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Work has begun on the new Ferrari Land theme park, set to open some time next year. Based in PortAventura, a Spanish theme park that currently stands outside the city of Barcelona, Ferrari Land is expected to consist of a 250-room, five-star luxury hotel, a variety of high-end restaurants, and several speedy Ferrari-themed thrill rides. Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel was in town for the Spanish Grand Prix, and paid a visit to the groundbreaking ceremony in a Ferrari California. The four-time champion brought with him a piston from his 2014 race car, plus a brick from Enzo Ferrari’s Maranello home that will be used in the construction of a monument at the park.
Ferrari Land will cover roughly 807,300 square feet, and will include “Europe’s highest and fastest vertical accelerator” rollercoaster, not to mention the requisite driving simulator. It’s the Prancing Horse’s second theme park, the first being Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, which the Italian automaker claims is the largest indoor amusement park in the world.
PortAventura currently draws some four million visitors annually, half of which arrive from outside Spain. Ferrari has teamed up with Investindustrial, which acquired PortAventura in 2009, to build the new theme park. In total, 100 million euros ($111.57 million at current exchange rates, 2015) will be poured into its creation.
Continue reading for the full story.
Remember Ferrari World, the self-themed attraction park Ferrari built in Abu Dhabi? Well, the Italian automaker is at it again with a second theme park slated for construction in Barcelona, Spain. Ferrari signed a licensing agreement with Investindustrial to build Ferrari Land inside one of Europe’s biggest theme parks, PortAventura.
Ferrari Land will cover some 807,300 square feet alongside PortAventura’s already massive park and include a luxury five-star hotel with 250 rooms, a host of classy restaurants, and of course, Ferrari-themed rides. Not to mention, the project planners have something up their sleeves to compete with Ferrari World’s record-setting fastest roller coaster – Europe’s highest and fastest vertical accelerator.
The project represents a &euro100 million (about $139,000,000 at current exchange rates) investment and looks to attract even more visitors to the PortAventura park. Last year alone, PortAventura saw 4 million visitors walk through their gates with more half of those coming from outside of Spain.
Ferrari Land is set to open in 2016 to an ever-growing legion of followers as the world’s most powerful brand continues to expand its reach to folks who perhaps might otherwise not be able to enjoy the joys of Ferrari ownership.
Click past the jump to read more about the future Ferrari’s future PortAventura theme park.
Just weeks ago, Spanish F1 driver Maria de Villota was in a horrific crash during testing of her new Marussia MR-01 racecar. In fact, it was her first test drive ever and the injuries were apparently very serious. The only injury we were made aware of initially was the fact that she lost an eye.
Fortunately, the injuries were not so severe to put her life in direct risk, as it was just announced that she was released from the hospital. There was some speculation that Maria would require brain surgery, but following some testing, it was found that there wasn’t any damage that would require this risky surgery.
Though she will not spend any more time in the hospital, physicians will continue to monitor her at home to assure that her recovery stays on schedule. She will be undergoing surgery to repair damage done to her face during the accident, so we wish her the best in the rest of her recovery and her future plastic surgery.
Marussia has also officially chalked the crash up as a combination of several driver errors. The first error was that she was unable to find the clutch lever, which was in an unexpected position because the wheel was not centered. Also, when she came into the pits, de Villota forgot to press the neutral button to keep the car out of gear. These are all freak lapses that most F1 drivers remember almost instinctively, but while testing a new car, these steps can sometimes be forgotten.
On an aside, Maria will likely have to take significant time off, as the FIA does not issue international licenses for five years following the loss of an eye. This give the brain time to adjust using just a single eye.
Our best wishes go out to Maria de Villota and we hope for a speedy recovery.
Just the other day, we were able to snag a spy video of the upcoming Porsche 918 Spyder at the Nurburgring race track in Germany, but now it looks like the hybrid sports car has found its way to Valencia, Spain where not one, but three 918 Spyder prototypes were caught testing. One of the three prototypes appear to be the exact prototype our spy photographers caught testing at the Nurbrugring, but the addition of two other prototypes means that Porsche is extensively testing their next halo car before launching it on the market in September 2013.
