Ferrari goes green--and blue, yellow and white

Pinstripes for the New York Yankees. Gold helmets for Notre Dame football players. And red Ferrari race cars for the Scuderia. Everyone knows the colors worn by their favorite team. Then there's another level of familiarity, a ubiquitous image that transcends sport and culture, such as this iconic trio.

But even the Fighting Irish occasionally wear alternate jerseys, and Ferrari is quick to point out that all of its road-going cars are no longer uniformly red.

Yes, the Prancing Horse sells about 45 percent of its cars in the traditional red. But two-tone color schemes, fortified by a range of choices from across the palette, are becoming increasingly common, Ferrari reports. In fact, more than 10 percent of sales were special-order finishes last year. Even the 2010 hybrid concept based on the 599 GTB was a shade of matte green for its reveal at the Geneva motor show.

Ferrari Ferrari
Ferrari supercars are offered in a range of colors beyond the familar red.

Intriguingly, Tifosi can also dip into the colors of years past, as Ferrari offers 10 shades from the 1950s and '60s, including a dark-blue hue called Blu Scozia. Ferrari also added Challenge liveries that mimic racing schemes from the company's international competition cars.

For example, the Ferrari 458 Italia can be configured in blue, black, yellow, white and, of course, three shades of red, by U.S. customers. And those are just the basic metallic colors. Nine nonmetallic choices also are available, including more subtle shades of blue and titanium, plus the 10 throwback colors

Ferrari red remains the icon, but the Prancing Horse notes that there are plenty of options now.

Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins crushes Mt. Washington Hill Climb record

It's the season of the hill climb, those few months of the year when even the tallest mountains shed their snowcaps and open up for all manner of driver and race car.
There's the Spectre 341 Challenge in Nevada, Pikes Peak in Colorado and the Mt. Washington Hill Climb in New Hampshire, which just had its 13-year-old record smashed by Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins.
Higgins's weapon of choice was a 2011 Subaru WRX STI rally car. He beat the old record, set by Frank Strongl, by more than 30 seconds and topped Travis Pastrana's unofficial time by about nine seconds. Higgins took just six minutes, 11.54 seconds from bottom to top.
The road consists of 7.6 miles of mixed gravel and pavement on Mt. Washington, which is in the Presidential range of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
Nearly 70 cars competed in four classes. As in the past, the weather was a complicating factor. Friday's and Saturday's practice runs stayed on the lower half of the course because of fog and rain. On Sunday, the clouds cleared enough for drivers to get in two timed laps before the haze returned.
The mountain, which has been known for weird weather, has been studied by scientists for more than 100 years. The road was built in 1861 and technically is the country's oldest man-made attraction. The climb to the 6,288-foot summit was first run in 1904.
The Subaru Rally Team now heads to Maine for the New England Rally. Higgins is currently first in the points standings in the Rally America Championship. Later, the team goes to the Summer X Games to compete in the Global Rallycross event.

2012 BMW X5 diesel models recalled for belt-tensioner issue

If you have a diesel 2012 BMW X5 in the garage, it's time to talk to your local dealer. NHTSA has issued a recall action on 923 copies of the 2012 X5 xDrive35d built between March 31 and May 19, 2011, for an engine belt-tensioner issue.

What's the problem? Apparently there are flaws in some of the tensioner welds that could cause the part to fail in service. From NHTSA's perspective, the major safety concern is a loss of power steering if the belt fails as a result of a tensioner malfunction.

Shelby American considers bringing back rent-a-racer Mustangs

Shelby American is considering resurrecting its “rent-a-racer” program that offers upgraded Mustang GTs for enthusiast-oriented consumers, AutoWeek has learned.

Likely timed to mark the storied company’s 50th anniversary, the program could launch as early as next spring. The cars would be offered in two traditional configurations: black and gold and white and gold. Power would come from the naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8, which makes 412 hp in the 2012 model, and an automatic transmission.

The rental racers would continue the lineage of street-legal Shelbys available for short stints. In 1966, the company teamed with Hertz to produce 1,000 copies of the performance Mustang. Forty years later, the program came back, and the GT-Hs were popular with enthusiasts, though they only available in select markets. The GT-Hs were later offered for sale.

Shelby hasn’t finalized the potential 2012 program and is gauging interest. Hertz has been Shelby’s historic partner for the rent-a-racer ventures. Hertz offers the Mustang GT in premium packaging for rental as part of it “Adrenaline” collection, but the Shelby hasn’t been available recently.

In addition to the eye-catching livery, Shelby also usually goosed the Mustangs with a bit of extra horsepower and body treatments. Look for similar elements if this modern program comes to fruition.