles, and simple controls. But we dock points for the almost square steering wheel.

INTERIOR: We give this one to the P1.

McLaren P1: 4
LaFerrari: 4

PRICE: McLaren has put the P1 price tag at $1.2 million.

PRICE: The LaFerrari is $1.4 million.

PRICE: Ferrari edges ahead.

McLaren P1: 4
LaFerrari: 5

AVAILABILITY: McLaren will make just 375 P1's.

AVAILABILITY: Ferrari's run is also very limited: Only 499 LaFerrari's will roll off the line.

AVAILABILITY: The fewer the cars in a limited run, the more valuable each one is. McLaren takes the final category.

McLaren P1: 5
LaFerrari: 5

And the winner is...

The LaFerrari is a beautiful car that everyone wants.
But despite being less powerful and a tad slower, McLaren's P1 is the more jaw-dropping of the two — and harder to get.

The McLaren P1 takes this one...and it's a tie at the finish line!

But that's not as far as you can go with the P1...

DON'T MISS: This $3.2 Million McLaren Is So Exclusive That Only 375 People Can Buy One>

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The $4.5 Million Lamborghini Veneno driving in California

From the video description (TheStradman):

The $4.5 Million Lamborghini Veneno driving in California

Check me out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/StradmanPhotography

See the other Lamborghini Veneno I've filmed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu-X4...

This $4.5 million dollar Lamborghini Veneno was shown at the Quail Motorsports gathering in Monterey, California. Lamborghini is producing just 4 Venenos; This one will be at the Lamborghini factory in Sant'agata Bolognese, Italy. Two of the remaining three will end up in the United States, one in Miami, Florida and one in Long Island, New York. The third one will end up in the Middle East. The two American bound Lamborghini Venenos have been delivered. The Veneno in Long Island, owned by Antoine Dominic (owner of Lamborghini Long Island) is expected to be displayed at the showroom of Lamborghini Long Island. Dominic is a long time Ferrari owner who had an F40, F50, Enzo and an MC12 prior to switching to Lamborghini. The Miami bound Veneno, owned by Kris Singh, is expected to be driven somewhat regularly. Mr. Singh is managing director of Tequesta Investments. Each of the three customer delivered Venenos is finished in a different colored accent, red, white and green. The Veneno in this video is red. This is noticeable on the front splitter and rear diffuser.

It has been announced that Lamborghini will also introduce a roadster version of the Veneno. Lamborghini will produce 9 Lamborghini Veneno Roadsters.



 
The Lamborghini Veneno was first unveiled at the Genevea Auto Show in April 2013. The Lamborghini Veneno Roadster was first photographed at a special private viewing in Beverly Hills, California in November 2013. It's official debut was on an Italian air craft carrier in Abu Dhabi. It also was shown at CES 2014, Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in conjunction with Monster Audio, who fitted a custom $100,000 sound system in the Veneno Roadster.

The Lamborghini Veneno is a development of the Lamborghini Aventadors 6.5L V12 producing 740 HP. Veneno means venom in Spanish. Lamborghini currently produced the Aventador, the Veneno and is set to begin production of the Gallardo replacement, the Lamborghini Huracan. The Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 is set to be officially unveiled at the Geneva International Auto Show on March 4, 2014.

The Lamborghini Veneno follows in the footsteps of other extremely limited production Lamborghinis. Prior to the Veneno, Lamborghini built 20 race oriented Lamborghini Sesto Elementos, based off the Gallardo. Prior to the Sesto Elemento, Lamborghini produced the Lamborghini Reventon, of which only 20 coupes and 15 roadsters. The Reventon was sold for $2 million USD.

The Lamborghini Veneno is featured in Forza Motorsport 5 and Need for Speed.

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1958 Ferrari sells for $8.25 million

1958 Ferrari sells for $8.25 million

This Ferrari, along with nine other top-selling cars at the 2013 Scottsdale collector car auctions, together raked in about $39 million.

