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    Ferrari Let Lego In on the Development of the Daytona SP3

    • The Daytona SP3 is the latest Ferrari model Lego’s brought to its Technic line.• The miniature Ferrari features functioning doors, working shift paddles, and a V-12 engine with moving cylinders.• The 3778-piece set is priced at $400.At nearly two feet long and awash in a sea of red and rubber, all of the moving parts in Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3 are hard to notice at first. This is not some convenience store die-cast replica of the limited-run 829-hp Daytona SP3, but a model marketed under Lego’s Technic line. As such, this miniature Ferrari has to do more than just look good on a shelf (though it does that, too); it also has to help its builder understand the engineering that resides beneath its plastic-brick shell. And to teach those lessons, Lego had to design a bunch of new parts.

    Lego

    In celebration of Lego’s 90th anniversary, we met with Technic designers at the brand’s headquarters in Denmark to talk about the moving parts behind the prancing horse decals. From the start of the two-year-long project, Lego knew the Dayton SP3 set would be one of the most challenging to date. And that didn’t account for the COVID-19 pandemic making it difficult for Lego’s team to travel to Maranello, Italy, to see the full-size Daytona SP3. In fact, Ferrari’s designers were tweaking the car at the same time Lego was trying to make a replica of it.

    Ferrari Daytona SP3

    lego
    lego.com

    $399.99

    “So many times you spend two to three weeks on a small detail and [Ferrari] said ‘Yes, it’s good,’” Aurelien Rouffiange said. “And then the week after, ‘By the way, we changed it. It’s not like that anymore,’ and then you have to go back and do something new.”

    Lego

    Rouffiange served as the model lead and senior designer for the 1:8-scale Daytona SP3. Previously, he worked on Lego’s interpretations of the Bugatti Chiron and Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. You assemble the Lego set in a similar schedule that Ferrari builds the Daytona. First, the V-12 engine, eight-speed gearbox, and rear suspension, then you move on to the front suspension and steering. You finish up with the red body panels that give the model the organic flow of the real car, which takes its design cues from the sumptuous lines of the Ferraris that won the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race.

    Lego

    Despite relying on a handful of specially developed pieces, Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3 shares a number of other features with the Danish toymaker’s other sets. The small Ferrari’s tires spin; its steering wheel turns; and its hood, doors, and trunk open. While Lego’s team tells us the car’s butterfly doors required a bit more thought to bring to life, they say it was the Daytona SP3’s targa roof that was a particularly big challenge, as it threatened the model’s structural capability. “Technic is known for strong models that do not fall apart easily,” Rouffiange said. “But here the roof can be removed, and usually [the roof] helps us add a lot of stability. But the way this model is assembled, you can hold the car with one hand, from the front or rear, and it will not bend at all.”

    Lego

    Lego ultimately created 12 new parts during the development of the Daytona SP3 Technic kit. This included aesthetic pieces, such as the model’s exterior panels and wheels, as well as more mechanical ones, including new plastic gears designed to improve the functional feel of the scaled-down Ferrari’s moving parts. Even a part as simple as the wheels proved a challenge, as the real Daytona SP3’s wheels are asymmetrical in order to better manage airflow. Due to this, Lego had to design two versions of the same wheels (a set for the left side and another for the right) to ensure its model kept true to the real car.

    Lego

    Like the real Daytona SP3, the Technic car features paddle shifters mounted aft of its steering wheel. Though such a shifting mechanism may be common across the automotive industry, it’s less so among Lego models. Tapping the paddles works through the model’s eight gears, and like a real car, each cog affects the top speed of Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3. You can even see the mechanical motions at work, from the spinning of the model’s plastic gears to the up and down motions of its mid-mounted engine’s pistons.Such authenticity doesn’t come cheap, and the Lego Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3 stickers for $400. The set is currently available through Lego’s website or at its stores, with retail sales set to begin on August 1.

