Formula 1: Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying Round-Up

What a surprise…another Saturday, another Red Bull at the first spot of the starting grid, with a second Red Bull racer at its side: a site everyone has gotten used to this year.

What must have frightened poleman Sebastian Vettel rivals for tomorrow's race is his admission that he held back and did not perform at 100%: “On the last run, I tried a bit too much going into the really tricky chicane around Turn 10," said Vettel, adding that, "I decided to abort the lap, as it can be so easy to damage the car.”

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Formula 1: Singapore Grand Prix Practice Session

As in almost every Formula 1 event this year, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing set the pace again, this time in the second practice session of the Singapore Grand Prix.

What was surprising is that the German pilot's time was barely better than that of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso - a mere 0.021 seconds. The only one capable of challenging the pair was Lewis Hamilton, but in the end he and his McLaren F1 racer were more than half a second slower.

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Ice, Ice Baby: Ferrari Offers Winter Driving Course in Aspen for the Low Price of $11,399

Some things just don't make sense, no matter how vivid your imagination is. Envision Land Rover racing at Le Mans, or Maserati manufacturing an SUV. Doesn’t it sound absurd? Actually, scratch the last example about Maserati: it will actually happen.

Well, up until recently, you wouldn’t imagine a four-wheel drive Ferrari either. Thankfully, despite sporting the 4RM AWD system, the FF remains a pure sports car. Now, Ferrari wants to show its versatility to its American customers, so it’s adapting its “Pilota on Ice” driving program for the US.

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Ferrari 458 Italia Re-imagined by French Designer

Almost everyone who has laid eyes on the Ferrari 458 Italia's bodywork will agree that it is a work of art. Even though Ferrari’s people claim that it was function, and especially aerodynamics, that dictated many elements of the 458 Italia's shape, it is perhaps one of the most striking supercars currently on sale along with the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4.

Surely, no one would dare suggest otherwise, right? Well, not so fast. Olivier Demangel is a French designer and 3D artist who lives in London has cooked up three proposals for a redesigned 458 Italia.

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Video: Lamborghini Aventador vs Gallardo Spyder vs Ferrari 360 Modena

If it where any other type of cars, we'd probably skip this vide altogether, but it’s not every day that you see a spanking new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 getting ready to eat sprint race a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder and Coupe, a Ferrari 360 Modena Spider and the tail of the bunch, a BMW M3 Coupe E46.

Of course there's a matter of who's driving the Italian supercars and what condition they're in, but it looks like the Aventador and the LP 560-4 Spyder pretty much smoked the rest.

Click past the break to watch the short clip for yourself.

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Video: Major, Major Ferrari Blooper Captured on Camera

Truth to be said, there is something about supercar fails that make them, well, more laughable….or scarier if you consider the fact that we're talking about people sitting behind the wheel of very powerful vehicles and who happen to share the road with the rest of us.

The blooper you are about to watch allegedly took place in Belgium when the driver of a Ferrari 360 Modena made a wrong turn on the road. But that's not why we're calling it a mega fail.

As you can see in the clip after the jump, the Ferrari driver had a very hard time finding the reverse gear. After many attempts he finally gave up and pushed the car back onto the right side of the road by hand…

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Video: Watch a Ferrari Enzo Modded Take a Dip into the Atlantic Ocean

Between 2002 and 2004, Ferrari built a limited run of approximately 400 Enzo supercars. Understandably, being such an extremely rare car, when an Enzo bites the dust, or rather in this case, the sea, the news makes headlines.

This particular accident involved a 2003 Ferrari Enzo tuned by Edo Competition that was driven by Calgary car dealer Zahir Rana at the Targa Newfoundland Rally in Canada.

At some point during the race, Rana lost control of the Italian supercar after hitting a hard bump on the gravel sending it straight into the ocean…

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Video: Nissan GT-R Pwns Competition in Mega Drag Race with 11 Sports Cars

The latest Nissan GT-R has put another victory under its belt, this time in a drag race against ten of some of the world's most wanted sports cars at an empty airstrip.

