Wind tunnel testing has been a key element in the development of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari car for season four. The car that had its first public running at the Mugello circuit was the product of many hours spent by the A1GP technical team in wind tunnels at the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences.

John Travis, A1GP Technical Director: “To ensure we continue the A1GP tradition of strong racing, coupled with lots of overtaking, the effort of the design team has been to provide a chassis that has a good level of down force, but without the normal penalties. This will make for much closer racing particularly in the corners as cars will be able to run together. We have spent in excess of 300 hours in the wind tunnel and have tried hundreds of different aerodynamic variations to ensure the close, exciting racing the series is famous for not only continues but gets better.”

The University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences has a variety of wind tunnels which have been used extensively by Formula One, Indy Racing League and CART racing teams over the years. A 40 per cent scale model of the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car was tested at the facility and performed just as expected giving the development team a good set of aerodynamic data to work with as they continue the on track testing programme in Europe.

The testing has been continuing in France with Andrea Bertolini in the car for three days at Paul Ricard near Marseille with 400-kilometres covered on one day alone. Testing then moved to Magny-Cours, with Patrick Friesacher at the wheel last week increasing the total distance covered by the new A1GP car to 5,667 kilometres.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2008-09 season will officially get underway later this year with A1GP Mugello, Italy, 19 – 21 September 2008.

Source: A1GP

The mysterious Ferrari we reported about late Friday has been spotted once again lapping Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in Maranello. The completely undisguised nature of the new model suggests that this is just a special one-off model designed for a private individual – similar to the Enzo-based P4/5 built for James Glickenhaus back in 2006.

This latest model is rumored to be the work of Italian design house Fioravanti, a company now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Tell-tale features suggesting this is a Fioravanti are the sleek and dynamic sweeping lines that extend nearly the complete length of the car, as well as the rounded rear end.

Other differences made to the F430, on which this new custom work is based, include the addition of the 599 GTB’s single circular lighting units.

Schuberth Helme is now offering a helmet specifically designed to for the F430 Scuderia. The helmet is made of carbon fiber and weighs only one kilogram.

In the July issue of the EVO magazine, the Ferrari “one-off” project has been revisited - a project that creates real and unique models. We had already seen that Ferrari was interested in launching new projects with the best international automobile signatures, and this news confirms the rumours.

In addition to the One to One scaglietti personalisation program whereby customers can choose finishes, colours and accessories, planned for the entire Ferrari range in the future, there will also be the possibility of having your own custom series. Armed with at least two million euros, according to the source, the customer will choose a model currently in production and from this basis, his own car will emerge.

Chassis, engine and airbag will have to remain the same, while the rest can be exclusively designed and created, and all the materials will be delivered to the customer. No SUVs, station wagons or sedans are the only requests from the company, so putting paid to the rumours of recent months.

The Race of Champions is scheduled to return to its new home at London’s Wembley Stadium on December 14th. For those unfamiliar, the annual event pits a host of the best racing drivers in the world against each other on carefully-calibrated equal terms. The event is split between the solo competition and the nations’ cup, the latter in which countries send their two best drivers to claim the honors for their homeland.

Last year’s event saw DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom defeat Schumacher in the final rounds, after the two (pictured at right) made minced meat out of the rest of the field in a variety of vehicles including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24, Ford Focus RS WRC, Fiat Grande Punto S2000 Abarth, an Opel/Vauxhall-based Solution F touring car and a purpose-built sprint car. This year retired seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher is set to return, teaming up with rookie driver Sebastian Vettel again for Team Germany. So far only Schumacher and Vettel have confirmed their participation for 2008 – last year Travis Pastrana valiantly held down the fort for Team USA on his own – but more are sure to join as the date approaches. Stay tuned.

Ferrari has announced the publication of a English language only print magazine that will feature a variety of cars, racing culture, fashion and design seen from the point of view of the Ferrari world.

An interview in the first issue, puts Ferrari President and Fiat Group Chairman Luca di Montezemolo being interviewed by Michael Schumacher. Known for his outbursts when a GP doesn’t go well, Schumacher asks Montezemolo, “President, how many TVs have you smashed on my account after watching F1?” to which Montezemolo replies “I’d say four” with Schumacher joking “It’s a good thing you didn’t send me the bill then…”

It will be published quarterly with each edition focusing on a particular theme such as language, colours and design. The fourth issue each year, published in December, will be extended to 280 pages and will replace the traditional Ferrari Yearbook for its friends and partners. The yearbook portion will look back on the past year: Formula 1 season, new models and, in the 2008 edition, Ferrari’s Magic India Discovery tour.

To be published quarterly, the first 30,000 copies will be sent to Ferrari owners around the world, however, Ferrari has decided to make an additional batch of subscriptions available to enthusiasts for the price of 250 Euros per year. See press release below for contact info.