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    Ford Testing Robotic EV Charging as Aid for Disabled Drivers

    Ford is working on a robotic charging station that could help disabled drivers with the electric-vehicle charging process.The robots are custom-made by Dortmund University in Germany but are just a research project at the moment.Ford claims that developing the system could lead to more powerful charging to reduce overall charge times in the future.Many of us often forget as able-bodied people that for significant portions of the population, daily tasks such as filling up a gas tank, or getting an electric vehicle plugged and unplugged at a charging station, can be difficult or impossible. Ford is testing a robotic charging station that would allow drivers to park near the robot, as at any other pump or charger, and allow the camera-guided robot to guide itself into the charge port.
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    The automaker also mentioned a study in Europe that showed 61 percent of disabled drivers would only buy an EV if it were made easier to charge. Ford says its robotic charging station could potentially be installed in parking ramps, installed in disabled parking spaces, used to power fleets, or be installed at customers’ homes. It’s a research project for now, but Ford intends to do a “follow-up project” with Ionity, a European charging network, to make further improvements to the idea, and that sounds promising. It’s not the first effort by an automaker to roboticize the charging process. A company called EV Safe Charge is working to deploy a robot charging station named Ziggy to dominate EV charging in parking ramps. Unlike the Ford, Ziggy does not have the ability to plug in or out on its own. And both Tesla (with a metal “snake charger”) and Volkswagen have piloted similar robotic setups in the past.”Looking ahead, the process could become fully automated, with minimal or no driver involvement,” said Ford. “The driver would simply send the vehicle to the charging station, with the infrastructure ensuring it reaches and returns from its destination autonomously.” Although the automaker makes it clear that this is not intended for production and sale, it does show the focus is on making the EV operation process more accessible to more future customers.

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    1941 Ford COE Truck Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

    • This 1941 Ford COE flatbed truck powered by a 454 Chevy big-block engine is up for auction on Bring a Trailer.• The V-8 engine is mounted behind the stubby cabin and routes its power through a three-speed automatic transmission to the rear wheels.• The green-and-white paint job is echoed by the interior color scheme, and bidding ends in six days.Many of the Bring a Trailer auctions that we highlight on Car and Driver take the form of track-focused supercars like a low-mile 2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring or a Martini-liveried 1985 Ferrari 308GTB. While you could easily tow your track-day toy to the racing circuit with any number of modern pickup trucks or SUVs, why not also have a little fun on the commute to the race course? This 1941 Ford COE flatbed truck could provide just that, with power coming from a 454 big-block Chevy V-8 engine, and this unique hauler is up for auction at Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

    Bring a Trailer

    While the body of this cab-over-engine truck comes from a 1941 Ford, the flatbed is mostly Chevrolet underneath, with the cab mounted onto a “later model” one-ton Chevy frame, according to the listing. The engine also hails from Ford’s crosstown rival, and the 454 Chevy big-block V-8 is fitted with an Edelbrock carburetor and intake manifold and is mated to a three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission that routes power to the rear wheels. We imagine this truck wouldn’t necessarily be quick, especially when loaded up with a sports car on its bed, but the 7.4-liter beast of an engine, which resides under a diamond-plate cover behind the cabin, should sound pretty epic.

    Bring a Trailer

    The Ford cab is also beautifully finished, painted in a pale green, and accented by an off-white trim piece that runs up the sides of the grille and beneath the windows. The truck is full of neat retro design cues, from the single yellow-tinted fog light to the split windshield and the stubby cab-over proportions that were more common on trucks of the 1940s and 1950s. The 1941 Ford rides on 16-inch chrome wheels that hide power-assisted front disc brakes and rear drum brakes. The immaculate wood-plank bed floor features bright metal strips, and storage boxes are mounted along the side of the truck.

    The interior is also very green, with seats decked out in green upholstery and white piping to match the exterior. The dashboard is simple with only a couple of gauges, and the shift knob is styled to look like an old-school metal microphone. While the truck looks to be in spiffing condition, it might take a bit of work to turn it into a transporter. A ramp is needed to load a car onto the flatbed, and some hooks would need to be installed to tie down the load, but it wouldn’t be too hard to get it ready to haul. But even if you don’t end up using this 1941 Ford to carry your 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition to the racetrack, it is sure to turn heads while you cruise down the boulevard on a Saturday night. Bidding currently sits at $25,000 with six days remaining before the auction ends on Thursday, July 28.

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    Maserati MC20 Morphs into 740-Horsepower Project24 Track Weapon

    The Maserati Project24 is a track-only supercar based on the MC20, and just 62 examples will be built.The MC20’s Nettuno 3.0-liter V-6 engine has been tuned to make 740 horsepower, a 119-hp increase, thanks to a pair of new turbochargers.The Project24 makes its track focus clear with a carbon fiber body and monocoque, FIA-grade roll cage, ventilated Brembo brakes, and slick racing tires. The 2022 Maserati MC20 heralds a rejuvenation for Maserati, bringing a svelte supercar design and a new twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 engine to a brand which has languished in recent years with a dated lineup and parts-bin sharing with lesser Stellantis marques. The MC20 also boasts impressive performance, with the Nettuno V-6 pumping out 621 horsepower and propelling the Italian beauty to 60 mph in a mere 3.2 seconds en route to a 202 mph top speed. But the MC20 is about to get even more extreme, with Maserati announcing the Project24, a track-exclusive supercar based on the MC20 and sporting a wild, sharp-edged design.