The quarter-mile duel was organized by Motor Trend magazine. The eleven cars assembled were worth more than $1.5 million, and featured a combined 82 cylinders delivering over 5,000 horsepower and 4,000 lb-ft of torque.

The $89,950 and 530HP Nissan GT-R passed through the finish line first with a time of 11.2 seconds and an exit speed of 121.8mph (196km/h). It was followed by the $225,325 and 557HP Ferrari 458 Italia (11.3 seconds and 125.6mph or 202km/h) and the $198,600 and 560HP Audi R8 GT (11.5 seconds and 125.1mph or 201km/h).

The other cars that participated in the race were the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Lexus LFA, Corvette Z06, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca, Porsche Cayman R, BMW 1-Series M Coupe and the Lotus Evora S (click on the image on your right to see the results).

Nissan, of course, was quick to issue a somewhatpompous press statement on the GT-R's win:

“We applaud Motor Trend’s editors for pulling off the automotive equivalent of the running of the bulls,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America.

“Win or lose, it’s great fun and a great video – especially since we won. In all fairness, if we were running for pink slips, we would have had to bring at least two GT-Rs to match the cost of the competitors. We’ll settle for the title of baddest of the bad," he added.

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Formula 1 Qualifying Results

McLaren may have tried to secure some publicity by opening its only Italian showroom in Milan just before the local GP, but on the track, it was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel who captured the spotlight with his 10th pole position of the year in Monza.

Vettel was almost half a second faster than Lewis Hamilton who beat his teammate, Jenson Button, by a mere 0.052 seconds. The Tifosi had to be content with Fernando Alonso’s fourth place –not a bad result, if you consider that he is one place ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start from sixth position, ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and the two Mercedes’ of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton, completes the top ten of the starting grid with the second Renault.

The race, which is the last Grand Prix in Europe for 2011 since Formula 1 moves to Asia for the next five races before the season finale at Brazil, starts on Sunday at 12:00 GMT.

PHOTO GALLERY

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IAA 2011: Ferrari 458 Spider Debuts Along with New “Tailor Made” Program

Ferrari’s CEO, Luca di Montezemolo, pulled the wraps off the latest addition to Maranello’s stable, the 458 Spider, at the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show. The open-top version of the acclaimed 458 Italia sports an innovative hard-top folding roof that offers better insulation from noise and heat in the cabin and is even 25 kg lighter than a traditional fabric roof. Read more »

F1 Results: 2011 Italian Grand Prix in Monza

The Italian GP that took place on Sunday at the Monza racetrack was nothing if not exciting. From the moment the red lights went off and the cars started accelerating, it was all drama. Although Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was on the fourth place of the grid, he was able to beat both McLarens as well as pole man Sebastian Vettel and take the lead in turn one. Read more »

Formula 1: Italian GP Qualifying Results

McLaren may have tried to secure some publicity by opening its only Italian showroom in Milan just before the local GP, but on the track, it was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel who captured the spotlight with his 10th pole position of the year in Monza. Read more »

Fernando Alonso Drives the New Ferrari 458 Spider

Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso temporarily left the seat of his racing car to try out Maranello's new 458 Spider, which will be officially presented at the IAA Frankfurt next Tuesday.

The Spaniard, complete with all the necessary marketing decals strategically positioned on his clothing (really, do these guys ever go out without looking like a walking billboard?) took the roofless supercar for a spin out in Italy.

You can watch him driving the 458 Spider for yourself in the video after the break.

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Quiz: Can You Spot the Ferrari 458 Italia Spider in this Picture?

If you try hard enough, you may trace the lines of Maranello's latest achievement hiding somewhere behind those…Italian curves. And yes, we're trying to concentrate on the new Ferrari 458 Italia Spider.

As you can see in the opening photo, courtesy of the crew over from Teamspeed, the pre-show presentation that took place in Maranello earlier this week proved more interesting than we originally thought.

If you follow the jump, you can check out a comprehensive gallery of Ferrari's newest Spider model that features a retractable, lightweight aluminium top, and which will make its public debut at the 64th International Auto Show in Frankfurt on September 13.

