Archive for Random

Ferrari Unica gym

743_1 You’ve got your F430, the limited edition laptop to go with it, the watch, hat, jacket and driving gloves. If you’re looking to complete your Ferrari ensemble, where do you turn? Well a Ferrari  gym of course.

Sure to spend more time being polished and pointed out to mates than actually being used, the Ferrari Unica (priced at a mere 14,875 Euros - around 20,000 USD) is a pricey solution for home exercise and keep fit wannabes:

This version of the Ferrari Unica comes in the most traditional Prancing Horse colours, colours that have adorned thousands of Ferraris and helped make them instantly recognisable throughout the world. The leather trim of its padding is beige, just like classic Ferrari interiors, while the gym frame is Racing Red, the definitive Maranello colour.

Other subtle details that recall the company’s GT cars include F50-style wheels to assist shifting the gym in the home and Prancing Horse logos to both the frame and leather trim.

The Ferrari Unica was designed in-house by a team of training experts at the Technogym Research Centre. Their aim was to provide the most complete range of training exercises possible in a compact, easy-to-use format for an ideal, all-round fitness training programme at home.

[Ferrari Store]

Cosworth Engine Partnership Established


Cars International, the supplier of high-performance road and racing cars, has entered an exclusive relationship with famed engine producer Cosworth to supply and service V10 Formula 1 engines to customers.

Cars International’s workshop, near Membury in Berkshire, will supply and install the TJ-series 3.0-litre Cosworth V10 that raced in Formula 1 from 2003 to 2006, and most recently with Toro Rosso.

The engine will be particularly appropriate for the pan-European series EuroBOSS as well as for demonstrations and track days in F1 cars. Cars International founder Paul Osborn said: “There are many late-model F1 cars out there that people find extremely difficult to adapt because they can’t get the existing available engines in them, not just because they are too big but because of the crank height. The Cosworth V10 will be the only modern, compact F1 engine that is available.”

The V10, which would also be suitable for use in a modern Le Mans Prototype car, will be supplied in two formats: 900bhp, which will run for 1200 kilometres between rebuilds; and 750bhp, which will run for up to 1500 kilometres.

Cars International Service director Tim Preston, a former race engineer for the Williams F1 team, added: “Our intention is to enable a car owner to have the Cosworth (V10) engine installed and use our own gearbox and chassis controller unit.”

Bernard Ferguson, director of motorsport of Northampton-based Cosworth, said: “We’re delighted with this arrangement. We are very impressed with Paul Osborn and Cars International - it’s very important that the end user gets a decent service and we want to work with organisations that can enhance what Cosworth can provide.

“There is a need in the marketplace for a contemporary, lightweight, narrow V-angle engine. It just required someone to break the mould.”

The new chassis-controller unit, consisting of an ECU to control the chassis and gearbox and a steering wheel, is scheduled to take its first public outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 22-24. “We will be running a Jordan EJ13 at Goodwood,” said Preston. “This will have the chassis controller and a Cosworth LK engine. Then we hope to run the Cosworth TJ for the first time in July.”