Ferrari continues race-bred pedigree

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Ferrari will unveil its race-bred Challenge Stradale at the Geneva motor show in March. The new car will sit alongside the 360 Modena and the 360 Spider in the V8 Ferrari line-up.

The Challenge Stradale is the latest interpretation of the Ferrari tradition of making road cars from race cars, in this case the Ferrari Challenge International Championship series in Europe and the United States.

The Stradale has the same body, chassis and 3.6-litre engine as the Modena but has been trimmed of weight, has improved aerodynamics and braking performance.

The colour of the car on the Ferrari stand in Geneva will be the new "Rosso Scuderia", the same red as Michael Schumacher's Formula One car.

Meanwhile, Ferrari is still planning to float itself on the sharemarket.

"We will do it this year," Ferrari head Luca di Montezemolo said the other day.

He said something similar in May last year but poor global stockmarket performances delayed the plan.

The shares to be made public will probably be the third of Ferrari owned by a group of investment banks. They include Italy's Mediobanca, Germany's Commerzbank, and the Lehman Brothers of America.

Fiat owns 56 per cent and Piero Ferrari, son of Ferrari founder Enzo, owns 10 per cent.