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Ferrari EGO Concept Study: For the Man Who has Everything, Circa 2025

The Ferrari EGO (that stands for Emotional Generation One) is a concept study in a lightweight, compact hypercar for the year 2025.

Designed by Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design [IAAD] Torino graduates Salvatore Simonetti, Massimiliano Petrachi and Vincenzo Morlino and Politecnico di Milano graduate Luca Zunino, the EGO seeks to mix extreme performance with so-called “strong emotional content”.

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Video: Ferrari 458 Italia Spider Presentation in Italy

We've already had a taste of the new 458 Italia Spider, but just before its first public debut at the forthcoming Frankfurt auto show in Germany, Ferrari held a special event in its home town of Maranello in Italy to present its latest creation to the members of the press.

The crew over from Teamspeed were on hand to cover the event and snapped some photos as well as a video of a selection of 458 Italia Spiders finished in various colors including the traditional red, yellow, black and what looks like a dark plum finish.

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Ferrari 355 Burned Down for the Sake of Art [+Video]

Car enthusiasts consider most Ferraris - even the pre-di Montezemolo era models that were impractical and tricky to drive, to be works of art. Few can disagree when one sets his eyes upon a 250 GTO, an F40 or the more recent, 458 Italia.

But what does a real artist think of Maranelo’s supercars? It depends: if the artist is Anthony James, best known for employing AK-47 machine guns and chainsaws in his creations, then the answer may come as a shock.

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Video: Canadian Police Confiscate 13 Supercars after Youngsters Speed Race

Ocean’s 13 got away with stealing diamonds, earning millions of cash and ruining their adversary’s life. British Columbia’s 13, 12 young men and one woman, all under 21 years old, got away with racing each other, reaching speeds of over 125 mph (200 km/h) on a metro Vancouver highway with a $196 fine each.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that the cars impounded had a combined value of $2 million. These are the supercars that were temporarily seized: 

2007 Ferrari 599

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

2009 Lamborghini Gallardo

2009 Audi R8

2012 Nissan GT-R

2010 Nissan GT-R

2010 Nissan GT-R

2010 Maserati Turismo

2010 Maserati Turismo

2011 Mercedes SL63

2011 Mercedes SLS

2005 Aston Martin DB9

According to a police report, two drivers would block traffic behind them by running side-by-side clearing the road ahead, while the rest would race each other.
“These drivers seemed to be looking for attention. Well, they definitely got the attention of the police” commented Lower Mainland District Regional Police Service spokeswoman, Cpl. Holly Marks.
However, the 13 offenders, of which only was the registered owner of the vehicle he was driving, will get away just with the ticket after being charged with “driving without reasonable consideration.” That’s because they didn’t actually get caught on the act, but the police acted on reports based from eye witnesses.
According to the Vancouver Star, if the police had been able to charge them with more sever offenses, they could have forfeited their vehicles!
Now, the young drivers will only have to pay the ticket and the costs of towing and storing their cars, which were impounded for seven days.
Guess when you drive a 599 Fiorano, a Gallardo or an SLS AMG, after this punishment you’ll just laugh your way to the impound yard…

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Canadian Police Confiscate 13 Supercars after Youngsters Speed Race [with Video]

Ocean’s 13 got away with stealing diamonds, earning millions of cash and ruining their adversary’s life. British Columbia’s 13, 12 young men and one woman, all under 21 years old, got away with racing each other, reaching speeds of over 125 mph (200 km/h) on a metro Vancouver highway with a $196 fine each.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that the cars impounded had a combined value of $2 million. These are the supercars that were temporarily seized:

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Formula 1: Belgian GP Race Results

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso summed up perfectly the outcome of the Belgian GP that took place yesterday at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes forest: “Red Bull had a pace advantage of one second of something like that today. And in the final part of the race maybe more, maybe 1.5 seconds. So when you have a car that is 1.5 seconds faster than the rest it’s easy for you to stop one lap earlier or one lap later.” Read more »