Tag Archives: Ferrari

Auctions

The Ferrari Time Capsule: Phil Bachman’s Legendary 48-Car Collection Heads to Auction

In January 2026, the automotive world will witness something that doesn’t happen twice in a lifetime: one of the rarest private Ferrari collections ever assembled will cross the block at Mecum Auctions. Forty-eight Ferraris—each one a jewel of Maranello’s history—are set to find new homes, marking the end of an era and the beginning of another.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of owning a low-mileage Italian thoroughbred, this is the stuff of dreams. The collection spans nearly seven decades of Ferrari’s evolution, from the 1950s to the 2010s, and reads like a love letter to the Prancing Horse itself.

This remarkable assembly was the life’s work of Phil Bachman, an American businessman who built his fortune through a network of dealerships representing brands as diverse as Pontiac, Cadillac, Nissan, and even DeLorean. Bachman passed away in August, leaving behind not just a business legacy, but one of the most meticulously curated Ferrari stables on Earth.

His obsession began in 1984, when he purchased his first Ferrari. From there, his passion evolved into a collection so deliberate, so perfectly preserved, that it borders on the surreal. These aren’t just Ferraris—they’re time capsules.

The oldest car in the collection, a 1953 Ferrari 166 MM/53 Vignale Spyder, shows just 37,306 kilometers. It’s joined by two masterpieces from the 1960s: a 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso and a 275 GTB/4 Alloy, both icons of balance and proportion that defined Ferrari’s golden age.

The 1970s chapter of Bachman’s story swells with 11 cars, including a 1975 365 GT4 BB that’s barely been driven—only 443 kilometers separate it from its factory debut.

By the 1980s, Bachman’s tastes had grown bolder, and his garage followed suit. A 1989 Testarossa, its odometer frozen at just 413 km, will no doubt ignite a bidding war. And then comes the transition from analog to digital—Ferrari’s entry into the modern supercar era.

Two Ferrari F40s headline the 1990s portion of the sale, both 1992 models painted in that quintessential Rosso Corsa red. One has 734 km, the other 1,392 km, and both are expected to fetch eye-watering sums. But the rarities keep coming: an F50 with just 404 km, an Enzo showing 1,038 km, and a pair of 360 Challenge Stradales with only a few hundred clicks on their clocks.

Perhaps the most striking example of Bachman’s singular vision is the only factory-painted yellow Ferrari FXX ever built—a track monster so unique it stands apart even in this company. It’s flanked by a matching 430 Scuderia and 16M Spider, both barely exercised.

The finale of this automotive symphony arrives with the 599 GTO (166 km), the 599 SA Aperta (277 km), and the ultimate duo: a LaFerrari Coupe (253 km) and an even rarer LaFerrari Aperta (154 km).

Together, they form an unbroken narrative of Ferrari’s relentless pursuit of speed, beauty, and engineering perfection. Every car is preserved in near-museum condition, a snapshot of the brand’s evolution—frozen in time but ready to roar once again.

In an age when most Ferraris are driven, traded, or tracked, Bachman’s collection stands as something different: an act of devotion. When the auctioneer’s gavel falls in January, the world won’t just be bidding on cars—it’ll be bidding on history.

Source: Mecum

Tuning

Novitec Turns Ferrari 12Cilindri Into the Loud, Unfiltered Supercar Enthusiasts Wanted

The German tuning powerhouse Novitec has done it again. Few names are as closely linked with Ferrari refinement as the Stetten-based specialists, and their latest project—the Ferrari 12Cilindri—proves exactly why.

When Maranello unveiled the 12Cilindri last May, it was billed as a love letter to tradition: a naturally aspirated, 6.5-liter V-12 sending 830 horsepower at a screaming 9,250 rpm to the rear wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. No hybrid assist, no electrification—just twelve cylinders of mechanical glory. It was Ferrari at its purest.

But there was one problem. In the age of tightening EU noise regulations, the 12Cilindri arrived too polite. Enthusiasts praised its performance yet quietly lamented that the car didn’t sound like a proper Ferrari V-12 should.

Enter Novitec, armed with a solution—and a set of Inconel pipes that could wake the dead.

The tuner swapped out the stock exhaust system for a custom adaptive exhaust crafted from lightweight Inconel, a material typically used in Formula 1 for its heat resistance and resonance. The result is a wilder, more operatic exhaust note, one that restores the goosebump factor Ferrari’s fans crave. The car now sounds every bit as exotic as it looks—snarling, climbing, and then howling past 9,000 rpm with the kind of mechanical theater that modern regulations have tried to silence.

Novitec didn’t stop there. The subtle black panel between the headlights has been replaced by a body-colored insert, giving the car a cleaner, more cohesive face. Around the body, carbon fiber accents sharpen the already sculpted lines, while a new set of Vossen NF11 forged wheels—21 inches up front, 22 at the rear—fill the arches perfectly. Wrapped in 275/35 and 325/30 performance rubber, they complement a chassis that now sits 30 millimeters lower thanks to Novitec’s adjustable suspension setup.