The production version of the 918 Spyder will combine a race-derived 4.6-liter V8 engine with two electric motors for a total output of 762 HP and 552 lb-ft of torque. On the US market, the model will be priced at $845,000 and the European market will be able to snag it up for 645,000 Euro. The only problem is that there will only be 918 units of the Spyder built and they are already sold out!
Back in May, we were teased by a relative unknown in the automotive world - Spanish automaker, Aspid - as it was set to unveil a new and secretive sports car. Up until that point, the only car that Aspid manufactured was the SS, which is a semi-open-wheel two seater more known for its agility than anything else.
Well, now Aspid is prepared to expose this all-new sports car to the world, and it has sent us a few PR images and a ton of info via email. Doing what we do best, we will critique this car and find out if it is really up to the task of competing with the Porsches and other sports cars of the world.
While this car looks very awkward and a little bit like something out of a Sci-Fi flick, it is actually rather conventional when sat next to its sibling, the Super Sport. In terms of performance, this new Aspid certainly talks a really big talk, but does it really have the bite to match up with its bark?
Click past the jump to find out if this Aspid GT-21 is up to the task of taking on the big boys in the industry.
Spain hasn’t had a whole lot be happy about these days given the state of their economy. But if there’s one silver lining, they can always say that they’re becoming a player in the sports car market.
Their latest offering is called the Tauro V8 Spider, a two-seater roadster that looks a whole lot like a winner in our books. According to Motorpasion, the front-engine Tauro V8 Spider carries a bespoke bodywork and was derived from the now deceased Pontiac Solstice, but comes with a minor twist: it’s got a GM-sourced 6.2-liter V8 LS3 E-Rod engine that produces a whopping 440 horsepower at 6,200 rpm 432 lb/ft of torque and mated to a manual six-speed transmission. Optional engine upgrades, depending on how extensive you’d want it, can allow the car to receive as much as 650 horsepower. That’s super car territory, in case you didn’t know.
Other mechanical details featured on the Tauro V8 Spider include a limited slip differential, independent suspension on both axles with double wishbones, monotube shocks and springs, ventilated disc brakes with piston calipers, and an optional GM automatic paddle-shift transmission.
Only 30 units are expected to be produced for the time being, with each model - customized to a specific customer’s needs and wants - coming in with an estimated price tag of €100,000, or $126,699 at the current exchange rates.
The last time we saw or heard from IFR Automotive was back in 2008 when they introduced the Aspid sports car at the 2009 London Auto Show. If you recall, the Aspid was presented as a 700 kg/1543 lbs sports car that was designed like a futuristic Morgan and packed a walloping 400 horsepower, good enough to produce a 0-60 mph time of just 2.8 seconds.
That was four years ago.
This year, the Spanish automaker is returning with a new version of the Aspid sports car, one that has come with a new teaser and a rather intriguing tag of "Keep watching your mirrors, a new Aspid is coming."
Details are scarce at this point, but we do expect the car to look like a bigger version of the 2008 Aspid to go with a more powerful and technologically advanced engine than the 2-liter engine its predecessor came with.
More details are sure to follow when they become available.
We’ve all but come to associate Gymkhana with Ken Block, and rightfully so because the latter has turned it into a global phenomenon.
But even if Block is considered the godfather of Gymkhana, it doesn’t mean that he’s the only one that can do it.
In this video - it’s actually more of a full-scale production - we are introduced to the Porsche Gymkhana, a 13-minute thrill ride complete with insane drifting action, incredible soundtrack music, and, since we’re calling it the way we see it, some pretty less-than-stellar acting.
Instead of focusing on the acting chops of some of the actors in the video, we’re going to focus on the insane driving skills exhibited by no other than Modesto Martin. Somewhere, Ken Block is probably taking serious notice of this video because quite frankly, it’s right up there with any of the Gymkhana videos he’s done in the past.
So do we see a response coming the near future? We certainly hope so.
How odd would it be for rally fans to see a Nissan, let alone an Infiniti, getting its tires dirty in the world of rallying? The Japanese automaker isn’t exactly a name synonymous with rally racing, so you might need to excuse us for being a little apprehensive when word broke out that an Infiniti G37 S Coupe would be part of the Spanish Rally Championship.
