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.

Jean Todt has stepped down from his position as the CEO of Ferrari today, making the official announcement at the conclusion of the automaker’s shareholders’ meeting.

First hired by Ferrari in 1993 to head up the Formula One racing team, Todt was elevated to the position of general manager in 2003, followed by a promotion to company CEO in 2006. Amedeo Felisa, who followed of Todt as Ferrari’s general manager, will follow the same pattern by taking over the CEO role. Todt will stay on with the Italian automaker in limited duty, including representing the F1 team on the FIA World Council.

Shareholders at today’s meeting also reaffirmed Luca di Montezemolo as company president, and Piero Ferrari as vice president.

Ferrari officials confirmed recently that a new sportscar will be shown at the Paris auto show this fall. And now, spies for The Car Connection have captured more photos of the prototypes of the new Ferrari during testing.

It can be taken for granted that the new model will be the long-rumored small Ferrari dubbed “Dino” by the automotive press. Our photos show two different prototypes of the upcoming car, caught just two days ago on Ferrari’s test track at Fiorino. While one of the prototypes is heavily disguised from front to rear end, the second one at least gives a glimpse of the new model’s front end. We’ve also sourced two illustrations to capture an artist’s interpretation of the vehicles shown in these photos.

The front-engined small sports car might not be called Dino, but possibly GT420 or GT470. Dino was the name applied to a smaller sportscar engineered by Ferrari in the 1960s, one named for a son of founder Enzo Ferrari.

The new “baby” Ferrari will be based on a shortened platform spun from the Maserati GranTurismo. Powered by the family V-8 also found in the Maserati, the Ferrari will sport a 4.7-liter version. The new Ferrari will be positioned between the F430 and the Maserati GT.

Indian giant Tata is on the verge of finalizing its takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover and now its Chief Ratan Tata has hinted that his next acquisition could be a stake in Ferrari. Tata is already heavily involved with Ferrari’s parent company Fiat, joining the Italian carmaker’s board back in 2006 after he was recommended by the Agnelli family, and both firms are already tied up over an engine supply deal.

The same year that Tata joined Fiat’s board, the Italian carmaker increased its stake in Ferrari to 85% and it still retains an option on a further 5% sold to Arab Emirates’ Mubadala Development. Speaking with Italy’s L’Espresso, Tata described his passion for cars and aircraft, explaining that he’s always dreamt of being able to be a fighter pilot as well as participating in the shareholding of Ferrari.

As Ferrari expands into the rapidly growing Indian market a partnership with Tata could turn out to be extremely lucrative.

Ferrari and David Wiener Ventures license has created the ultimate gift for the Ferrari fan that has everything. Developed by the partnership is a new tower speaker designed and engineered by Ferrari called the Art.Engine. The single contained unit features a number of vertically stacked speakers utilizing lightweight carbon-fiber cones and louvered cooling ducts that resemble the units used on Ferrari’s actual cars.

The speaker is designed to play music via WiFi but it can also accept an input from a CD player or iPod. The frequency response ranges from 40Hz to 20kHz with a maximum SPL level of 112dB at one meter. The tower is devoid of any buttons except the power button located on the top right of the machine. The button is designed to resemble the engine starter button used by Ferrari for its cars and is just one of a number of touches designed to resemble elements from the actual cars.

The new Art.Engine speaker will be limited to just 1,000 units and will cost about $20,000, and if bright red doesn’t match your decor it also comes in Argento Nürburgring Silver, Grigio Silverstone Grey and Nero Black.

At the Geneva Motor Show, Ferrari launched its new “One-to-One Personalisation Program” that allows buyers to fully customize their car by choosing details and materials they want in consultation with the Italian carmaker’s experts. The personalization program was inaugurated in Geneva with the 612 Scaglietti. Ferrari recreated a compact version of the real atelier (due to be officially opened in Maranello in the near future) on the company’s stand.

To underscore the flexibility of the personalization options available for the 612 Scaglietti, Ferrari exhibited at Geneva a version which has been inspired, right down to its perforated leather Daytona seats, by the classic 365 GTB4 which stands alongside it.