Peter Valdes-Dapena - 'Fortune' magazine - January 23, 2013

 
Sold for: $8.25 million
Auction house: Gooding & Co.

Watch: The Ferrari California Spider - A car collector's dream

At the annual Scottsdale, Ariz. auto auctions last weekend, the biggest headlines were about the Batmobile, which sold for $4.6 million. But that was only the third-highest price paid at the auctions and it wasn't even close the top dollar amount.

That honor went to this beautiful 1958 Ferrari painted in Bleu Sera Metallizzato which sold at the Gooding & Co. auction. Only 50 long-wheelbase versions of this car were ever made and this is number 13. It has its original upgraded V12 engine.

All the prices in this gallery, as collected by the collector car insurer Hagerty Insurance, include commissions which usually amount to 10% of the "hammer price."

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Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, ready for takeoff

Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, ready for takeoff: Motoramic Drives

Lawrence Ulrich - Motoramic - February 5, 2013

Gunning the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster down a straightaway at Homestead Miami Speedway, I manage a quick glance at the speedometer: 147 mph, just in time to bend into the NASCAR oval that forms a section of the winding infield road course.

This convertible version of Lamborghini’s latest 12-cylinder flagship could go much, much faster. But the Italian pace driver ahead checks my speed along the steep 20-degree banking, making sure the day isn’t spoiled by anyone introducing their $445,300 baby to the unforgiving track walls. Fair enough: The Lamborghini’s 691-hp howl and skull-snapping acceleration – including 3 seconds flat from 0-60 mph, and a quarter-mile in just 10.7 seconds at 136 mph – are entertainment enough.

And honestly, while the nearly 3,600-lb. Aventador handles the course reasonably well, this is less a tool for tracks than a supercar fantasy for Wyoming-style, wide-open roads. Or open runways, as Lamborghini showed, blasting five candy-colored Aventadors down a Miami International Airport runway at 210 mph, just shy of the car’s 217-mph top speed. That’s faster than any jet has traveled on Miami’s tarmac, where takeoff speeds peak around 175 mph. That record-setting run was recorded by Miami-Dade Sheriff’s officers, in what has to be history’s happiest encounter between police radar and a Lamborghini.

The FAA-approved stunt, along with a 50th anniversary parade of 50 new and historic Lamborghinis along South Beach’s Collins Avenue, perfectly fit the gonzo mentality of a company that’s been blowing minds since 1964. And from the 350 GT V-12 of 1964, through the ‘70s Countach and the more-recent Gallardo and Murciélago, the mind blowing begins with styling. Like its sensational closed-roof cousin, the Roadster doesn’t disappoint: Aggressive and geometric yet fluid, the Aventador looks like a sexed-up Klingon warship by way of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Lamborghini’s northern Italian home.

Bragging points begin with a chassis and passenger tub made entirely of lightweight carbon fiber. And when it came to the carbon fiber convertible roof, Lamborghini freely admits sacrificing some ease-of-use for beauty: “We told the designer, you can do whatever you want – it just has to look the best,” says Stephan Winkelmann, Automobili Lamborghini’s elegant chief executive.
The result? No bulky folding hardtop or shapeless cloth pup tent to break up those suggestive body lines. Instead, two glossy, ridge-backed panels of carbon fiber, weighing just 13.2 pounds each, pop into the roof -- and take up nearly the entire under-hood cargo space when not in use. Storing or fitting the roof takes some practice and steady hands. Owners will want to keep a sharp eye out for sudden thundershowers.

Locked into place, the top actually forms a structural element that boosts chassis stiffness to 24,000 Newton-meters. And including some additional carbon fiber to beef up door sill areas, the Aventador Roadster weighs just 110 pounds more than its closed-roof cousin.

Viewed from above, the black, pointy-eared roof panels look remarkably like Batman’s mask, creating a two-tone effect with Lambo’s wide selection of body colors. Those include Bianco Canopus, a matte white that’s paired here with an edible-looking, chocolate-leather interior. Or, Verde Ithaca, a shade that proves that Lamborghinis are among the only cars that look good in bright green (Aside from a ‘60s Hemi ‘Cuda, perhaps).

