The Demo Site

Ross Brawn, who joined the Honda F1 team as Technical Director in 2007 after an extremely successful stint across the paddock at Ferrari, has said that the now-ownerless ex-Honda F1 team he manages would like to ink a deal with its Italian competitor for engines to power its Formula 1 racers. Now that Honda has officially pulled its factory support from the program, the team will need a good, reliable powerplant if it has any chance remaining competitive, and Ferrari already supplies engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso and Force India in addition to its own Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro factory effort.

Regardless of what powerplant Brawn's team chooses, it isn't likely to get an early shot at testing. At this point, the team is just looking to stay on the track as it attempts to find itself a new buyer and any success found on the track for the '09 season would just be icing on the cake. Thanks for the tip, Eric!

[Source: F1 Fanatic - Photo: Tim Wang CC 2.0]

Pininfarina Sintesi

It's been a rough few years for Italy's coachbuilders, and times aren't getting any easier. Bertone almost went under before a rescue plan was approved by the courts at the eleventh hour, and now Pininfarina is poised to follow them down the same path. Drowning in nearly €600 million in debt, Pininfarina is set to shut down its contract manufacturing operations and concentrate on its own electric vehicle initiative while the family loses control of its company to the banks.

Although contract manufacturing once constituted the lion's share of business for outfits like Pininfarina, those times are long gone. Pininfarina still makes the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet for Ford and the Brera and Spider for Alfa Romeo, but at levels hovering around a quarter of anticipated output. Instead, the design house will refocus on its joint production of the Bzero electric vehicle with Bollore, targeted to hit the market in 2010-11. Meanwhile, the grandchildren of Battista "Pinin" Farina - recently lead by Andrea Pininfarina (until his death in a tragic accident in August) and now led by his brother Paolo - will transfer 50.4 percent ownership to its creditors in exchange for a €180 million reduction of its debt, to be followed by a further reduction of €70 million in exchange for rights to the name. The family, meanwhile, will retain only 4.5 percent stake in the namesake company, with the remaining shares publicly traded (including some held by Enzo's son Piero Ferrari and some by Tata). The banks, however, will seek no management changes or board seats in exchange for the controlling interest.

It's no news that business has been tough for Italy's most vaunted design studios and coachbuilders. But that hasn't stopped Bertone from hiring Jason Castriota as its new design director. Castriota has spent the past several years at arch-rival Pininfarina, where he worked on such projects as the Maserati Birdcage concept and GranTurismo, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, custom P4/5 and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion one-off, before leaving with the aim of starting his own studio. But as the Italian-American stylist says himself, Bertone "made me an offer I couldn't refuse".

Castriota, 34, will head a young design team at the resurgent Bertone, starting immediately. He'll have his work cut out for him bringing the stoic design house back to its feet following its brush with bankruptcy, and we'll be looking forward to seeing what he has in store for us.

[Source: CarDesignNews]

Trying to figure out what to do during the last few minutes before you log out and head home? You're in luck. Ferrari has just launched its online configurator for the new Ferrari California.

The Ferrari California comes in over 27 exterior colors, 12 different leather options, three different wheel styles and five difference brake caliper color choices. There are over 4,860 combination choices.

Head over to the Ferrari California site to play around and let us know you favorite combo in the comments section below.

Still bored - check out our photo gallery of the Ferrari California from the 2008 LA Auto Show after the jump.

When you first look at this picture, you might believe it was taken on the set of a new Taxi movie, with producers deciding to replace the Peugeot with a Ferrari Enzo. But that would be completely wrong, because the photo was taken in Muscat, Oman (Middle East). That's the part of the world where money's not an issue. But of course, that doesn't mean we're not curios how much a ride in that costs, considering the car is currently worth at least $1,000,000.

Source: Flickr (Via Autoblog)

The impressive Ferrari FXX was built by the Italian carmaker for track-use only, but it looks like the German tuner Edo Competition thought about all those people wanting to be able to drive the car on any street and came up with a program for the car, program which they claim makes the FXX comply to every German law. The program includes new windshield, hand brake, new suspension plus a new exhaust system that allows the supercar to meet all emissions standards. No mention on the price, but we suspect it's not going to be pretty.

Photo Gallery: Ferrari FXX by Edo Competition

Also, there's a video of the car, available after the jump.

Source: Edo Competition (Autoblog)