How to get $143,000 in options on your Ferrari

 Luxury supercar makers know their customers want a car like no one else has — an easy task to accomplish when building a few hundred vehicles a year, but a far harder one when building several thousand. Yet those same supercar makers also know that a shopper kicking tires on a $200,000 vehicle isn't going to haggle over options that the rest of us would find exorbitant — because it makes the car that much more uniqe. While Porsche has long stood as the master of upselling $2,000 painted wheels and $1,710 custom air vents, Ferrari may have finally surpassed its German rivals, based on this 458 Italia sporting $143,000 in options.

As described by British site FortyOneSix, this 458 dealer demonstration model is meant to show off what a typical British customer would add to his Italia to make it stand out from the rest of the Ferraris on the road. The numbers in the video above seem a little high to begin with; applying the current exchange rate of $1.55 to every British pound only increases their shock value. While some of the prices for add-ons like body parts and performance aids seem within reason, the extra costs for badging, detail painting and technology such as a built-in iPhone cord (a 4th generation version at that) for about $900 appear to come with a sizable Ferrari premium. (Even the Ferrari fire extinguisher costs triple what Porsche charges).

This little dash button may carry a higher cost-per-size than any other. The button engages the Ferrari front suspension lift system, a device that raises the car's body off the road by an extra 5 cm, so that it won't scrape those carbon-fiber diffusers and other expensive underbody parts on speed bumps and parking ramps. Retail price: $4,507, which if you're trying to protect your $225,000 car, probably seems like a worthwhile investment. (Why Ferrari couldn't have made the silhouette look like a 458 rather than a lifted Fiat 124 is a mystery).

Ferrari might be able to lower its prices if it wanted to, or was facing some kind of customer backlash, but there's a waiting list for the 7,000 cars it makes every year, and Ferrari's executives have made clear they will always keep production below demand. And this is only the options lists for the regular clientele; if you want to customize everything, Ferrari will gladly take you to its Corsa Cliente design studio in Maranello to select fabrics and colors for about a 50 percent premium on the base model's cost. If you want to go, book ahead, because at the moment the studio has all the business it can afford.

Cadillac’s Elmiraj concept: a 500-hp, 21st-century Eldorado

For all the success Cadillac has enjoyed in recent years — reviving itself from a purveyor of slightly nicer Buicks into a credible challenger of German luxury makes — there's always been something missing from its showrooms. As good as its new smaller cars are, the most famous Cadillacs dominated the road, from the V-16s of the '30s to the last gasps of the '70s road yachts. Cadillac execs never say such cars are gone forever, but neither do they vow to revive their dinosaurs.

Today, Cadillac revealed the Elmiraj concept, a 500-hp coupe that harkens back to the past while offering, once again, a suggestion that the era of a full-grown Caddy could return — maybe.

Named for the design inspiration of a 1967 Eldorado, the 205-inch-long Elmiraj forsakes the hybrid/electric infatuation of recent concepts for the brute force of a twin-turbo, 4.5-liter V-8 engine turning the rear wheels, as God and Henry Leland intended. The style further smoothes and lengthens the lines seen on cars like the new CTS and XTS, with a few showy touches like chromed hood vents, but few impractical ones.

elmiragghignslide

Inside there's the usual designer studio compilation of exotic materials and shapes, but here again the Elmiraj doesn't resort to unobtanium-filled trims or gadgetry that only exists as a concept. The most innovative touch comes from the rear seats; rather than lengthen the doors to football-field distances as the Eldorados of yore, the seats in the Elmiraj automatically move forward when given a passenger assignment, then slide back once the doors close.

There are a few other hints that the Elmiraj has more of a production possibility than last year's Ciel convertible. The Elmiraj wears what Cadillac calls a draft version of its new logo (where'd they get that idea?) and, more importantly, was built on a chassis from "an ongoing Cadillac vehicle development project slated for future production." Nothing's real in the auto industry until the car rolls off the assembly line, but if General Motors has a way to update the Eldorado for the 21st century and give the only true American luxury car brand a flagship car, what's stopping it?

Meet The “Best Racecar That Never Was”

John F. Kennedy famously said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Then what does that make a car that could have been a success, but was never given the chance? This is the story of one such car; its near miss with history, and the crash that removed it from the limelight.

In the 1950s, Jaguar was a prominent face in auto racing. By 1960, the British automaker has begun talking about a mid-engined car, as other makes had brought mid-engined cars to Le Mans with success. Also, the idea of a V12 engine had been bandied about since 1950, with the hopes of dual overhead cams. While the single overhead cam V12 that started in the XK would eventually make its way into a racecar, this particular DOHC V12 was a dedicated design for a car that would come to be named XJ13.

This engine was essentially two inline-6 engines mated together, and would make its way into a body that was crafted by Malcom Sayer. Having designed the C-Type, D-Type, E-Type and XJS, Sayer formed the aluminum body using lessons learned from his career at the Bristol Aerospace Company.

