Parx Super Car show 2012

INK Group presents Parx Super Car Show 2012, organized by the Super Car Club (SCC) in association with Autocar India, took off to a roaring start with excited Mumbaikars vying for a glimpse of the super cars displayed at Mahalaxmi Race Course. The auto beauties then paraded the city’s arterial streets, covering Bandra Worli Sea Link and the Western Express Highway amidst a round of applause from visitors at the show.


Gautam Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director of Raymond Ltd. and Founding Chairman of the SCC led the entourage of supercars. Trophies were handed over to the most desirable cars at the end of the show.

Valentino Balboni, former test-driver from Lamborghini was one of the guests present at the event.

The first-of-its-kind series of events in India, the Parx Super Car Show was first conceptualized and organized in April 2009 to enable auto enthusiasts and general public to view some of India’s best super cars, including multiple Ferrari 458 Italias , three Lamborghini Aventadors, Aston Martins, Numerous Porsches, the Ariel Atom, Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s, BMWs, Mercedes AMGs amongst others

Parx Super car Parade is coming

It’s time for the fourth edition of the eagerly awaited Parx Super Car Parade, presented by the INK Group in association with Autocar India. This time, the event will be held in Mumbai on Sunday, January 22, 2012. Scores of super cars, like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, M-powered BMWs, Merc AMGs, Porsches, Maseratis, Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, will parade the streets of the city.

The Parade will be flagged off from Mahalaxmi Race Course at 10am sharp. You can catch these dreams on wheels pass by Nariman Point at around 10.15am, reach Teen Batti by 10.45am and head to Worli Sea Face by 11am. The cars will then drive up to the Domestic Airport Junction and return to the Race Course via the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

Expect whoops, howls and blares from exhausts, full bore launches, the works – the Parx Super Car Parade has it all. Last year over 50 of the most exotic cars in the city collectively pumped out more than 22,000bhp, sending the crowds into a frenzy. This year, expect to see even more cars and a lot more horsepower!

Ferrari

Ferrari pushing for F1 testing increase

Ferrari is pushing for an increase in testing in Formula 1, with its president Luca di Montezemolo claiming that it is crucial for the development of young drivers.

From 2009-2011, in-season testing was banned outright with pre-season running heavily limited. In 2012, there will be one test at Mugello on May 1-3, following the early-season flyways. But there is no net increase in test days as these were taken from the usual pre-season allocation of 15.

Di Montezmolo underlined that he is still in favour of test restrictions, but that the current limits are too harsh and prevent rising stars from being properly evaluated.

"I was in favour of reducing the number of tests because we went too far [before]," he said. "But there has to be something in the middle. It is strange that one of the most professional sports in the world doesn't allow the players to practice.

"This is bad for our drivers. We have the Ferrari Academy, with some potentially good new drivers and I can't make them race GT cars or a go-kart. Giancarlo Fisichella is a good driver in F1 but when he went to GTs, for the first three or four races Gianmaria Bruni and Jaime Melo were far quicker in the Ferrari 458. It's different to a single-seater."

Di Montezemolo also questioned the effectiveness of such rigid test restrictions in terms of cost saving, pointing out that Ferrari agreed to restrictions because of the financial struggles of the smaller teams in F1. Ferrari has also had to invest heavily in new technology such as simulators to replace track time.

The simulator is one area in which Ferrari is believed to be a little less advanced than some of its rivals, despite making huge progress in recent years. That means that it's likely that the team would benefit from increased running in terms of car development. Despite that, di Montzemolo denied that Ferrari's on-site track, Fiorano, would be a major advantage as it is no longer suitable for F1 testing.

"I'm not allowed to test in Fiorano, but I'm forced to invest a huge amount of money in the simulator," he said. "You can see that the simulator is like a building.

"And Fiorano is not an advantage any longer because it has become a go-kart track. Mugello is fantastic, but not Fiorano [for F1 testing]."

Di Montezemolo added that testing also offers teams the opportunity to entertain corporate guests outside of race weekends, something that is crucial to the economic health of the outfits.

He believes that further tests would also boost media coverage between races.

"We are facing a big crisis and we have to give value to the sponsors," said di Montzemolo. "Testing is a possibility to organise events and entertain clients outside the races. F1 must be marketing oriented.

"We have 100 circuits in Europe without being allowed to test. In Italy, we could race at Monza and test at Mugello, for example, or in Britain race at Silverstone and test at Brands Hatch.

"It would also be good to have more presence for F1 on TV and in the media as well as for sponsors and for the tracks."

Ferrari FF review by Autocar India.

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Ferrari 458 spider review, test drive

Why would you buy a convertible Ferrari 458 over the purer Italia coupé? The Spider weighs 50kg more than the Italia, is 0.5sec slower than the coupé around Fiorano and has a top-speed that’s 6kph slower, so you do lose a bit of the coupé’s edge. But what you get in exchange for this tiny performance loss is character, bags of it. That’s because roofless motoring in this car puts nothing between your eardrums and the hair-raising blare of the triple exhausts. It’s the extra intensity of this sound from the 4.5-litre V8 that makes the Spider so special. Every millimetre of throttle travel adds richness and body to the exhaust note – it starts with a muted growl at idle, a guttural bellow through the midrange and a high-intensity blare near the pant-wetting 9000rpm redline. It is insanely loud; even at 200kph, it is loud enough to be heard over the gale force wind rushing through the cabin. The cabin is calm enough at normal speeds for normal conversation though.

Mechanically, it is unchanged – the engine makes 562bhp, the car gets the same stability and traction control modes as the Italia, and Ferrari has left the springs and anti-roll bar unchanged to preserve the terrific steering response, lateral grip and cornering ability of the coupé. The aluminium roof and its folding mechanism weigh 25kg less than the cloth roof fitted to the F430 Spider, and motors from open to shut in just 14 seconds. It is also packaged very efficiently and doesn’t compromise the 458’s aerodynamics with the roof up. There’s even room behind the car’s seats for a small luggage shelf.

You no longer get to see the engine through the glass cover though. The Spider gets a painted cover with six air extractors, and the air intakes, located near the B-pillar on the coupé, have been shifted back to just ahead of the rear lights.

What all this does is enrich the 458 driving experience. Ferrari says the Spider is a bit softer than the coupé, but it’s hard to tell. The 562bhp is delivered to the rear wheels via what feel like small nuclear explosions, the steering is so quick and the turn-in so sharp, it’s comparable to a terrified rabbit. And the grip, ohhhh, the grip is simply unbelievable. Driving through the hills around Maranello, Italy, the heady combination of the exhaust note bouncing off the hillside, the engine’s mind-blowing rev-happiness and power delivery and the stunning handling make for a car that feels absolutely alive.
On demanding country roads it’s simply brilliant to drive, and yet is also very supple, especially when the least-extreme driver settings are used. And, unlike other coupés that lose their roofs, it’s hard to tell if the Spider has lost any rigidity over the coupé. There is some occasional shudder through the steering wheel, but that’s about it.

At a Rs 2.91 crore price tag (ex-showroom, Delhi), it’s obviously not for everyone. But as far as convertibles go, there’s nothing so pretty, so alive and so full of soul.