By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Someone asked me if the ASI F430 Ferrari is really going to happen. The answer: YES IT IS! I really like the guys over at ASI and they’ve become friends of mine after having our demo cars side by side two years in a row at Toyo’s booth at SEMA. I’m glad (and still a little surprised) to say that we have a mutual respect for each other (gaining their respect seemed like an impossible thing to me since the level of the game they play at is so off the charts). After them pulling me aside at Tokyo Auto Salon and saying that they liked my cars and wanted my input on their future designs, I pretty much didn’t care what happened the rest of TAS…that moment made my trip. I love guys that push the envelope and whether you love or hate their Testsu GTR Bentley, that car embodies creativity, quality, art and function. ASI is slowly starting to become a company I idolize and if they score a huge win with the F430 then they’ve got my heart for good.

Continue reading after the jump!

ASI F430 Concept 1

Continue reading "ASI Ferrari F430 Project: Two Concepts" »

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

We bring you guys lots of pictures involving wrecked cars, so it’s occasionally inevitable that one of those pictures will be attached to a tragic story. On Wednesday the 11th in the early morning hours, Charles “Mask” Lewis of MMA fame died when his Ferrari 360 struck a white Porsche. The impact was so hard that the Ferrari was split in two, ejecting his female passenger into the street. The Newport Ca. police department thinks the two cars were side by side when the accident occured, but are still unclear as to whether they were racing. The driver of the white Porsche and his female passenger did flee the scene, abandoning the car on a side street. They were later caught and the driver, Jeffery Kirby, is being held on drunk-driving charges with bail set at 2 million dollars. For more on the story click here.

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

Growing up in Washington, it’s not uncommon for a car enthusiast to have a winter car–but I’m beginning to see an unsettling trend. It started with the dirty GT-R that Weston spotted here in Seattle. Next was the winter-rat GT-R spotted in Massachusetts.  Well, this Seattlelite has stepped up his game in a major way: how about a Ferrari F430 Scuderia!

Continue reading "What's Up With These Winter Cars?" »

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Just look at that wing. I’ve never seen anything like it on a street car. Talk about overkill on the stands! Pic was taken from my 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon collection.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

And send it to the junkyard already…

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Check out this cool Flash technology that lets you scroll around inside a Ferrari F430 Spider Scuderia 16M. Just click the pic!

FerrariWorld via Jalopnik

This weekend is SeaFair, the Emerald City’s annual celebration of summer. The festivities involve a performance by the Blue Angels, and right now their F-18 Hornets are practicing over the city. While I really, truly, love watching fighter planes, seeing these babies ripping up the skies over Seattle always makes me realize how terrifying it would be if they were hostile. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Ferrari has denied that Michael Schmacher was behind the wheel during the recent wreck of a F430 prototype at the ‘Ring, but there’s no doubt that the van he was driving nailed a pedestrian on Sunday. The man wasn’t seriously hurt, and Schmacher was reportedly pissed at him for getting in the way. Classy. Daily Mail via Jalopnik
• Now, on the surface, letting anyone who can pay take a high-powered sports car out on to the road unsupervised seems like a great idea. But after one of its rental ‘Vettes smashed into a Dallas restaurant, the folks at Hertz might be able to point out some possible snags in that otherwise perfect plan. Winding Road
• High gas prices have caused SUV sales to stall—some dealers are even refusing to take them as trade-ins—but are these road monsters really dead? One writer seems to think so, and he couldn’t be happier. San Francisco Chronicle
• While rubble from a Dallas restaurant is pretty unusual stuff to find in a rental car, this list of weird items forgotten upon return is awesome. A half pint of beer and an instructional CD called the art of Speed Seduction? That combination has success written all over it! CarScoop

More than any of the cars on the Bullrun, the Team Angry Ferrari is the one I wanted to stay absolutely free of mechanical issues. Mike had said we were going to do a leg in the Italian Stallion, and its owner, Todd, even said he’d let me drive. So I have to admit I was kind of crushed when it started developing clutch issues after a couple of autocross runs. Every time Todd dropped the paddles into first, the car would stall, and while it did smell a little clutchy, Ferrari reps suggested the issue might be able to be solved by rebooting the tranny’s ECU. Unfortunately, even after Mike’s copilot Pete popped the tranny’s fuse, the problem persisted. The good news is that with a little push, Todd was able to keep the car from stalling, and he managed to drive all the way back to the hotel without stopping . But the bad news is that it looks like the F430 is going down to the Ferrari dealership in Vegas for some repairs. God, I hope it makes it back to the rally. Stay tuned.

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In this case VIP stands for Vehicle Identification Passport. It’s the book that Ferrari gives to new owners, and includes photos of their particular car as it works its way through the assembly line. Jalem included scans from his VIP book on his F430 ride page. You can see the rest of the pages of the book after the jump. Wouldn’t it be cool if all manufacturers did this?

Continue reading "Ferrari VIP" »

All of the games in the Gran Turismo series have been super popular, and from the looks of this trailer, the fifth installment should be a total blast. One big complaint die-hard fans have had with the series—the lack of damage modeling—has been fixed, and graphics look so good, it almost makes you wonder why you can’t smell any exhaust. Of course, there’s a laundry list of different cars available to flog—check out some of the superstars starring in the preview below. The prologue—which doesn’t have all the features the full version will contain—will be released on April 28th, with the complete game to follow in the next 12 months. Get more details over at Winding Road.