At 7.30am on Saturday 14th June, the morning of the Le Mans 24 Hours, some 60 Ferraris took to the circuit for the Heritage Parade, organised by Motor Racing Legends. This gives Le Mans-goers the unique opportunity to drive three high-speed parade laps of the full, 8.5-mile race circuit in their own cars, just a few hours before the start of the world’s greatest endurance race.

This year, the Parade was specifically for Ferrari owners and the early morning spectators looked on in amazement as F40s and 355 Spiders, F430s and Challenge Stradales, 328 GTBs and 550 Maranellos – a vast range of models from the Prancing Horse – swept by at full chat.

“There are very few people who get to drive the full circuit, with all the public roads closed, unless they’re actually racing there,” said Peter Everingham of the Ferrari Owners’ Club. “It’s a fantastic experience and a great privilege.”

Among the Parade participants was none other than the great racing driver Jack Sears, at the wheel of his own Ferrari 328 GTS, which he bought new in 1989. “We had a wonderful few laps,” said Sears after the Parade, “a really flowing journey round the circuit.”

Speaking to the Ferrari drivers at their post-Parade breakfast in the heart of the Le Mans circuit, it was clear that – for many – hurtling down the Mulsanne Straight was the highlight of the whole experience. Everyone seemed to know exactly what speed they’d reached: “We topped 250km/h,” said Peter Everingham, who’d been sharing David Edwards’ 550 Maranello. David himself, who had driven his Ferrari all the way from Australia – a trip of some 8000 miles – described his laps of Le Mans as “mind-boggling”.

Next year, Motor Racing Legends will be throwing open the Heritage Parade to a much wider range of marques – giving more people than ever the chance to drive the full Le Mans circuit on the morning of the 24 Hours. Applications will be accepted from drivers of both classic and modern cars, wherever the marque has a traditional link to Le Mans: Ferrari, Lagonda, Jaguar, Bentley, Austin-Healey, Riley, Morgan, Aston Martin and so on.

As the creator of this image, CGI Automotive, already clearly states, this car may just be highly unlikely but don’t rule it out. Ferrari might just build a sportier and more exclusive Ferrari California for the collectors if the new GT convertible is a big enough hit.

So far Ferrari has been very reluctant to build a more affordable 2+2 sports car and has finally decided to move into a higher turnover market rather than stay exclusively in the limited production super car segment. It only stands to reason that the extremely rich and demanding Ferrari clientele will be appeased with a Limited Edition version.

Don’t expect much of a horsepower boost from the prancing pony for this limited edition but mainly expect to see weight-reductions and aerodynamic enhancements. The power boosts are sure to follow from tuners like Edo, Hamann and Novitec.

The famous Italian sports carmaker signed an agreement today (April 24, 2008) with the Percassi Group for the opening of the first Ferrari Store in the British market. Set to open this fall, the Ferrari Store will be located on London’s Regent Street and will cover an area of around 550 square meters spread over two levels housing a wide range of Prancing Horse products aimed at Formula 1 fans, GT enthusiasts, children and collectors.

The “competition” versions (Challenge and GTC) of the F430 will be competing this coming weekend at the Silverstone circuit in England. The F430 Challenge cars will be taking part in the second round of this season’s European Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy, while the F430 GTC will be making their debut in the FIA GT Championship, where they will be going for a repeat of the clean sweep they achieved over the past two years, when they took the Drivers’, Constructors’ and Teams’ titles, thanks to AF Corse.

More than 50 cars will take part in the English leg of the Prancing Horse one-make series, representing no less than 23 countries. After doing the double in Monza, Austria’s Philipp Baron (Baron Service) comes to Silverstone as favourite, thanks to a 14 point lead over Frenchman Ange Barde in the Pirelli Trophy classification. Heading the Shell Cup is an Italian driver, in the shape of Walter Forer (Rossocorsa/Pellin), ahead of fellow countryman Gianluca Carboni (Kessel) and Englishman Michael Cantillon (Ferrari GB Dealer Team).

Ten F430 GTC will line up for the start of the first FIA GT race, split between six teams. Among the drivers, worthy of note the presence of reigning champion, Toni Vilander: the Finn races as part of a pairing with Italy’s Gimmi Bruni, who finished second in 2007. In fact, Bruni, along with Robert Bell, won the first race of the LMS series in a GTC, held at Barcelona back on 6th April. On the same day, Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher took victory at St. Petersburg (USA) in the second round of the ALMS series.

Clearly, the work of the Corse Clienti department moves on at quite a pace. Apart from the racing activity, there is also the FXX programme and that linked to the historic Formula 1 cars, which got underway last weekend in Shanghai, as part of the second running of the Ferrari Festival, which saw over 60 Cavallino cars take part in an event aimed at owners and fans of the marque, in the Far East. Several FXX cars and three Formula 1 single-seaters were on track, all part of the past 15 years of Scuderia history: the F310, the model Michael Schumacher took to his first Grand Prix victory for Ferrari back in 1996 and the title winning F2003-GA and the F2004, which were world champions in 2003 and 2004, as used by Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.