Quadboss Starter - Smu0460 on 2040-parts.com

LaFerrari commanding £1 MILLION premium – and the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder attracting premiums too

LaFerrari commanding £1 MILLION premium Being at the top of the new owners list for a very desirable, and scarce, car can yield big benefits, and none more so recently than for Ferrari’s hypercar – the LaFerrari. Oracle Finance has been busy looking at the premiums being charged for desirable cars (and, presumably, willing to finance to premium too) and have discovered that those not on Ferrari’s VIP list – and therefore not invited to buy a LaFerrari from Maranello – are willing to pay a premium of £1 million to get their hands on Ferrari’s replacement for the Enzo. But it’s not just LaFerrari that’s commanding hefty premiums.

German Parts Pillagers Roam the American Southwest, Sending Treasures Home For Future Car Museum

Quite a few older European cars are purchased in rust-free parts of the United States and then shipped back to the home continent, and this process tends to intensify when the Euro gets stronger versus the dollar. While that's going on, crews of European gearheads also roam the wrecking yards of the Southwest, filling shipping containers with parts to ship back home; I know of a trio of Swedes who come to Colorado every year and ship home tons of parts, but they've got nothing on this pair of Germans. These gentlemen fly to the United States four times each year, spending two or three weeks each trip, and send home cars and shipping containers packed with parts, all as part of a scheme to open up a car collection showcasing "cars from the road." They were kind enough to send me a bunch of photos of their most recent trip, so let's see what their enviable lifestyle looks like.

Ford Focus goes SEMA mad

A total of seven Ford Focus at the 2011 SEMA Show There’s nothing American petrolheads (perhaps we should say gearheads) like more than tarting up a car. Which explains why the relatively sensible Ford Focus is being pimped to within an inch of its life for this year’s SEMA show. The SEMA Motor Show is a trade-only gathering – despite which it gets around 50k visitors – which the organisers call the “premier automotive specialty products trade event – in the world.” It attracts trade visitors from across the globe to see parts, tools and components and the ‘SEMA’ special cars brought along by car makers and car modifiers.