LaFerrari on display at the Australian Motoring Festival

27 March, 2015

If you’re looking for a place to see more than $30 million worth of sports cars, and you just so happen to be in Melbourne over the weekend of March 28—29, then the Australian Motoring Festival at then Melbourne Showgrounds may just be the place to be.

But if you’re like us and can’t quite make it over the ditch, then have a look at what the centrepiece of the 2000-square-metre Ferrari exhibition is. Yes, that’s the $3 million, limited-production, hybrid supercar — the LaFerrari. 

It’s known as Ferrari’s most ambitious project ever, and will be located amidst a huge range of Ferrari engineering and design in the no-expense-spared display.

The CEO of Ferarri Australasia, Herbert Appleroth, says, “Surrounding LaFerrari will be a uniquely Ferrari experience featuring 30 years of Ferrari supercar history, [and] a stunning Ferrari showroom with the latest range of Ferrari road cars.”

The festival started on March 26 and will run through to March 29.

Range Rover CSK — the original SUV

The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the SUV moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inch wheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with only a few minor touch-ups by the Rover styling team.
According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.