F430 Scuderia launchKEY POINTS:
Seven-times world Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has unveiled the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, a supercar he had a hand in developing.
The former Ferrari team driver spent many months fine-tuning the new model and claims it laps Ferrari's Maranello test track in Italy as fast as the company's V12-powered Enzo supercar.
Is is expected to cost around $500,000 when it goes on sale in this part of the world next year. No word on New Zealand orders but 30 buyers in Australia have already plonked down deposits.
The Ferrari 430 Scuderia is a lightweight, more powerful version of the Ferrari F430, the company's best-selling model, and is the successor to the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale.
Ferrari says the F430 Scuderia, which is Italian for team, is "aimed specifically at Ferrari's most passionate and sports-driving oriented clients".
Thanks mainly to liberal helpings of carbon-fibre, the F430 Scuderia weighs 100kg less (1350kg kerb weight) than the F430 coupe, and features a more powerful version of its naturally aspirated 4.3-litre V8 - 375kW versus 360kW. Torque increases 5Nm to 470Nm.
The F430 Scuderia's V8 is mated to Ferrari's six-speed "F1-SuperFast2" paddleshift-operated gearbox and the Prancing Horse brand claims gearchanges take 60 milliseconds.
That's 40 milliseconds faster than the company's acclaimed Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, and on par with the gear-change performance of Schumacher's 1999 Formula One race car.
The two-seater F430 Scuderia is claimed to sprint from standstill to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds - four-tenths faster than the F430. It reaches 200km/h in 11.6 seconds. Maximum speed is 320km/h, and the Scuderia drinks 15.7 litres of petrol every 100km.
Other carmakers at the Frankfurt wasted no time trying to show off their new-found "green" credentials - as well as their glittering profits.
Opening the world's biggest car show in Frankfurt with a raft of optimistic reports on improved earnings and greater fuel efficiency, executives were bubbling with confidence about their greener fleets and fatter profits.
Executives from General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen, Audi and Fiat had plenty of good news to deliver to the thousands of journalists in the trade fair's grounds. Many also took the opportunity to try to argue they were leading the way on making low-emission, environmentally friendly cars and not being pushed by politicians or consumers.
"We're not just talking about cutting CO2 emissions, we're doing it," BMW chief executive Norbert Reithofer said after presenting the X6 sport activity vehicle (SAV) with a hybrid engine that will be in showrooms in 2009.
Reithofer also had reassuring words for investors, 2007 operating profits would be above 2006 levels, all three group brands would post record unit sales this year, and sales, even in the weak German market, this year would be above 2006 levels.
DaimlerChrysler chief executive Dieter Zetsche said chances for a dividend increase were good. The group's premium Mercedes-Benz brand said it would begin serial production within three years of a small car powered by a zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell.
General Motors' European arm said unit sales rose 19.3 per cent to 138,200 in August, helped by a 15.9 per cent increase at its Opel/Vauxhall brand. In the January-August period, unit sales were up by 101,800 to a total of 1.445 million.
Chief executive Rick Wagoner said GM was watching the downturn in the United States housing market closely. Porsche posted preliminary full-year results with revenue growing faster than vehicle sales and forecast that sales of its sports cars would be stable next year.
Revenue in the fiscal year to end-July increased 3.4 per cent to ¬7.4 billion ($14.5 billion).
Volkswagen said it expected to generate "acceptable earnings" in the US by 2010 at the latest, although it could break even earlier.
Toyota said it saw European sales up 5 per cent in 2008.
