The Ferrari Monza SP2 has been named the Most Beautiful Supercar of 2018 by a panel of expert judges at the 34th Paris Festival Automobile International. The prestigious award was presented at a ceremony at the city’s Hotel National des Invalides attended by over 600 guests, including many leading exponents of the automotive and journalism worlds.
The Ferrari Monza SP2, together with the Ferrari Monza SP1, is the forerunner of the new Icona concept inspired by the most evocative Ferrari competition cars of the 1950s. The Monza SP2 is the Prancing Horse’s modern reinterpretation of a gloriously timeless style paired with technologically advanced components and the highest performance possible thanks to the marque’s continuous research and innovation.
The Ferrari Style Centre’s designers crafted a design so pure and forms so elegantly minimalist, they could be described as a single pencil stroke. The extreme styling of the more recent Ferrari track cars has been bypassed in favour of exceptionally clean, spare lines. Never before has a car possessed such clear narrative power: this is a model born to deliver pure driving pleasure and fun behind the wheel. An experience that creates a totally symbiotic connection between man and car.
Presented to clients at the FerrariFinali Mondiali and unveiled to the public at the Birmingham’s Autosport International event last week, the new Competizioni GT Club will allow owners of Ferrari GT racing cars built over the last three decades to compete at events organised directly by Maranello.
Reflecting the philosophies underpinning the F1 Clienti and the XX Programmes, the Competizioni GT Club will organise events at some of the world’s most evocative circuits, complete with a range of exclusive services to enrich the experience. Technical assistance will be available at each track, while official professional Ferrari GT competition drivers, who compete in the world’s leading championships throughout the year, will be on hand to advise clients on getting the best possible performance from their cars.
The 12 models that qualify for membership of the Competizioni GT Club range from the 1989 F40 Competizione to the 488 GTE and GT3 currently available to racing clients. Aside from the basic club membership package, which includes personalised clothing, a set of tyres for every round and a gala event, other special services are also available, not least car transportation, personalised logistics and exclusive one-to-one sessions with professional drivers.
Mugello will host the first event on April 9th and 10th. This will be followed by Indianapolis, where the cars will race on the track used for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, Fuji in Japan and then Vallelunga just outside Rome. The Competizioni GT Club will also participate in the 2019 Ferrari Finali Mondiali at Mugello between October 22nd and 27th.
As covered by Piston.myearlier, fans and representatives of Scuderia Ferrari Clubs from all over Europe were flocking to the Ferrari Museum recently for the opening of the ‘Michael 50’ exhibition on the occasion of the champion’s 50th birthday. Maranello has put together a special exhibition telling the story of Michael Schumacher’s extraordinary record-breaking F1 career: the German champion won an as yet unequalled seven world titles, 91 victories, and 155 podiums.
The Hall of Victories displays some of the most important Ferrari single-seaters driven in his eleven years with the Scuderia. They range from the F310 of 1996, with which Schumacher won three GPs in his first season with the Prancing Horse, to the F399, the car that won the Constructors’ title in 1999 to set Formula 1’s oldest team off on an exceptional run of victories.
There is also the F1-2000 of the legendary ‘Alba Rossa’ (‘Red Dawn’), when at Suzuka Michael secured Ferrari its first the world title since Jody Scheckter 21 years before. Then of course there are the record-breaking F2002 and F2004, and the 248 F1 of 2006, in which he triumphed at the Chinese GP for his 72nd and final victory with Ferrari.
Fans will also be introduced to a lesser-known side of Schumacher, that of developer. Indeed, after leaving Formula 1, the German driver remained at Ferrari not only to help the Scuderia but also to contribute to the development of various road cars, such as the 430 Scuderia in 2007 and the Ferrari California in 2008.
The exhibition will run alongside ‘Driven by Enzo’ and ‘Passion and Legend’, which are already open at the Maranello Museum. ‘Michael 50’ has been organised in partnership with the Keep Fighting Foundation.
The Ferrari Museum is dedicating a special exhibition to Michael Schumacher, which will open on the occasion of his 50th birthday on 3 January 2019. It is intended both as a celebration and a mark of gratitude to the most successful Prancing Horse driver ever. Schumacher has a special place in Ferrari’s history, which has been marked by his many records. Between 1996 and 2006 the German champion won five consecutive Drivers’ titles, from 2000 to 2004, and made a major contribution to the Scuderia’s haul of six Manufacturers’ titles over those years.
The Museum’s rooms will look back over the memorable seasons that the seven-time World Champion gifted to all Ferraristi, and that created a legend now bigger than ever in the hearts of all fans. The exhibition will also show Michael’s crucial contribution to the development of extraordinary GT cars in his years at Maranello, as a driver and later as a consultant. The ‘Michael 50’ exhibition is in collaboration with the Keep Fighting Foundation.
The Prancing Horse’s new Special Series model, the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider, has been unveiled during the world-famous Concours d’Elegance® at Pebble Beach in California. The Ferrari 488 Pista Spider is the 50th drop-top model from the Prancing Horse and a premiere in the US was a natural choice given that, ever since the 1950s, North American clients have always been keen connoisseurs of high-performance convertibles.
The new car sets a new benchmark for Ferrari for spider performance with an unprecedented weight-power ratio of 1.92 kg/cv. A result made possible by the adoption of the most powerful Ferrari V8 engine ever, which was recently named Best Engine in the world for the third consecutive year at the 2018 International Engine of the Year Awards. The 3902cc twin-turbo V8 unleashes 720cv and combines that power with increasing torque at all engine speeds for continuous and unending acceleration all the way to the red line. The unique engine sound is now even more riveting thanks to the open-top configuration.
The Ferrari 488 Pista Spider represents the natural development of the defining design of the coupé version. The Ferrari designers’ primary objective was to maintain unaltered the perfect marriage of aerodynamic efficiency, purity of form and racing spirit. This concept is underlined by the characteristic central livery which runs the whole length of the car, expanding towards the rear where it finishes at the end of the rear wing next to the spoiler. This continual expansion of the stripe recalls the movement of the airflow and exalts the lines of the car.
The philosophy that imposed an uncompromising choice of materials for the bodywork is also revisited in the interior solutions, with weight being saved by the use of lightweight, pared-back components. As well as the generous use of carbon-fibre and Alcantara® throughout, the carpets have been replaced by patterned aluminium foot plates and the driver’s-side door handle is now a simple strap.
In terms of engineering, the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider is directly derived from the 488 Pista which encapsulates all the racing experience gathered on world’s circuits with the 488 Challenge and the 488 GTE. As a result, the new Spider offers the highest level yet of technological transfer from the track to a road-legal drop-top car. The vehicle dynamics honed for this Special Series 8-cylinder convertible deliver a seamless combination of razor-sharp acceleration, braking efficiency, lightning-fast gear shifting, precision steering, grip, stability and superb handling. The result? A completely captivating and unprecedented driving experience. This was achieved thanks partly to the new lateral dynamics control system, the Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer (FDE), which makes on-the-limit driving more intuitive, controllable and predictable.
The car features new diamond-finish 20” alloy wheels with a novel 10-spoke star-effect interpretation of Ferrari’s traditional mid-rear engine berlinetta-style rims. Also available are the optional one-piece carbon-fibre wheels which offer a 20% weight reduction over the standard forged alloys.
