[Video] Ferrari 599 China Edition for 1.2 Million Euros

A one-off Ferrari has been auctioned off for €1.2 million, including taxes. The Ferrari 599 China was snapped up by an anonymous, silent auction participant based in Shanghai.

Chinese artist Lu Hao designed the 599 with pottery patterns from the Song Dynasty before it was shown off at the automakers' fundraising dinner at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. The automaer has distributed a 2:23 video detailing the entire process. The video is insightful, but uses somewhat overly dramatic music for a relatively lighthearted affair.

Proceeds from the sale provide funding for Tsighua University auto engineering students and teachers to study at the Politecnico di Milano university in Italy. Scholarship winners will also get the opportunity to intern at Ferrari.

Other items auctioned off included a Michael Schumacher-signed helmet and model car, and race-worn overalls from F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella.

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Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano HGTE China Limited Edition models will be made

Ferrari will be releasing a limited edition of the 599 GTB Fiorano for the Chinese market. Less than a dozen of the 599 GTB Fiorano HGTE China Limited Edition will be made available for sale.
The limited edition series was developed by Ferrari in partnership with the celebrated Chinese artist Lu Hao. The models come in a two-tone color scheme, featuring a special Rosso Fuoco "fire red" body color mated to a grey roof. The design is also infused with Chinese elements by the artist Lu Hao, inspired by Ge Kiln porcelain and the storied Silk Road (which brought Italian explorer Marco Polo to China) of Chinese literature. Hao uses an ancient Chinese script called "Xiao Zhuan" to engrave a name plaque for each edition as well as mark the car throughout, such as on the engine start button and the rev counter.
The HGTE package (Handling GT Evoluzione) was added to make this limited edition the top performer that it is for a front-engine Ferrari. The model will come with the 599 GTB Fiorano's standard 6.0 liter V12 engine with 620 hp and 608 Nm of torque.

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2009 Buick Regal Mega Gallery: The Opel Insignia Heads to China

As strange and absurd as it may sound to our North American readers, the new Opel Insignia is sold in China under the Buick Regal nameplate. And how about here in the States, we hear many of you asking. Well, the Insignia was supposed to arrive in the form of the next generation Saturn Aura in a year or two, but GM's economic woes have reportedly put a hold on the U.S. market debut of the sleek looking sedan until further notice. If you want our opinion, we would have found it more rational for GM to introduce Opel's models under the Buick logo and do away with Saturn, but then again, we're no high-rank execs...

Back to the new China-only Buick Regal, the mid-size sedan differs from its German counterpart only in a few cosmetic details like the front grille, the side air vents and the exterior mirrors.

On sale now in China, the new Regal sedan is offered with two 4-cylinder petrol engines, a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter unit with 165HP and a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine producing 217HP. Both engines are matted to a standard six-speed manual gearbox with Buick announcing 0 to 100km/h (62mph) times of 9.8 and 7.8 seconds for the Regal 2.4L and 2.0T respectively.

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Fiat Group and Guangzhou sign Agreement on China Car and Engine Production

Italy's largest manufacturer, the Fiat Group and China's Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) have signed an agreement for the establishment of a 50/50 joint venture that will produce cars and engines for the Chinese market beginning from the second half of 2011. According to the plan, the two parties will invest more than €400 million (about $560 million US) for the construction of a new, 700,000 square metre plant in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in south-central China.

The Chinese plant will have an initial production capacity of 140,000 cars and 220,000 engines per year but Fiat said that capacity could be increased to a maximum of 250,000 cars and 300,000 engines annually.

The first model to be launched by the joint venture will be Fiat's C-segment Linea sedan while the first engines to come out of the factory will be the Italian firm's 1.4-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine in naturally aspirated and turbocharged forms producing 120HP and 150HP respectively.

Fiat said that the industrial project is qualified to receive support from the development plan recently established by the Chinese government to promote new investment in six provinces in central China.

