Search the Community

There will be an excellent opportunity to get lost in the '80s at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. A 1986 Ferrari Testarossa driven by Michael Jackson in the 1987 Pepsi commercial "The Chopper" will cross the block along with hundreds of other desirable cars. The black Testarossa was converted into a drop-top Spyder by the R. Straman Company of Costa Mesa, California for its television appearance. Behind the seats is a 4.9-liter flat-12 producing 390 horsepower and 361 pound-feet of torque and red valve covers--hence the name Testarossa, which means "red head" in Italian. Barrett-Jackson didn't list mileage, but the car reportedly received a significant overhaul in February 2013. The Testarossa is a quintessentially '80s car. With its wide, wedge shape and cheese grater-like side intakes, it still makes quite a statement. Whether that statement is positive or not is unclear. Built from 1984 to 1991, the Testarossa was probably best known as one of the stars of Miami Vice, It's even pretty fast by modern standards: it can do 0 to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, and reach a top speed of 180 mph. Granted, that's not even enough to outrun that other Ferrari supercar of the Reagan era, the F40. The Michael Jackson Testarossa joins a horde of other celebrity cars at the 2014 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction, including Simon Cowell's 2008 Bugatti Veyron, the Hudson Commodore from Driving Miss Daisy, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII driven by the late Paul Walker in 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Just recently, Ferrari announced it will honour the Ferrari cars that Sergio Pininfarina has designed. Sergio Pininfarina passed away in July 2012 and was responsible for the creation of many Ferrari models and among them were the Testarossa and the short wheel base 250GT Berlinetta. On the 26th of October, the Ferrari Museum officially launches the start of the Great Ferraris of Sergio Pininfarina exhibition. The exhibition focuses on the years which Sergio Pininfarina's designs were considered to be very important to Ferrari. Sergio Pininfarina designed many Ferraris but the company has decided to place only twenty-two of them on display in Maranello. Present at the opening ceremony were Luca di Montezemolo (Ferrari chairman), Paolo Pininfarina (president of Pininfarina and also Sergio's son), Pierro Ferrari (Enzo Ferrari's son) and Sergio's wife. The exhibition is divided into three halls; one for race cars, one for concept cars and one for production cars. In the race cars exhibition hall, visitors can take a closer look on the racing cars that Sergio Pininfarina has created such as the 250 LM which won the Le Mans race and also the Sigma Formula One prototype from the late 1960s. One of the unique cars displayed at the concept cars hall is Ferrari's first ever four door car which is the Ferrari Pinin Concept. Also displayed there is the 2.9 litre, 400bhp Ferrari P6 Concept which was produced in 1968. The production cars exhibition is divided into two separate categories. In the front-engines section visitors can view models such as the 1964 275 GTB4 and the Spider version of the Daytona. Cars like the Ferrari Testarossa grace the mid-engined section of the hall. The exhibition is open to the public seven days a week till 07th of January 2013 (closed on the 25th of December and the 01st of January) and tickets can be booked online at museoferrari.com. Photo credit: Ferrari

[extract] Dictators; some love them and some really loathe them. Dictators are all about sacrificing for the greater good of the people when their country