PHOTOS: See more of the Jaguar XJ13

The front suspension had a similar design as that of the E-Type, but the rear was of a unique layout. During the time this car was being developed, Jaguar driver Lofty England was a presence at Le Mans, fielding the C-Type and D-Type through the 1950s. Lofty and Jaguar designers had high hopes for the XJ13, but the car was never a priority for the company, especially with its current front-engined cars in service.

With the dominance of the Ford GT40, the XJ13 was already considered obsolete before it ever ran a race. So, if anything the car was a study in performance and design. As such, it was intended to be used for promotional purposes of the V12 engine, with the V12-powered Series 3 E-Type debuting in 1971.

The car was brought to a racetrack so it could be filmed at speed. It had a wheel with a plugged leaky tire, which deflated over the course of the driving session. When the tire had become too low, the XJ13 flipped, and crashed hard. Thankfully driver Norman Dewis was not hurt, but the car was not so lucky. The nearly destroyed car was put into storage at Jaguar.

Years later, Edward Loades saw the wreck and suggested that the car should be rebuilt. Loades was crucial to the creation of most of the aluminum bodied Jag’s of the era, and hisAbbey Panels Company was capable of many gorgeous and functional shapes. Loades used some of the original parts as templates to create new ones. As such, Jaguar disclaimed that the finished restoration was not an exact reproduction. Though Jaguar did not consider it to be original, it was impressive enough thatLofty England drove it around the circuit at Silverstone prior to the British Grand Prix. The car currently resides at the UK’s Heritage Motor Centere Museum.

It has since been called the “best racecar that never was” by Jaguar fans. Perhaps, but it could also have been the prettiest Jaguar that never was. Considering cars like the XK120 and E-Type, that is high praise, indeed.

Why the first Ford GT prototype lives in a Long Island garage

In a small wooden garage on the north shore of Long Island sits something truly unique; something that even the most ardent car fanatics have likely never heard of. It's called CP1, or Confirmation Prototype 1. It was the first fully-functional Ford GT prototype produced in 2003 during the testing phase of the company's highly anticipated tribute to its Le Mans-winning GT40 racecar from the 1960s.

How CP1 ended up in this garage, and not in the Ford Museum, is a tale that dates back to 2008, when the entire world was on the brink of financial collapse and major American automakers, sensing imminent doom, began selling off non-essential assets, including their sizeable collections of one-off prototypes and historically significant vehicles. (Most notably, General Motors, in partnership with Barrett-Jackson Auctions, sold off a large portion of vehicles from its Heritage Center Collection in early 2009.)

According to the car's owner, Joseph Limongelli, a 47-year-old small business owner who playfully refers to himself as 'GT Joey', CP1 was purchased at a Ford-sponsored auction in late 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. "I bought it at a private event in Las Vegas," saysLimongelli. "I was really excited to know I was going to get to own a piece of Ford history."

Limongelli, who is married and has two grown sons, says he cares for the car like a third child. "I want to preserve this very special car for future generations," he says. "I am its caretaker for the next 20 or 30 years, until it passes on to someone else. Under my ownership, it will always stay in factory condition. I will never change its unbelievable originality."

CP1's 'unbelievable originality' is perhaps what makes the car so tantalizing to Ford enthusiasts. The body and engine compartment feature a litany of non-standard components that never made it to final production; the airbags are taken from a Ford Mustang; the steering column is borrowed from a Ford Windstar; the cool silver trim rings on the seats didn't hold up during durability tests; the all-aluminum headliner, though aesthetically pleasing, was eliminated in favor of a more traditional sound-padded roof that offered a less cacophonous driving experience; a note scrawled in magic marker on the center console ominously instructs test drivers to "push red button to start" the rear-mounted V-8 engine.

Outside the cockpit things get even more experimental. The passenger rear quarter panel features two quick release valves connected to the fuel tank. According to Limongelli, the valves were installed by Ford engineers to aid in swift changes from high octane to low octane fuel grades. Extending beyond the rear bumper is a set of experimental exhaust pipes connected by a "sniffer pipe" which helped engineers determine accurate emissions output during the testing phase.

The engine compartment on CP1 is fitted with a carbon fiber rear clamshell that dramatically reduced curb weight. However, when Ford execs learned that each clamshell would cost approximately $45,000 to produce, the idea was scrapped in favor of a more traditional, and far less expensive, aluminum tub.

Despite the fact the CP1 has a fully functional powertrain, the car is limited to a top speed of just 5 mph and is not street legal, says Limongelli. Prior to the sale in 2008, Ford engineers installed a rev limiter chip in the engine to ensure the car would never be able to drive on city streets.

For Limongelli, who also owns several production GTs, the idea of not being able to drive the car was never a problem. "I knew what I was getting into when I purchased CP1," he says. "I bought a piece of GT history. I don't mind the fact that I can't get behind wheel."