Turns out, though, the G37 S Coupe will not be doing any rally racing of its own. Instead, it has been tapped as the official rally-spec safety car of the SRC. Color us surprised with this bit of news.
To cope with the rigors of the rally world, the G37 S Coupe’s chassis and suspension were strengthened. Among the new additions to the car’s make-up include new Bilstein dampers, upgraded brake pads, its very own light bar and siren, a roll cage, a new set of Sparco race seats and harnesses, a fire suppression system, and high-performance Michelin tires.
Other important features added to the rally safety car include a GPS navigation system and a plethora of communications equipment developed to assist the car in case of an emergency.
In terms of powertrain, the G37 S Coupe safety car will have the same output coming out of the standard 3,696cc 24-valve V6 engine – 320 horsepower – and will be mated to the standard six-speed manual transmission.
Infiniti may not be all that known in the world of rally racing, but if the company ever needed to get its feet wet in the often dusty and muddy world of rallying, this could be the first step in doing so.
Jaguar is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of its most iconic models, the E-Type, this year. So to commemorate this occasion, the British automaker has released a new Spain-exclusive, limited-run Jaguar XK “Spring Edition”, complete with a myriad of aesthetic upgrades on both the exterior and interior of the car.
While we completely dig all the styling improvements that were made for the Spring Edition XK, we’re a little bothered because the car is only being sold in Spain, which means that unless we can have one imported to the US, then we’re going to have trouble getting this unique Jaguar XK model.
Having said that, the Jaguar XK is still one fine piece of machinery, regardless if it comes with special trims or not. We admit to having once lost some affinity for the Big Car in the past, but with their slew of newer and more recent models, including the XK Coupe and Convertible, our approval rating for this British automaker is steadily rising back to its former stature as one of Europe’s finest.
Details on the Jaguar XK Spring Edition after the jump.
A couple of weeks ago, the Ascari race track in Marbella, Spain played host to Pagani and a number of the Italian marquee’s exclusive customers for a nice track-day that included the official presentation of the Pagani Zonda R to the invited guests.
If that and the fact that these guys could run around the track for the whole day wasn’t enough, a couple of special edition Zondas were also in attendance: two Zonda supercars that bear the names ‘Cinque’ and ‘HH’. The man behind the Zonda HH, American David Heinemeier Hansson was also in attendance at the event to personally receive his one-off supercar from Pagani and test it out on the track.
With all these mouth-watering Zondas in one location, it’s hard to find a better place on the planet than the Ascari race track when Pagani held its track day there about two weeks ago. We don’t have any Zondas in our near future so it’s unlikely that we’re going to get invited to any track meets any time soon so we’ll just have to settle for photos.
Hey, look! There’s a bonfire happening in the middle of the streets of London!
Oh, wait. That’s not a bonfire. What that is, unfortunately, is a Ferrari 360 Modena that’s on fire. Hey, at least it’s not a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Tasteless jokes aside, the story on how that 360 Modena caught fire is a doozy. Turns out, it belonged to somebody who decided to rent out his supercar through a rental agency for $1,500 to an Arab prince who ended up crashing it to oblivion. And all of that happened before the car started catching fire.
Two things that we’re dying to know: One, how in the world did the owner feel when he found out his Ferrari was totaled beyond repair and all he got out of it was $1,500. You can’t even buy a dinged-up Pinto with that money. Second, how can an Arab prince rent out a Ferrari when he probably has like a hundred of them tucked in his garage?
Although we don’t know what came out of this mess, the only redeeming part about this is that the Arab prince can probably afford to replace the 360 Modena with another Ferrari, or maybe something even better. If we were the owner of the car, we’d be thinking somewhere along the lines of maybe a Pagani Zonda.
Last week, Ferrari unveiled the first details of its new Ferrari Formula Rossa roller coaster. This roller coaster is one of two that will be one of the main attractions at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the largest indoor theme park in the world.
During the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Ferrari brought one of the cars that will be used in the roller coaster for a special media presentation, which was attended by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali and drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
The Formula Rossa roller coaster will be widely considered the fastest roller coaster in the world when it officially opens on October 28, 2010 at the Yas Marina Island in Abu Dhabi. Capable of accelerating at over 240 kmh and generating as much as 1.7 Gs, the roller coaster has to be one of the must-try attractions of Ferrari World. It uses a hydraulic winch system - similar to the equipment used in launching fighter jets - that catapults the cars out of their launch area by using a shriek-inducing 20,800 horsepower, enough to make even the most hardcore of roller coaster riders soil their pants.
