ZA Car

Sometimes working for Ferrari has its perks and sometimes it doesn’t. As one of its Formula One drivers you might expect you get to drive a road going version of the race car, a Ferrari FF, or at least something special like the Abarth 500 Tributo Ferrari 695.  Most time that is the case, but then the drivers sometimes have to pander to FIAT’s other brands, like Jeep…

Alonso: "Hey Filipe, can you see over the steering wheel, how much do you weigh these days, do you think we'll be able to clear the snow in this?"

Scuderia Ferrari Formula One drivers, Filipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are getting used to the ‘posing with a red car in the snow gig.’ Their most recent assignment  involved some really really brash, really American, and ostentatious Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s with Rosso Corsa (Ferrari-red to us simpletons) exteriors, red leather interiors, black stripes and black wheels, to give the models some racing-cred (we suspect). Or not.

Look we're as muscular as our Jeeps

These custom Jeeps have been built as a tribute to the Ferrari ambassadors, however if that’s the case the only tribute being paid is for something fat and chunky. Despite this the Grand Cherokee SRT8 has a big heart: a 6.4l HEMI V8 delivering 344kW (468 hp)  and 624 Nm. The SRT8 achieves benchmark performance of 0-100 km/h in 5 seconds and has a top speed of 257 km/h, while massive disc brakes haul it from 100-0 km/h in only 35 m. Jeep also claims this is the best handling model it has ever built – though it’s coming off a pretty low base, if we’re honest.

Despite claiming these vehicles are a tribute to the drivers, they’re really to commemorate the imminent introduction of the SRT8 into Europe, in May this year.

Additional features include:

• Instrument cluster with yellow dials to give the cabin the fake look of the GT cars produced in Maranello
• 7-slot Jeep grill in matte black with red inserts
• Race-inspired, offset black driver’s stripe with a white accent for the  front and rear bumpers, hood, the entire surface of the roof (over those matt black sunroofs, no less) and the rear spoiler.
• Carbon fiber mirror caps
• Gloss black rear light bar with red accents on the Jeep logo
• Italian flag  painted on the underside of the rear spoiler: a tribute to the Ferrari F150º Formula One car
• 20-inch black alloy wheels

Nevertheless, these features sound pretty interesting.

Filipe and Alonso having some real fun in a four-wheel-drive.

It’s good that Jeep is going this far to give its brand some racing heritage and tie into the partnership with the Fiat Group, but we’re rather disappointed with the heads at the Fiat and Ferrari for letting such a thing happen and building some pocket rockets in the past; cars like the Michael Schumacher Fiat Seicento and Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari offered far more petrolhead appeal. They brought handling and fun to the party, and the idea that Ferrari’s F1 team had a hand in developing the cars that were available in (relatively) affordable packages, so what on earth made them think a red SUV sends the same message?

"Look it's red inside, just like Lewis' MP4-12C, what does Seb drive, a Renault?"

Follow us on Twitter, here.
Join the ZA Car Show fan page on Facebook, here.

Perhaps you are lucky enough to own a Ferrari and perhaps you thought that the F430′s 4.3 V8 still lacked some poke? If you were in Europe or the USA, it would be easy power upgrade-deasy, just pop on over to an exhaust shop, find  a reputable tuner, hand over a huge wad of cash and you’d be going places a little quicker than you previously did.

Apart from it being black, it looks like a regular Ferrari F430.

South Africa on the other hand is a somewhat different kettle of fish. When it comes to supercars, agents hold tight reigns on the sale and service of these machines and so it makes finding something special like this all the more impressive. It’s good to know that at some point in the past couple of years, there was a South African brave enough to explore the realms of euro-tuned supercars and to him we salute. *salute*

The Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 gives the standard 4.3l V8 typically producing 360kW (483hp) @8500rpm and 465Nm (343lb-ft) of torque @5250rom a nice little bump up to 707hp or 520kW  @ 8350rpm and 712Nm @6300rpm with the help of twin-superchargers. That’s no fucking joke. Seriously. This particular one has ticked almost the entire Novitec catalogue off, wheels, brakes, interior, carbon bits everywhere… If 520Kw was too much the previous owner could have cocked about and just put in the 656hp SuperSport upgrade or gone with an exhaust like most Ferrari owners. Nah, notafuck, this guy went the whole hog; all in; the whole enchilada; all chips on black; and he did it so you don’t have to. It’s for sale at a dealership in Fourways, Johannesburg, RSC Auto for around the same price as what you would pay for a regular F430 of the same vintage ZAR2 100 000. You won’t find many trick Ferraris like this, this side of the UAE. We suspect that an upgrade like this cost no less than R1 000 000 and so to us, this car sounds like the bargain of the decade (and a little bit more special than that boring old red Ferrari you see at show meets)

Click on these words for a link to the original advert.

