Ferrari 458 Italia Spider

The possibility of the Ferrari 458 Italia Spider sporting a folding hardtop roof has already become a topic of widespread and serious debate. Ferrari boss Lucas di Montezemolo though has confirmed the existence of the 458 Italia Spider but has never spent any word on whether the Spider would sport a folding hardtop, which is further reason for the debate to continue unabated.
The first racing car with the Prancing Horse up front to have a folding hard top was the Ferrari California. The F430 Spider was later outfitted with a soft top so as to save weight with its high performance variant the Scuderia 16M too being meted out the same treatment later on. While this also allowed for the engine to be visible at all times top up or down position, the addition of the hard top to the 458 Italia would certainly rob the car of this feature.
The hard top feature however adds to security as well as comfort that’s lacking with a soft top. A hardtop also adds a touch of solidity to the lines of the car when it is up, something that’s never to be taken lightly for a marquee as image conscious as Ferrari. This would also add credibility to the spy images of the hard top F430 Spider that had been flashed way back in the 2008. Previous versions were more focused towards weight and space saving techniques which the soft top offered while now it has been performance oriented designs that holds sway. The hardtop all in all goes well on the California and Ferrari has the options open for switching over to the soft top version for the Scuderia model of the 458 Italia Spider.

VIDEO: Pensioner Takes the (Parking) Law(s) Into his own Hands

In what looks like a low budget recreation of Marvin Heemeyer's notorious bulldozer rampage through a small Colorado town, an 83yo pensioner in the UK has been caught on CCTV ramming two other vehicles out of the way with his Peugeot after their driver's imprudently parked them in front of his garage.


The Telegraph newspaper reports that the Bristol resident, Ronald Pemberton, was taken to court over the matter and found guilty by the Bristol Magistrates Court. Nicholas Rowland, the Court Recorder, banned Pemberton from driving for 12 months and order he pay over £1,900 in fines, court costs and compensation.

Recorder Rowland had this to say to Mr. Pemberton after delivering his verdict:

"It is an expensive lesson for you. I hope you will think long and hard before you do anything like this again. No doubt you were severely irritated with the long-existing parking problem. It's very sad to see somebody of your age in court at all but I'm afraid you can't go taking the law into your own hands."

Sarah Regan, the prosecuting lawyer, added:

"The way you deal with it is to leave a note on the windscreen and have a word when [the drivers] come back. You don't use your car to move it."

Mr. Pemberton had rented the garage, located near his home and across from a local school, for the past twenty years. His lawyer argued that he had never had problems with the police, and it was only after he grew increasingly frustrated by people parking in front of his garage that he took this drastic course of action.

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FAIL: 2 Fast, 2 Furious Lancer Evo VII Breaks Free Of Dyno In Peurto Rico [Video]

Dynamometers, or dynos for short, are a useful tool in any racer’s arsenal. By applying some basic physical principles, a dyno can calculate the amount of horsepower and torque being transferred from the wheels to the track, without ever needing to leave the safety of the garage.
So here’s the scoop (according to the posters): some students at Mech-Tech College in Ponce, Puerto Rico were putting a Lancer Evolution VII through its paces on the school’s dyno, when disaster struck. Everything seems normal until 16 seconds in, when the Lancer careens to the left and slides off. Of course, it was all captured on video for our edification.

According to the EvolutionM forum, the vehicle was improperly strapped down. It has something to do with the fitting of a Blow Off Valve (BOV) dump tube which changes the way the vehicle behaves both on the track...and on the dyno. Of course, nobody seems to have taken this into account when tying the Evo down.

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