The volcanic ash that put a stranglehold on the airline industry in Europe caught a lot of vacationers and travellers off-guard. However, while some chose to just sit and wait out the whole situation, others decided that sitting and waiting for the ash cloud to clear wasn’t something worth waiting for.
A family of vacationers in Barcelona, Spain were one of thousands that were stranded because of this perilous situation. Determined to make it back to the UK as soon as possible, they decided to hail a cab from the UK to come pick them up in Barcelona. True story!
The cab’s owner, Garry Smith, took his son and hopped in their Hyundai i800 van and made the 2,500-mile trip that lasted the better part of two days. "We got the call at 9:30am on Tuesday and were on the road within an hour to collect four people," Smith recalls. "I took my son Ben so we could share the driving and booked the Eurotunnel crossing on route. When the passengers heard what car we were in they asked if we could take six people which, because of the car, we were happy to do."
The whole voyage ended up costing the vacationing family a staggering £4,600.50 - $7,050! - in cab charges, but Smith, in an act befitting of sainthood - ok, not really - decided to only charge the stranded folks £1,850 - US$2,830 - for the whole trip. According to Smith, he decided to reduce the price because, in his own words, "it wouldn’t really be fair to charge them the meter rate."
Incredible.
While we usually associated the kings of yesteryear with riding in some of the most tricked-out carriages you’ll ever see, the kings of today have traded in their horse-drawn rides for something a little more appropriate with the times.
King Juan Carlos of Spain, ever the car enthusiast that he is, is no stranger to riding – and owning – some of the most beautiful machines in the world. Known to have around 70 cars in his garage, King Juan Carlos is living proof that power begets style. Though not as addicted to cars as, say Sultan Bolkiah of Bruinei, the king of Spain still boasts of a pretty impressive fleet of cars including this fully-customized Audi RS6 sedan. If you’ll notice, the whole car has been customized in black with the exception of the car’s lights out in the front and back as well as the signal lights on both side mirrors. We’ll venture a guess that this particular RS6 has also been decked in some pretty sturdy bullet-proof armor.
After all, you probably wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the most influential royalty figures – especially a car enthusiast at that - in the world, would you?
In our history, ’Cupid’ has always been depicted as a young, innocent boy with an even more innocent smile. Turns out, the folks over at Seat have a different interpretation of what cupid looks like.
In their print advertisement highlighting their new fleet of the budget-minded five-seater, Seat Ibiza, Seat has decided to use Cupid as its endorser, only this time, Cupid is a gun-toting, gruff, long-haired, shirt-less biker.
We get the whole connection between Cupid and the tag ’Love at First Sight’, but we’re not exactly sure as to why Seat didn’t just opt for the cuter version of Cupid.
Just our two cents.
This year’s Ferrari World Finals in Valencia, Spain was supposed to be the culmination of a year-long Ferrari racing series that takes place all over the world. What was supposed to be the final round of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy and the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge ended up being overshadowed by a rather amusing and dim-witted incident involving three of the brand’s biggest names, Ferrari chief Luca Di Montezemolo and Ferrari’s 2010 F1 drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
In respect to both Massa and Alonso, they weren’t really to blame for the incident because they just happened to be sitting in the same car as the real culprit, Di Montezemolo himself.
The trio were parading around the track in a Ferrari California when Di Montezemolo – he was the one driving, by the way – decided to make an unplanned pit stop and drove into the gravel pits. Predictably, the California ended up getting stuck into the gravel after the rear tires got beached.
Continued after the jump.
When you’re running down the list of the most expensive cars in the world, chances are you’d have a Rolls Royce in there and maybe a couple of Bugatti Veyrons too. But would you, under any circumstances, write down a Tramontana as one of your top 5?
If you said no, then you’re not alone. And if you didn’t put a Tramontana in there, then you’d be wrong, too.