    Maserati

    The Project24 is built around a carbon fiber monocoque, with the aggressive bodywork also fashioned from carbon fiber. So far Maserati has only shown three rendered images, which reveal the Project24’s towering rear wing, ankle-slicing front splitter, and thin LED headlights and taillights. There is also a boxy rear diffuser, center-mounted dual exhaust pipes, and plenty of scoops and vents carved into the slinky two-door body. While the Project24 packs the same Nettuno 3.0-liter V-6 as the MC20, new turbochargers boost horsepower to a whopping 740 ponies, a 119-hp increase. The MC20’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission is traded for a six-speed sequential racing gearbox operated via paddle shifters, and there is also a mechanical limited-slip differential in place of the MC20’s electronically controlled unit. Like the MC20, the Project24 will be rear-wheel drive, and Maserati is aiming to keep the dry weight below 2755 pounds, making it about 500 pounds lighter than the claimed dry weight for the MC20.

    Maserati

    The Project24 will also be about two inches wider than its road-going counterpart, and will ride on 18-inch forged aluminum wheels wrapped in slick racing tires. Ventilated Brembo brakes should provide immense stopping power, while an unequal-length control arm suspension with adjustable dampers and front and rear anti-roll bars should make the Project24 nimble on track. The Project24 is designed in accordance with FIA safety requirements, with a roll cage fitted inside the cabin. The interior will also include racing seats with six-point harnesses, an adjustable peddle box and steering column, and a carbon-fiber steering wheel with an integrated display. Owners will also have the option to add a rear-view camera, in-car camera, tire-pressure monitoring system, and telemetry recording. Surprisingly for a track car focused on minimizing weight, the Project24 will come with air conditioning. Maserati says it will build just 62 units of the Project24, with no timeline specified for its release. All we have right now are these renders, but real-world images and more details should be revealed in due course.
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    2025 Cadillac Celestiq, a Dramatic EV Flagship, Is a Bid to Return to Standard of the World Turf

    The Cadillac Celestiq concept has been unveiled as a dramatically styled hatchback sedan with futuristic lines and features, yet full of nods to the brand’s history.An all-wheel-drive electric powertrain will be standard; it uses General Motors’ Ultium battery technology.The production Celestiq will be built—by hand—in limited quantities at GM’s Warren, Michigan, Technical Center, and buyers will be able to customize the car any way they like.Cadillac has revealed its most ambitious project in modern times, the Celestiq concept sedan. The concept previews a production model that will serve as the brand’s halo model in its EV era. Cadillac has pinned high hopes on the Celestiq, which was designed from the outset to live up to the brand’s now obscure Standard of the World slogan from way last century.
    But the Celestiq is not a mass-market sedan in the vein of the now discontinued CT6. Nor is it a merely a generously equipped EV meant to challenge the Lucid Air or the Mercedes-Benz EQS—although it is that, too. Cadillac is taking a page from the Rolls-Royce playbook and will employ a small team of craftspeople to hand-build each Celestiq onsite at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.This isn’t going to be the first hand-built Cadillac, but the Celestiq will be the first production vehicle built on the company’s engineering and design campus since the property was built in 1956. GM says it’s investing $81 million to retrofit a low-volume assembly line for the Celestiq inside an existing building on the campus grounds. The production version of the Celestiq is expected to debut as a 2025 model. It is a pleasant surprise that, according to Cadillac, the concept you see here is essentially production intent.Modern Design with Vintage RootsCadillac’s designers and engineers chose to mold the Celestiq into a four-door sedan rather than an SUV, a deliberate decision that underscores the car’s retro-future motif. Throughout the design you’ll find a number of clues to Cadillac’s past, including an image of the brand’s Flying Goddess hood ornament from the 1940s carved into frosted glass trim on the car’s front quarter-panels.

