Friday, December 12, 2014

Tour the Madness of Ferrari’s Finali Mondiali in Abu Dhabi [Mega-Gallery]

Ferrari invited us to tag along to Abu Dhabi and have a gander at the new FXX K. The track-only, super-limited wonder was set to premiere during the Finali Mondiali, the culmination of the season for Maranello's customer racing programs, as well as the end of the year for the Ferrari Challenge. While we were waiting around for the Special K to turn its first public laps around the Yas Marina Circuit, we took in the Challenge cars and a variety of obsolete Formula 1 machinery, watched a demonstration by AF Corse's WEC team, and checked out a massive parade of largely late-model Ferraris owned by enthusiasts from all over the Middle East. Then, and only then, did we have our minds rent by the speed and noise of Maranello's latest creation. Click onward for the sights. We'll leave it to you to figure out the sounds and smells. We're not entirely sure that Ferrari named the XX program after female chromosomes, but hey, Italy (by way of Abu Dhabi)! Ferrari Challenge cars being prepared for the last run of the season. A few gents presumably reliving the previous evening's antics. Customers had time to nab a few laps before the Challenge cars ran. But a fuzzy wasp nonetheless. Kessel Racing 458 Challenge car. We're not sure we want to know how much rubber was expended. Rolling through the pits courtesy of shoe leather and sweat. A casualty of one of racing's more wallet-bending facets. Got an itch to drive last year's model? Ferrari will sell you one. V-8 and V-10 F1 cars once again shrieked their angry arias at Yas Marina, courtesy of deep-pocketed enthusiasts. But I don't know. Even though sometimes it's a pain in the ass, I like having a detachable steering wheel. A last minute button-up and she's ready for the circuit. I can roll, I can feel! And you can't stop me turnin'! F2005, pit lane, power on. Down the front pit straight toward turn one. An F2008 explores the teal and gray asphalt expanses of Yas Marina. Since the UAE is mostly sand and oil, most things come into the country via the Port of Dubai—including the aggregate used in the track surface. It comes from a quarry in Shropshire, England. Yas Marina was designed by Herman Tilke, the man responsible for many a modern F1 course, including Texas's own Circuit of the Americas. Lots of things in Texas have German names that are pronounced in decidedly un-Germanic ways. Perhaps a 'burb will spring up around COTA called It's a Ferrari F10, the car that got the world up in arms about Marlboro's barcode livery. This car notably features the later, barcode-ectomied livery. If it were our car, we'd have that sucker slapped back on, if only for its historic significance. Or we'd just paint it in John Player Special livery and see how quickly Ferrari would disown it. Boy, that teal really makes us want to invest in some unstructured Versace suits. It's about time loafers sans socks came back. Don't ya think? The F2007's barcode was not so egregiously Marlboro-esque as the F10's. Kimi Räikkönen won the 2007 World Championship in one of these cars. Sounding nothing like an F60 BMW M5 or a Dodge Viper, the F2001 has a hyper-gnar, stratospherically revvy V10. How is that era so long ago already? Schumi walked away with his fourth championship behind the wheel of an F2001, and Ferrari took a third-straight constructor's trophy back to Maranello. During the 2002 season, Michael Schumacher finished every race on the podium. He raced the F2002 for most of that year. 1995's 412 T2 managed to put Ferrari third in the constructor's championship. It's perhaps most notable as the car in which Schumacher tested when he arrived at Ferrari. While an efficient way to immediately heat a portion of the tire, mashing the pedal 'til there's smoke tends to play havoc with the roundness of one's rolling stock. The decade-old warhorses are still ready for action. Last-minute red-on-red instructions before the XX session. Kimi Räikkönen momentarily popped out to have a gander. The original FXX heads onto the track for the XX session. 599XX gets a going-over. Why not, right? You get it. Gilles Villenueve's 312T5 from 1980, the last variant of Ferrari's 1970s 312T line. A massive assemblage of Ferraris takes to the track for a parade lap and a quick party on the pit straight. If only that 328 were a 308 GTS. A front-mounted V-8 California leads a mid-engined 458, followed by a V-12 612 Scaglietti. An aluminum-bodied 250 GT Boano. A 599GTB, presumably from Oman. A couple of 458 Italias blow past the Viceroy Hotel. The herd bunches up at the Viceroy as the pit straight begins to fill with cars. . . . and the holy spirits of excess, LaFerrari and Enzo. A UAE resident brought out the lone Maranello to lap the circuit. The ground wasn't thick with Enzos. We counted only two. When was the last time you were anywhere that FXXs outnumbered their more common brothers? The parade comes to a stop and people hop out for a gander and the cavalcade of prancy horsiness. After this, everybody clambered back into their cars and began violently revving them. Yes, it was one of the more aurally surreal bits of the day. Flying the United Arab Emirates flag through the pits. A Spider makes such displays logistically simple. The WEC GT cars prepare to head out for a demonstration lap. Having a gander at the pit crew. The AF Corse 458 GT2s are all-Italian. 458 GT cars make their way away from the Viceroy and back toward the crowd on the pit straight. Dudes preparing to pit out like they're at a D.R.I. show. 1980s crossover thrash, the World Endurance Championship. Mostly the same. We were closer to getting run over by this car than we would have liked. Buncha guys changin' tires and drivers for the benefit of Mr. Kite. And all the other humans lining pit lane. The other GT2 car was still turning laps. The 458 GT2 doesn't look all that different from a 458 Challenge car, but the speed and volume are both cranked up really high. The French no longer mandate selective yellow headlamps on roadgoing automobiles. We feel like this is a grave mistake on their part. Khalil the Camel and some Italianate bear guy. They were very friendly. We neglected to get shots of the Hamburglar's Berlinetta Boxer or Grimace's 500 Superfast. The old-school FXX guys getting ready to support the on-track debut of the FXX K. . . . perhaps it would be this 599XX. See how it takes off, eh? The FXX K prepares for its debutante ball. We dig how the other half of the noggin bolster is built into the door. There's one knob to control the behavior of the engine and chassis. The other tells the KERS how to act. The K is the first Fezza offered for sale featuring more than 1000 horsepower. It's also 200-ish pounds lighter than a LaFerrari. At this point, everybody was just tense and eager. . . . the FXX K was bound and determined to wake up the Viceroy's somnolent guests. Worries that a hybrid Ferrari might perhaps sound a mite naff are entirely unfounded. Sheesh. Yes, the Viceroy kinda looks like a cybernetic jellyfish was flung from the Gulf and plopped down on top of it. Did we mention that the FXX K is incredibly fast and sounds astoundingly great? Oh look! It brought friends! In the space of a decade, the XX program has wrought three distinct vehicles. The Enzo-derived FXX, the 599XX, and now the almighty K. You're a ten. Baby, you don't need to advertise. We're pretty sure that the rear diffuser could diffuse a diffuse amount of things — from Sheboygan Larry's Dom DeLuise tribute act to Victor Borge's Bösendorfer. Off you go, little K! Off you go! These FXXs take a breather while the young whippersnapper takes one last salutory spin. All went well, as far as we can see. The FXX K program begins racing in the late spring. Well, not really. A gold door would be really heavy. That's why Ferrari uses carbon fiber. Our camera battery died after this photo, so we went to Dubai and had dinner. Sometimes, when that crazy fountain near the Burj Khalifa goes off, they play the theme from

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