This promotional video showing driving scenes of the new Ferrari California GT (F149) appears to have been done with the Gran Turismo game engine. Watch the video along with a photo gallery of the Ferrari California after the jump. Click here to read the rest of Ferrari California GT CG driving footage
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The mysterious Ferrari that had been sighted on tracks like the Nurburgring had finally been revealed as the Ferrari California GT in May this year, and many photos have been released of the new GT convertible with a folding hard top.
After the jump you will find a few videos of the new Ferrari GT, including one showing how the folding hard top works. Click here to read the rest of F149 Ferrari California Videos
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Ferrari has released a couple more images of the new F149 Ferrari California GT car. This particular specimen is done up in Azzurro California blue, and this time the shots show the top in place, and half-open too. Look after the jump for more photos, including photos from the previous set, or read about the car’s technical details. Click here to read the rest of More photos of the Ferrari California F149 GT
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Ferrari has unveiled the name of the F149, and as expected its called the Ferrari California. Along with the name announcement, the boys at Maranello have released three photos of the car with its top down, which reveals that it is a convertible. The rear three quarter review also gives us a little glimpse of the car’s interior. It is a Grand Tourer car, with the engine mounted at the front.
The engine under the hood is a 4.3 liter V8 engine making 460 PS at 7,500rpm, which is quite an impressive state of tune because as compared to BMW’s new V8 in the M3, the Ferrari engine produces a similiar horsepower to liter ratio but achieves the horsepower at about 1,000rpm lower. Other neat tricks Ferrari has used to extract the most power out of this engine include direct injection and a “flat crankshaft”.
I’m not completely sure what that is at the moment, but with some Googling I found out apparently a flat crankshaft in a V8 usually refers to a flat-plane crankshaft as opposed to a cross-plane crankshaft with throws spaced 180 degrees apart rather than a cross-plane’s 90 degree spaced throws. This results in a sound that is smoother and of a higher pitch than a typical V8 rumble.
This engine is mated to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission, the first production usage of a dual clutch gearbox in a Ferrari! No shift times have been revealed, but expect this to be known later when the full details about the car is released. What is revealed is the car’s 0 to 100km/h time, which is said to be under 4 seconds.
The Ferrari California also has Ferrari’s F1-Trac traction control system, tuned for a typical GT car’s driving conditions. The rear suspension uses a new multilink setup. Brakes are Brembos featuring carbon-ceramic discs as standard equipment. It is available with a convertible hard top only, with no current plans for a roofed coupe.
More details to be published as they are revealed, but for the moment check out the two more photos of the car after the jump. Check out the rear exhaust design in particular, they look like they took a page out of the Lexus IS-F’s book. Click here to read the rest of F149 GT revealed to be new Ferrari California!
Ferrari S.P.A. filed a trademark application back in late 2006 which may give us a clue to the name of the new Ferrari GT car. The registration for the name FERRARI GT CALIFORNIA was approved in the US sometime in February this year.
Some other new bits of unconfirmed info - according to a report by US magazine AutoWeek, the engine mounted at the front of the new F149 will be a 4.3 liter V8 based on the F430 engine’s block, but will feature direct injection, a new throttle body, new intake designs, new cylinder head designs, and a new valvetrain.
This should be exciting for those who love to take in technical bits of info about engines, and a contender for next year’s International Engine of The Year awards.
Source: USPTO, Registration Cert
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Ferrari puts up Ferrari F149 GT teaser site
Ferrari has set up a countdown site for its upcoming Ferrari F149 GT car with four sound clips and a promise for more details and photos to be revealed later.
From the sound clips we can guess that the new F149 will come with a V8 engine and will have a SuperFast2 computerised shifting transmission that can do shifts in about 60 milliseconds. You can hear the cogs swapping smoothly without much delay in the drive-by clips, and a V8 growl, likely a derivative of the F430’s 4.3 liter V8.
The GT car will have a front engine and power will go to the rear-wheels, and styling is expected to be inspired by its larger sibling the 612 Scaglietti. The teaser image above gives a shadowy preview of the rear brakelight cluster of the car.
The new Ferrari F149 GT car will be unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
Naza Italia Sdn Bhd was appointed as the sole importer for Ferrari cars in Malaysia, and will begin operations in April 2008. It plans to invest in 4S showrooms, with the first flagship showroom to begin operations by Q3 2008.