    The Celestiq’s long hood, sloping roof, and hatchback-style rear end give it a sleek silhouette, and although it shares some design themes with the Lyriq SUV—namely the grille and hockey-stick-shaped taillamps—it manages to look completely original. The two Cadillac EVs were penned by the same designer, Magalie Debellis, who told Car and Driver that the first version of the Celestiq’s design was striking enough to cause GM leadership to fall in love with the car. Perhaps it was the emotional connection that helped get the Celestiq greenlit as Cadillac’s next flagship sedan, but it took a team effort to pull it off.”It helps the entire company and engineering to work collaboratively with design to really make the car become a true story,” Debellis said.
    That collaboration is expected to pay off in more ways than one, according to chief engineer Tony Roma. Building to the Celestiq’s unique design required some innovative engineering, which he said will trickle down through the Cadillac lineup moving forward.

    The Celestiq’s luggage compartment, for example, is open to the rear seats without a bulkhead; this created the issue of how to reduce road noise from entering the passenger compartment, which Roma’s team had to solve to keep the designers’ vision intact. Luckily, the electric powertrain—which utilizes GM’s Ultium battery technology—eliminates the traditional burble of a gasoline engine, allowing engineers to focus on dampening other noises instead. High-Tech Meets High-EndThe Celestiq’s cabin is the place where digital and analog mingle the most. A 55-inch curved display stretches across the car’s dashboard from A-pillar to A-pillar, but it’s accented by interior details seemingly pulled directly from 1960s and 1970s Cadillac sedans, including high-pile carpeted floor mats, a large-diameter steering wheel with metal accents, and the show car’s signature bright-red leather upholstery.
    The four-seat interior is spacious and quite grand, to say the least. Each of the seats is modeled after the famed Eames chairs of the 1950s, with decorative bent-wood backings that wrap around to the sides to create a streamlined appearance. Sprouting from the bent-wood panels on each of the front seats is a large entertainment display for the rear passengers. A full-length center console runs the entirety of the Celestiq’s cabin, and a smaller display mounted between the two rear passengers provides similar access to the car’s infotainment and navigation systems that is afforded to front-seat occupants. The aforementioned trunk is lined with matching red leather and features metal inlays embedded in the floor to keep cargo from marring the upholstery.The Celestiq’s glass roof panel can be set to opaque or transparent, which isn’t a unique feature in and of itself, but the fact that it’s arranged in a four-place grid that allows each passenger to control their own corner of the panel is novel.
    Materials have been painstakingly chosen here for maximum impact. Laetitia Lopez, lead color and trim designer for the Celestiq, explained that the bold red color was chosen for the show car’s interior for the theatrical effect that it creates when you open the door. Hand-brushed metal trim and wood panels along each of the doors have been perforated to allow LED backlighting to shine through. Those are just a few of the details that showcase the level of craftsmanship that Cadillac is putting into its new flagship.Lopez revealed too that while sustainable materials have been incorporated into the design, the team was careful to keep things genuine where it mattered.”The goal was not to have anything that our clients will be unused to in any way, so you know if it’s leather, it has to be real leather. If it’s metal, it has to be real metal,” said Lopez.
    The leather is, however, tanned using 40 percent less water than traditional methods, and the black sections of the upper seats have been dyed using fair-trade coffee-bean shells rather than chemicals. The car’s carpeting is made from eucalyptus fibers, and Cadillac says the interior’s wood trim is also ecologically sourced.Concours Quality and Extravagantly PricedTargeting Bentley and Rolls-Royce models means the Celestiq’s price will be out of reach of much of Cadillac’s current customer base. Base MSRP has yet to be announced, but we expect to see it start in the high-$200,000 to low-$300,000 range. Customers will be able to customize their Celestiq to a large degree, similar to what Rolls offers with its Bespoke program and Bentley with its Mulliner division.”I feel like it’s more like a piece of art, something you will want to collect,” said Lopez. “So it’s not something you would use everyday.” Even so, Cadillac says it’s bringing plenty of features to the Celestiq that might make it an attractive daily driver, including GM’s next-generation hands-free driving system called Ultra Cruise. Road-tripping will certainly be in the Celestiq’s wheelhouse too, as we expect it to offer a large battery pack with at least 300 miles of driving range. The electric powertrain is likely to offer brisk acceleration, although we’re expecting the Celestiq’s road manners to be more like a DeVille than a Blackwing.
    Such a car is a bit of a risk for Cadillac since it will potentially cost twice as much as the brand’s current priciest entrant, the $151,490 Escalade V. “That’s something that Cadillac as a brand has been missing for a long, long time, that ultimate aspirational moon shot that other brands have got,” said Roma.We couldn’t agree more. Cadillac has been struggling to be taken seriously by luxury buyers for many years, losing out to European luxury players such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Perhaps, then, the Celestiq’s success will be measured not by how many orders are taken but by the interest it draws to other models in the lineup.
    Cadillac hasn’t announced how many it will build, but production will be purposely kept at low volumes to ensure exclusivity. So don’t expect to see unsold Celestiqs lining dealer lots. “These are all 100 percent custom ordered,” said Roma. “You’re going to work with someone, design your car, and we’ll build it and deliver it.” Customers will be able to outfit their Celestiq any way they’d like, which the Cadillac team hopes will help foster a personal connection with both the car and the brand.”We’re not rushing an EV luxury car into production,” said Roma. “This has been a painful process of iteration and design, and that’s going to be something that I think any American would be proud to say that it’s an American Cadillac. That’s our goal.”
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    Postal Service Will Make Half of Its New Mail Trucks Electric