€2 million. That’s what this custom-made, one-off Spanish Tramontana supercar costs, making it the fourth most expensive car in the world, sharing its spot with an equally rare McLaren F1. The only three cars that are most expensive than this one is the ‘Star of India’ Rolls Royce and a couple of Bugatti Veyrons.
While the car’s performance – it has a twin-turbo V12 engine that can produce as much as 760 horsepower with a 0-100 kmh mark of only 3.6 seconds – more than justifies the enormous price tag, the main reason why it costs so much is because of the precious paint, which was mixed with a number of gems and gold, that was used by Fernando Leal-Audirac – in designing the car.
The effect of mixing paint with gold and gems results in the paint producing an iridescent effect, which makes it change colors when it’s hit by sunlight. Audirac designed the Tramontana in such a way that it takes on the look and feel of a silk fabric.
You rarely come across a car that’s been painted with traces of gold on it so this Tramontana supercar is definitely one for the books. The best part is, if you have €2 million to spare, you can actually buy it and be the envy of all your peers.
The Spanish super car builders at GTA Motor have been keeping busy ever since debuting the 780 HP Spano speed machine at the Hemisferic in Valencia, the Spanish City of Arts and Sciencies.
Last time we heard from our amigos they had just wrapped on the Spano’s photo shoot and from the looks of things they had a few cameras rolling as well that day.
This new video not only shows off the Spano with quote a few beauty shots, but it also gives us a glimpse of what the future super car looks like on the track.
The GTA Spano is powered by a mid mounted V10, the 780 HP Spano will rocket from 0-60 MPH in under 3 seconds, and won’t stop until it reaches a top speed of 217 MPH. Built from a combination of Kevlar, Carbon fiber and titanium. The space age chassis not only looks amazing, but also will dominate any road put before it. Riding on a set of staggered 19 and 20 inch rims the rear tires are Pirelli P Zeros sized 335/30, which is over a foot wide. As you can see from the video, the Spano is a shapely sports car that complete with a ridiculously powerful ten cylinder engine is capable of tremendous speeds and qualify the Spano as an official super car.
The last time saw something about GTA Motors’ limited edition Spano super car; the car builder was introducing the world to their latest creation at the Hemisferic in Valencia, the Spanish City of Arts and Sciencies. After getting all the bugs ironed out of the radical rear wheel drive sports car, GTA Motors has found some time to let the Spano super car pose for a few beauty shots.
The GTA Spano is powered by a mid mounted V10, the 780 HP Spano will rocket from 0-60 MPH in under 3 seconds, and won’t stop until it reaches a top speed of 217 MPH. Built from a combination of Kevlar, Carbon fiber and titanium. The space age chassis not only looks amazing, but also will dominate any road put before it. Riding on a set of staggered 19 and 20 inch rims the rear tires are Pirelli P Zeros sized 335/30 which is over a foot. As you can see from the new photos, the Spano is a shapely sports car complete with enough air intakes and vents along with a ridiculously powerful ten cylinder engine that is capable of tremendous speeds that contribute to the Spano’s status as a super car that ought not be taken lightly.
The beauty of being on television is that you get to do things that other people can only dream of. Well the British guys from Fifth Gear had the amazing opportunity to test drive the new Spanish super car, the Tramontana R Edition. Tom Ford had the ride of his life in the carbon fiber single file seater despite being babysat by the Barcelona based automaker’s test driver. The guy wasn’t so bad, after all he did look the other way when Ford pushed the 720 HP button. That is after all the vehicle’s maximum output and considering that it weighs only 1200 Kilos, it is no surprise that the Tramontana can go from 0 to 60 MPH in only 3.6 seconds and make a more impressive 0 to 124 MPH time of only 10.15 seconds on its way to reaching a top speed of 201 MPH.
GTA Motor, a Spanish auto manufacturer revealed this week in Valencia a super-sports car with a power of more than 700 hp and a price tag of around 600,000 euros.
The sportscar will be powered by a longitudinal mounted V10 engine combined with a six-speed sequential gear box. It can hit a top speed of more than 340 km/h.
The production will be limited to 99 units, and GTA already has received 8 orders. In August the company will start the first tests on the track of "Circuit Ricardo Tormo". Production version will follow shortly after.