Just in case you were wondering how fast a Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 is, it’s quite a lot quicker than a Ferrari Enzo

Follow us on Twitter, here.
Join the ZA Car Show fan page on Facebook, here.

64kbps stream

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Two’s company and this week, our second show of 2012 it’s Trevor van de Ven and Christo van Gemert that keep you company while chatting about cars, some good and some bad. There’s a slew of new BMW engines destined for the BMW 1-Series (international markets only at this stage), which get’s our Captain Consumption aflutter with excitement, were still not quite sure why. BMW has also announced that it will be launching an M Performance series which will be more dedicated than simply adding an M-Sports pack to your Beemer, while being not quite as hardcore as BMW’s M cars. Why, well you’ll have to listen, won’t you? Christo van Gasoline reports back from the Abarth 500 launch that he attended recently and the two round off the show with a review of the Audi TT-RS and Mitsubusi’s Titanic Triton.

We dont have a picture of the engines so an image of the new M-Sport pack for the 1-Series will have to do. Can you spot the add-ons?

You think we included a picture of Dr. Friedrich Nitschke, the President of BMW M Gmbh, because of that magnificent moustache? You'd be wrong, there is a car behind him, which is the only indication that we have at the moment of what the new M Performance cars will look like and the M550d X-Drive looks deceptively like full-blown M5 unless there's some sloppy PR going on here.

There's a sting in the tail of this little car. Click on the image to view a comprehensive gallery. You will be redirected, so right click the image and select "Open in new tab/window"

The one we had looked identical to this, red is certainly the best colour for this beast that out accelerates just about everything on the road. Hear what we think on the podcast. For a gallery, click on the image but be aware that you will be redirected away from this page. To stay here, right click on the image and select "Open in new Tab/Window"

There's nothing new here, it's a Mitsubishi Triton. We review it...

Episode 146 hi-fi download (22MB) 

Follow us on Twitter, here.
Join the ZA Car Show fan page on Facebook, here.

Earlier this week, as part of our 2012 social drive, we asked our Twitter followers what cars they’d like to see in this week’s Wallpaper Wednesday. We were overwhelmed by the sole – and speedy – response from @AlexDigsWilmot. He simply said, “Ferrari 288 GTO”.

So we dug deep and found some photos of this rather special car. See, this car on its own isn’t that noteworthy, but a quick history lesson shows how important it is in the development of the best Ferrari of them all: the F40. The 288 GTO had a 2.8-litre V8 with two turbochargers – a far cry from the 3-litre naturally aspirated V8 in the car it’s based on, the “Magnum” Ferrari 308.

In Ferrari nomenclature GTO stands for Gran Turismo (grand tourer, not the PlayStation game) Omologato  (homologation), and that’s what this car was. A homologation of the 308, designed to go racing in the then furiously competitive Group B. Porsche already had the 959 (racing as the Porsche 961), and Ferrari had to save face.

The engine produced 298kW (400hp) and 496Nm of torque. Plenty, even now. Its 300km/h top speed also made it the first street-legal production car to reach the triple ton. But none of the 272 cars ever raced, so they remained road cars. Instead, Ferrari jumped onto its next project, the 288 GTO Evoluzione (Evolution; no, not the Mitsubishi). Only three were built since the Evo was a test bed for what was to come in 1987 – see if you can spot all the visual similarities between it and the F40.

*All photos are property of their respective copyright holders. If you see a photo that is yours, please get in touch and we can credit you, or remove it from this posting.

Too many dials, gauges and buttons can be distracting. The new Ford Focus and Renault Megane both suffer from this – buttons, button everywhere!. Sometimes… simplicity is the best. And that’s the theme for this week’s selection of wallpapers. Something plain and elegant, where the objects of our automotive desire are the main focus.

*All photos are property of their respective copyright holders. If you see a photo that is yours, please get in touch and we can credit you, or remove it from this posting.