    The U.S. Postal Service has announced that 50 percent of its upcoming Next Generation Delivery Vehicle postal vans, approved earlier this year, will be battery-electric powered. The USPS had said earlier this year that a much smaller number of the new delivery trucks—10 and later 20 percent—would be EVs.The U.S. Postal Service expects the NGDVs to join the fleet in late 2023. The 1987-era trucks used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail will be replaced soon, and a lot more of them will be electric vehicles, the agency announced this week. The USPS had said in February that it would buy up to 165,000 New Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) trucks, which were custom-designed for postal use by Oshkosh Defense after a drawn-out bidding process to replace the USPS’s aging fleet. At that time, the plan was that only about 10 percent of the new vehicles would be EVs. That announcement brought criticism—along with lawsuits from 16 states and environmental groups—because of the terrible fuel economy (less than 9 mpg) these new trucks were expected to achieve. Now the USPS has changed its plan and says that at least 50 percent of its new purpose-built trucks will be EVs.

    Sam Mintz via Twitter

    The Postal Service gave lack of money as a reason for originally declining to invest in electric trucks. Fiscal responsibility is also the reason given for limiting the initial number of NGDV trucks it will buy to 50,000. Meanwhile, the USPS plans to purchase 34,500 additional “off-the-shelf” commercial vehicles over a two-year period. These will include “as many BEVs as are commercially available and satisfy operational needs,” according to a statement today. Using this formula, in the end the new postal fleet is expected to consist of about 40 percent EVs.The public comment period has been extended until August 15 to allow people to respond to the latest plan, and a virtual hearing on August 8 is open to the public.
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    Upcoming Equinox EV Spotted on Chevy's Website in Bold Color

    A new look at the upcoming Chevrolet Equinox EV, taken from a thumbnail image spotted on the website, shows it from a new angle in bright blue.The electric SUV is claimed to start at around $30,000 and will be available in fall 2023 as a 2024 model.The Equinox EV’s higher-end sibling, the Blazer EV, was fully revealed on Monday, and this new sighting could indicate that the Equinox EV won’t be far behind.Chevy’s electric vehicle lineup has something old in the forthcoming Silverado EV, which bears a nameplate first introduced in 1975. It has something new in the designed-from-scratch Bolt EV and EUV. As of Monday, it has something borrowed, with the newly unveiled Blazer EV becoming the first electric vehicle to bear Chevy’s Super Sport badge. And now, evidently, it has something blue.

    Chevy’s upcoming EVs
    Chevrolet

    The Equinox EV has been spotted under Upcoming Vehicles on Chevy’s website dressed in, fittingly, electric blue. First revealed in January, Chevy’s midlevel electric SUV offering is set to hit dealer lots in fall 2023 at a price starting around $30,000, but it doesn’t yet have an official release date. However, the addition of the Equinox EV to the Chevy website could be a clue that that day is soon to come.The website thumbnail, which Car and Driver was able to find in a higher-definition version, shows the Equinox EV in a hitherto unseen pose—a side view—with an electric blue body and a white roof. It’s the same color combination first seen in a teaser video Chevy posted in March, which highlighted the Equinox EV’s sporty, forward-thinking yet subdued looks.
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    This won’t be the first EV Chevy has offered in an eye-catching cobalt. The Bolt EV and EUV are both available with a Bright Blue Metallic paint job that, in fact, looks very similar to the color shown here. However, the bright two-tone exterior pictured on the Equinox EV could foreshadow a variety of spunky color options, and it hints at what niche Chevy is looking for the SUV to fill as it expands its electric offerings ahead of 2035, when GM intends to go all-electric.