“A substantial amount of the investment will be allocated for customer relationship management, sales and after-sales services, training, branding and marketing activities. Naza Italia will be bringing to local customers the whole Ferrari line-up, ranging from the F430 range to the 599 GTB Fiorano (shown above) and the flagship 612 Scaglietti. Our existing automotive business has enabled us to build significant relationship with the niche market which is demanding access to high quality automobiles. Our mission is to provide an experience to the Malaysian market. We plan further enhancements with new additions, innovative facilities and services, all of which will significantly contribute to the success of Ferrari in Malaysia,” said Naza Italia Sdn Bhd CEO S. M. Faisal Tan Sri S.M. Nasimuddin, who is also the Executive Vice President of the Naza Group.
Ferrari’s communications director for Asia Pacific Mr Matteo Bonciani said Ferrari considered Malaysia as an important market, and that there were 1,054 units sold in Asia Pacific in 2007. He added that Naza had proven to be the premier distributor in Malaysia, which was why it was picked to be the new sole importer. The Ferrari business in Malaysia was previously handled by Next Car Sdn Bhd.
This is the most powerful tune-up of the Ferrari F430 from Novitec Rosso to date, and it is given the name F430 Race. We saw a 656 horsepower version just last year, but Novitec Rossi is back with a 707 horsepower monster thanks to the two superchargers slapped onto the Ferrari F430’s V8 engine. The 707 horses kicks in fully at 8,350rpm, while torque is rated at a peak of 712Nm at 6,300rpm, giving the Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 Race a 0 to 100km/h time of 3.5 seconds.
The 4.3 liter V8’s two belt-driven superchargers gets upgraded turbine vanes and boost upped to 0.48 bar, which seems rather low but already very decent for the engine thats been force induction, considering the high revs and the high compression ratio. The blown air gets cooled by water-cooled intercoolers, one for each supercharger. Air is sucked in via a new heat-insulated intake manifold with larger ports, and high-performance air filters. On the exhaust side, low-pressure performance catalysts and a high performance stainless-steel exhaust system designed by Novitec Rosso ensures minimal restrictions.
The car rides on 20 inch wheels instead of the standard 19 inchers, and the tyres used are 235/30ZR20 at the front and 325/25ZR20 at the rear from Pirelli. The suspension system is a Novitec Rosso system, which can be raised by 40mm at the push of a button to get past curbs, driveway entries and speed bumps. Once the speed goes past 80km/h, the suspension will lower back to its normal setting automatically, which is 35mm lower than the production F430. This means the car can be raised up to 5mm higher than a production F430.
Prices start at 193,277 Euros for the base version. For existing Ferrari F430 owners, a conversion kit is priced at 51,260 Euros.
Look at more photos after the jump, and also a video featuring the previous F430 tune-up which produces 656 horses. Click here to read the rest of Novitec Rosso Ferrari F430 Race
The latest Ferrari FXX incarnation is the Ferrari FXX Evoluzione, an upgrade of the original Ferrari FXX, the company’s track car program for its cream of the crop buyers. Like the FXX, it is not homologated for road use thus cannot be registered.
The original FXX’s 6.2 liter V12 engine now puts out 860 horsepower at 9,500rpm, a solid 1,000rpm higher than the original engine. The F1 gearbox’s gear shifts now take only 60ms, a drop of 20ms, and naturally the gear ratios have been adjusted to match the engine’s new wider rev range.
The Ferrari FXX Evoluzione’s traction control system now has 9 settings including off. These were developed with the GES Racing Division engineers. This allows the car’s track behaviour to be changed according to the different positions on the track you are on, something Formula 1 drivers do.
A new front suspension design allows the Bridgestone custom made 19 inch tyres to last longer, as if money is a huge problem when are amongst the only 20 clients in the world who get to drive this car, including Michael Schumacher.
More photos after the jump. Click here to read the rest of Ferrari FXX Evoluzione - the ultimate track car?
The latest member of the Ferrari 430 family was announced earlier this week, and now you get to hear the sweet sound of it’s engine! Have a look after the jump. Click here to read the rest of Ferrari 430 Scuderia Video
