The Ferrari 599XX has become the first ever production-derived sports car to break the 7-minute barrier on the classic Nürburgring Nordschleife 20.832 km circuit, lapping in a time of 6 min 58.16 sec.
The new record was set on 21 April 2010 with Ferrari road car test driver Raffaele de Simone behind the wheel, beating a time of 6 minutes 58.5 seconds set by German Touring Car Driver Florian Gruber in another Ferrari 599XX. These times are both faster than Ferrari 312T Formula One car driven by Niki Lauda in a time of 6 minutes 58.6 seconds that put the Austrian legend on pole position for the 1975 Grand Prix , the best ever time for an F1 car on the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit … Details
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A replica of the Ferrari 250GT Spyder California specially created for the 1986 Paramount hit film ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ sold at Bonhams Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia auction yesterday for a fantastic £79,600 – double its pre-sale estimate of £30,000-40,000. However, the top lot of the sale was a 1938 SS Jaguar 2½-litre Drophead Coupé which sold for an outstanding £100,500.
Despite current travel problems, the sale was a great success and made £1,313,000 with the cars selling 93% by lot and 97% by value. There were a high number of telephone bids and some attendees showed great tenacity overcoming transport difficulties with one visitor driving all the way from Italy … Details
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The Porsche 959 was never meant to come to America. In fact, it wasn’t even meant to be a car, really.
Built to showcase Porsche’s stature as a world leader in automotive technology, the Porsche 959 utilized every ounce of brilliance within Porsche R&D when it appeared as the “Gruppe B” at the 1983 Frankfurt Auto Show. It left behind the traditional engineering of the Porsche 911 (which still showed evidence of the Volkswagen Beetle) and embraced the future: a turbocharged, liquid-cooled flat-6, six-speed transmission, all-wheel drive, double-wishbone suspension and even run-flat tires … Details & Pictures
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Coming off the best finish for the Doran Racing Rolex Series team in five years, drivers Memo Gidley and Dion VonMoltke are eager to take things to another level at this weekend’s Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway.
The No. 77 McDonald’s Doran placed fourth at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this month, and Gidley is hopeful of building on that. “There is nothing like a good finish to pump everybody up … Details & Pictures
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