    At around $30,000, the Equinox EV will be priced similarly to the Bolts, but it shares a platform with the more expensive Blazer EV, as well as the Cadillac Lyriq and the soon-to-be-released Cadillac Celestiq. This means the Equinox EV is more likely to have all-wheel drive as an option, which the Bolts lack, and have a little extra power than the Bolts’ 200 horsepower.

    Equinox EV Interior
    Chevrolet

    All this combined with the stylish, fun exterior shown on Chevy’s website suggests the Equinox EV will be a sporty, entry-level compact electric SUV akin to . . . well, not akin to many things. The Hyundai Kona Electric doesn’t have all-wheel drive, and other competitors are pushing $40,000 or more. So while the Equinox EV doesn’t have a release date yet, it may be worth the wait once it comes, which could be sooner rather than later.
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    1985 Ferrari 308GTB Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

    • The Ferrari 308 remains a 1980s icon, but few have the performance to match the looks.• In the case of this car, currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer until July 26, a full in-period race-car conversion is backed up with a recent restoration and a tasteful Martini livery.• Ownership history includes one of Germany’s leading Ferrari specialists.Mention the words “Ferrari” and “Hawaii” in close succession, and a mental image forms quickly. A red 308, a Hawaiian shirt, and That Moustache. But in this case, the car is no Magnum P.I. prop. It’s far cooler. Currently located in Haiku on the island of Maui in Hawaii, this very special 308 is up for auction at Bring a Trailer, a part of Hearst Autos, as is Car and Driver. Bidding ends on Tuesday, July 26, and the expectation is that the car will fetch the kind of money that would just about get you a modern 296GTB.

    Bring a Trailer

    In 1985, the 308 was ending a decade-long run as Ferrari’s V-8–powered sports car. It was a car found on countless bedroom posters, its languid curves calling back to the gorgeous Ferraris of the 1960s. Further, the 308 had provided the basis for the 288GTO, considered the first Ferrari supercar.

    Bring a Trailer

    Enthusiasts can of course begin here to arm-wrestle over the pecking order between the 288GTO, the F40, and the F50. But in terms of more ordinary Ferraris, the 308 is the one that many a dreamer longed for, years before a driver’s license was a possibility. The only problem is that the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze; 308s are relatively expensive to maintain compared to a later 328, and with horsepower generally hovering around 250 horsepower, the looks aren’t backed up by the performance.

    A Ferrari 308 is not a Porsche 911—it’s not likely that an owner is going to want to drive any great distances. So, if you’re going to spring for a Sunday-morning espresso, why not make it a doppio with a race car converted back to road specification? This 1985 308 was reportedly converted to a racing machine in the late 1980s, which included fiberglass panels for lightweighting, and the removal of all unnecessary comforts. The experience offered is just seat, gated shifter, and a Ferrari V-8.

    Bring a Trailer

    But things get better. Originally delivered in Belgium, this 308 eventually passed into the hands of Uwe Meissner, a German Ferrari specialist. It was Meissner’s personal car, and why that is important should become clear with a short explanation.Meissner founded Modena Motorsport in 1983, and this car still carries a windshield banner from the company. Specializing in vintage Ferraris, he soon moved into working on the F1 cars themselves. Long before Ferrari established its Clienti program, Meissner was making it possible for well-heeled drivers to experience the cars driven by Jacky Ickx, Nigel Mansell, and Michael Schumacher.

    Bring a Trailer

    Meissner drove most F1 single-seaters in the 1990-to-2000 range himself and is said to have liked the 1991 Mansell car the best of them all. However, when his very rich clients were amusing themselves on the circuit, he wanted something interesting to drive himself. This is it.The engine is a 3.2-liter V-8, rebuilt to rev to 9000 rpm. Power is a staggering 411 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque, backed up by a dyno test. The gearbox is a five-speed manual transaxle modified to handle the extra power. Brakes are AP Racing, and the 15-inch bronze-finish wheels wear Pirellis (naturally) of staggered widths, 225 mm up front and 285 mm in back.This car will probably go for a lot of money, but just imagine it: the satisfying click-clack of the exposed shifter gate as you go from second to third. The shove in the back and the sound in your ears as the eight individual throttle bodies gulp air and the rpm rises. The horizon beckoning under the hot Hawaiian sun, the Pacific dark blue and flecked with surf. Magnum never had it so good.

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