The performance numbers remain theoretical until Novitec finishes tuning the V-12 itself, but the company promises an even greater output than the factory’s 830 hp. If history is any guide, expect that figure to edge northward once development wraps up. The standard 12Cilindri already posts supercar benchmarks—0 to 100 km/h in under 2.9 seconds and a top speed beyond 340 km/h—so any gain here would push it into the realm of absurdity.

And knowing Novitec, this might only be the beginning. Rumors suggest that a widened N-Largo variant is already in the pipeline, bringing the tuner’s trademark widebody stance to Ferrari’s latest flagship.

Someone once said Ferrari should ban Mansory from touching its cars. After seeing what Novitec has done with the 12Cilindri, we’d argue Ferrari should hand them the keys instead.

Source: Novitec

NEW CARS

Ferrari F76: The Prancing Horse Goes Fully Digital

In 2025, while Ferrari’s 499P was clinching its third consecutive victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the company from Maranello unveiled something unlike anything it’s ever built before — a car that doesn’t exist in the physical world at all. The Ferrari F76 is the marque’s first creation designed exclusively for the digital realm, existing as a non-fungible token (NFT) — a collectible piece of automotive art, engineering, and innovation that lives entirely online.

The name F76 pays homage to Ferrari’s very first Le Mans triumph 76 years ago, when Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon piloted a 166 MM Barchetta to glory in 1949. But while that car was a featherweight roadster of aluminum and oil, this new machine is something far more ethereal — a design manifesto rendered in pixels, algorithms, and imagination.

A Digital Manifesto from Maranello

The F76 isn’t a concept for a future production model, nor a racer destined for the WEC grid. Instead, it’s a pioneering virtual project that Ferrari describes as the “next frontier of brand experience.” Developed by the Ferrari Styling Centre under the direction of Flavio Manzoni, the F76 is both a design experiment and an artistic statement — a bold vision of where the company’s design DNA could evolve in the coming decades.

It’s available only to members of the Hyperclub, an exclusive Ferrari client program built around the brand’s endurance racing efforts with the 499P. Within that circle, F76 owners could personalize their digital car across several “drops” released over three years, each introducing new generative design options. The result: no two F76s are alike, and each represents its owner’s aesthetic imprint within Ferrari’s evolving digital ecosystem.

Design: A Machine That Breathes Like Nature

Manzoni and his team refer to the F76 as a “living organism” of design, and it’s easy to see why. The car’s double-fuselage layout splits the driver and passenger cells into separate pods, joined by a central aerodynamic channel that transforms the body itself into a massive wing. Airflow isn’t simply managed here — it’s sculpted, optimized through biomimetic and generative algorithms that mimic nature’s own efficiency.

The result is a form that’s equal parts engineering logic and artistic abstraction. The F76’s central channel accelerates air beneath and between the two fuselages, creating a ground-effect signature unlike anything in Ferrari’s long history of aerodynamic experimentation. At the rear, a suspended upper wing bridges the twin tails, integrating the brand’s iconic quad taillights into a single structural element.

Up front, the F76 resurrects a piece of Ferrari nostalgia: retractable headlights, nodding to the 1970s and ’80s grand tourers that made pop-up lights cool. Only here, they’re tucked beneath a floating aerodynamic band that channels airflow with surgical precision. It’s familiar Ferrari drama, reimagined through digital futurism.

Interior: Two Cockpits, One Shared Soul

Step inside — or, rather, into the simulation — and the F76 continues to push boundaries. The car features two completely separate cockpits, each with its own steering wheel and pedals, connected via drive-by-wire synchronization. Both occupants can “drive” in perfect harmony, sharing inputs and sensations in real time. It’s a poetic reinterpretation of the classic two-seat Ferrari: less about domination, more about connection.

Ferrari calls it an emotional and technical duet, a shared experience meant to celebrate the visceral bond between driver, machine, and passenger — even in a purely virtual space.

The New Frontier of the Prancing Horse

The F76 blurs the lines between car design, digital art, and interactive technology. By using parametric modeling, topology optimization, and AI-assisted generative tools, Ferrari’s designers explored forms impossible to produce with traditional methods — surfaces grown rather than sculpted, structures designed by mathematics rather than hand.

More than just a digital collectible, the F76 acts as a testbed for ideas that could eventually influence future production models. The vertical side cuts, the split-body aero strategy, the interplay between sculptural mass and razor-edged surfaces — these cues, Ferrari hints, will shape the brand’s next generation of road and race cars.

Tradition Meets Innovation

Ferrari’s history is built on its ability to balance tradition with technological daring. The F76, born from the spirit of a Le Mans winner yet unconstrained by physics, continues that legacy in a space where carbon fiber is replaced by code. It’s not a car you can drive, but it’s undeniably a Ferrari — every line, proportion, and emotional pulse reflecting the same obsession with speed, beauty, and passion that defines the brand.

In the digital age, Ferrari isn’t just redefining what a supercar looks like. It’s redefining what a car is.

Source: Ferrari