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25th Annual Concorso Italiano: Ferrari F40 Featured
August 13, 2010
J.J. Carlson – Director of Media Relations
Monterey, Calif. – After a very successful event in 2009, it was no surprise that 2010 would also take place at the lucious Laguna Seca Golf Ranch off highway 68. The rolling green hills and valley overview proved to be an excellent landscape for this bright ensemble of automobiles. I was delighted to see the Ferrari F40 as a featured car this year, as it has been one of my favorites for a long time. At 2400lb and 470 bhp, this really is a true super car – basically a race car for the street. The compact 2.9L twin-turbo V8 is light and spins up to 7000rpm quicky, despite some marginal turbo lag. The body is a composite of kevlar, carbon and aluminum. My favorite thing about the F40 is that it’s all business. Dare I say that it is even “plain”. Nice simple interior and dash. Nothing but seats, steering wheel and 5-speed stick at your disposal – this is no luxury car, it’s a go-kart with 470 bhp! About a dozen F40’s showed up this year, not that different from the number of 288 GTO’s from 2009. Of course the F40’s were great, but there was also much more to see. This year celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Alfa-Romeo. There were many fine examples which reminds me of last year where the three B.A.T. cars were on display. There were also many other examples from Lamborghini, Maserati, Fiat, Lancia, and DeTomaso. Even a 1969 Bizzarrini Manta in a tealish shell. There was a bit of everything, exotics as well as classics, the best of the old and the new. One that garnered a lot of attention was a 2008 Ferrari SP-1 or Special Project-1. Imagine going to Ferrari and asking them to make you a car to fit your personal tastes. I don’t mean choosing colors or options for a model, I mean making a new car entirely. This is exactly what a Japanese businessman did and the SP-1 is the result. It is a one-off custom Ferrari. Although similar to the F430, the SP-1 has a custom chassis and body. Unfortunately, there were no performance specs listed, but even so it took top honors and was “Best of Show”. Another modern marvel was the debut of the Zagato-penned Perana Z-One. The Z-One is powered by an aluminum 6.2L V8 developing 440 bhp, which seems Corvette-ish to me. It utilizes a steel tube frame and has a composite body. It’s the first low volume commercial vehicle designed by Zagato. Sales will be limited to approximately 999 in Europe and 99 vehicles per year in the US. The cost? – $50,000 Euros. All will be manufactured in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Overall, the 2010 Concorso Italiano had a lot to offer. There were nearly a thousand great cars and even some motorcycles if you’re into that sort of thing – me, of course not J. The sun was shining and the colors were vibrant. Hope to see you there in 2011, 2010 was a blast.
Photos accompanying this article>>
Click on any of the following photos to go to the complete photo Gallery of images shot by the NAACC photographer Cam Hutchins
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