[Source: Carscoop]

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Chinese Hybrid Sports Car Mixes Audi R8 and Ferrari Styling Traits

It has come to the point where this blatant copying of Western car designs from Chinese auto manufacturers is getting totally ridiculous. The Tong Jian S11 that was reportedly revealed at the Shanghai Motor Show earlier this year but somehow escaped our radars, borrows several styling cues from a number of vehicles including the Audi R8-esque profile and the Ferrari-inspired tail design.

The Tong Jian S11 is said to be a hybrid sports car that presumably combines electric motors with an internal combustion engine. There are no specific details on the car's mechanics nor if it is scheduled to enter production at some point.

[Via: Leblogauto & Autoblog.com , Images: Goche Sohu]

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Transformers Parade in China: Bumblebee Fans Gather in Beijing

It looks like it's going to be the year of the Bumblebee in China. The soon-to-be released Transformers 2 movie 'Revenge of the Fallen' inspired Chinese fans that took to the streets of Beijing over the weekend with a parade of Bumblebee flavored cars of various sorts and types including a VW Santana, a Citroen C4, a Ford Focus and many Chevy Aveo and Cruze models. The somewhat comical parade of random yellow cars with black-stripes was led of course by a 2010 Camaro SS. Follow the jump to check out the pictures.

[Source: Autohome , Via: Jalopnik]

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Chinese Tuner Builds Ferrari Enzo Wannabe Replica Based on Geely Coupe

You'd expect that a Ferrari replica from China, a country where the automotive industry has turned European and Japanese car cloning into a science, would at least be presentable. Because what you are seeing pictured above is just a computer-generated image of what the tuner hoped his modified Geely coupe would resemble. If your taste buds (and stomach) can handle it, click through to see the end result...

[Via: Gaibar]

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China's Beijing Auto also Interested in Buying Volvo

A second Chinese firm has been added to the list of potential bidders for FoMoCo's Volvo division. Aside from Geely Automobiles Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday in its online edition that the Chinese government-owned Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC) is also interested in the Swedish automaker. Citing sources familiar with the discussions, the newspaper said a delegation from Beijing Auto is expected to visit Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden as early as Thursday to meet with the firm's executives and tour its factory.

The report goes on to say that Ford has narrowed the potential buyers for Volvo to three or four interested parties. The American automaker paid 50 billion Swedish Kronas or $6.45 billion US to acquire Volvo's car operations in 1999, but now most analysts expect that Ford will sell the Swedish company for far less than $3 billion US.

[Via: WSJ]

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GM to Build New Small Car at Idle U.S. Plant and Not China

Faced with heavy criticism after it was revealed that it was planning to increase vehicle imports from lower-wage economies such as Mexico and China, General Motors announced on Friday plans to build a future small car in the U.S. utilizing an idled UAW-GM facility. The automaker's vague press release does not give out any details on the car (though everything points towards the 2011 Chevy Spark) nor the location of the plant with GM saying that the selection of the site "will be determined in the future". However, the carmaker did note that the re-tooled factory will be capable of building around 160,000 cars annually, which can be a combination of both small and compact vehicles.

According to General Motors, the introduction of the small car will boost the company's percentage of U.S.-built cars and trucks sold in the States from about 67 percent today, to beyond 70 percent by 2013.

"Small cars represent one of the fastest growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," said Fritz Henderson, General Motors President and CEO. "We believe this car will be a winner with our current and future customers in the U.S."

"I would like to personally thank the UAW for agreeing to work with us to ensure our overall manufacturing competitiveness in the United States. It takes a special effort by everyone to bring a domestically produced small car to market in a cost-competitive and profitable way - but that is what we are going to do together," Henderson added.

[Source: Carscoop]

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Porsche Panamera: Live Photos from Shanghai Auto Show

Pride of place on Porsche's stand is the new Panamera sports saloon that made its world premiere today at the Shanghai Auto Show. The five-door model that can seat up to four-passengers will compete head on with Aston Martin's forthcoming Rapide and the Maserati Quattroporte. The Panamera, which was penned by Saab's former chief designer Michael Mauer -now you know who to blame- will be initially offered with two 4.8-liter V8 engines producing 400 and 500HP. Sales are set to begin in most markets in the fall of 2009.











[Source: Carscoop]

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