With the top stored and the separate rear glass window rolled down, we’re ready for beautiful machine music, courtesy of the 6.5-liter V-12 that’s visible beneath clear, insect-wing composite panels. Those stacked shelves feature huge gaps to extract heat from the Aventador’s pulsing, 8,250-rpm heart.

The 691 horses and 509 pound-feet of torque are unchanged from the hardtop version. But the Roadster’s V-12 does have new tricks up its aluminum sleeve: Half the twelve cylinders shut down under steady cruising, trimming fuel consumption by up to 20 percent, and 7 percent overall. An engine stop-start system uses a fast-charging supercapacitor to restart the big V-12 at stop lights with remarkable smoothness, and in just 50 milliseconds. The roughly 15 mpg average will still cost American buyers a $3,700 gas-guzzler tax, though that’s not likely to dissuade people who have a line on one of the world’s most exclusive sports cars.

How exclusive? Consider that just 582 Americans landed a Lamborghini last year. Even that number represented a 50 percent jump from 2011, when Lamborghini found 387 American buyers.

Like many other sports car purveyors, from Porsche to Aston Martin, Lamborghini is clawing back from a recession that cut sales virtually in half. Here in America, 12,000 wealthy buyers treated themselves to a “super sports car” in 2007, Winkelmann says, in a market that moved more than 16 million cars overall. But those 12,000 sales tumbled to 6,100 just two years later.

The Aventador is leading the comeback, with 922 buyers worldwide in 2012, more than double the Murciélago’s best-ever year. 

Those buyers are getting a car that’s hotter, faster and more approachable than the departed Murcielago. The seating position is more natural, steering feel is improved and ergonomics are unexpectedly good for an Italian supercar – including a slick Audi navigation system and climate controls, courtesy of Lamborghini’s position within the VW/Audi empire. Even the view out the back is more generous than in V-12 Lambos of old. On the track or on winding roads, the fast windshield and bulky front roof pillar do make it hard to get a good, long-distance look around curves.

Still, there are a few unexpected compromises for a car that can easily sneak past the half-million dollar mark. Lamborghini’s dual clutch ISR transmission is steadily improving, but the car’s three performance modes – which also adjust throttle, stability control and other parameters — have a Goldilocks issue: In the street-oriented Strada mode, shifts are slow, syrupy and distressingly vague. Bump it up to Corsa mode, and shifts are crushingly hard for most situations outside the track. The middle Sport mode proves best for street operation, whether we’re stuck in Miami traffic or romping it wherever possible.

Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini’s chief test driver and sports-car racer, insists that the seamless shift feel of, say, Porsche’s PDK transmission isn’t right for Lamborghini drivers – who still, apparently, like a buck in the back to remind them they’re driving one of Lamborghini’s famed fighting bulls.

“We want our customers to perceive an emotion,” Sanna says.

No such problem with the brakes: The Aventador’s massive Italian meats, including 20-inch alloy wheels in front and 21-inch beauties out back, are gripped by standard carbon composite brakes with good pedal feel.

While the Aventador comes alive on open roads, our return to South Beach brings us rudely back to reality: As the Aventador crawls down dull, congested Florida roads – a caged, impatient fighting bull – other drivers seem to have more fun than I do, rolling down windows to flash thumbs-up and cell phone cameras alike.

And that’s the odd thing about owning such a spectacularly over-the-top machine in a place like this. Winkelmann affirms that outside of the Los Angeles area, South Florida and Texas are the American hot beds for Lambo buyers.

South Beach owners, apparently, don’t need to go 217 mph to have fun in a Lamborghini. In fact, trolling Collins Avenue at 21.7 mph works much better for see-and-be-seen status – an impression that’s only aided by the open-roofed version of the Aventador.

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