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Ferrari reopens wind tunnel after 18-month refurb

Ferrari is not a company used to being behind the curve, but if you've been wondering how the Scuderia has lost so much territory on the Formula One circuit to a relative newcomer like Red Bull, part of the answer could come down to its wind tunnel.
Seriously, the wind tunnel? Yes, the wind tunnel. Aerodynamics play an increasingly vital role in F1 racing, and while Red Bull has one of the best in the business, Ferrari's hasn't been running right for some time now.
A year and a half ago Ferrari shut down the galleria del vento at its headquarters in Maranello, citing problems with "correlation" - that is, a major discrepancy between the results it got in the wind tunnel, in CFD computations and on the racetrack. Having narrowed the problem down, the Scuderia embarked upon a major overhaul. It's been using Toyota's facility in Cologne, Germany, in the meantime, but as team principal Stefano Domenicali put it, not having your own wind tunnel on premises "is like playing basketball with one hand behind your back." Now the renovations reportedly complete, however, and Ferrari will begin using its wind tunnel again next month.

Ecclestone wonders if F1's upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos]

While every team on the Formula One grid is worried about making a good showing in this year's championship at the same time as they develop a brand-new car for next year's championship, Bernie Ecclestone and F1 circuit promoters have a different concern: how next year's cars will sound. The current cars use 2.4-liter, naturally-aspirated V8s that can reach 18,000 revolutions per minute and employ dual exhaust, next year's engine formula calls for 1.4-liter turbocharged V6s that are capped at 15,000 rpm and are constrained to a single exhaust outlet. Ecclestone and promoters like Ron Walker believe the new engines sound like lawnmowers and that the less thrilling audio will keep people from coming to races. If Walker's Australian Grand Prix really is shelling out almost $57 million to hold the race, every ticket counts. As a fix, according to a report in Autoweek, Ecclestone "suggests that the only way to guarantee [a good sound] may be to artificially adjust the tone of the V6s."
However, neither the manufacturers nor the governing body of F1, the FIA, think there will be a problem. Ecclestone fears that if the manufacturers "don't get it right" they'll simply leave the sport, but the only three carmakers and engine builders left next year, Renault (its 2014 "power unit" is pictured), Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari are so embedded that it would stretch belief to think they'd leave the table over an audio hiccup - if said hiccup even occurs. And frankly, these issues always precede changes to engine formulas, as they did when the formula switched from V10 to V8; fans, though, are probably less focused on the engines and more on the mandated standardization of the sport and the spec-series overtones that have come with it.
No one knows yet what next year's engines will sound like, but we've assembled a few videos below to help us all start guessing. The first is an engine check on an Eighties-era John Player Special Renault with a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, after that is Ayrton Senna qualifying in 1986 in the Lotus 98T that also had a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, then you'll find a short with a manufactured range of potential V6 engine notes, and then the sound of turbocharged V6 Indycars testing last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Any, or none of them, could be Formula One's future.

Dubai police add Ferrari FF to keep Lambo company

Supercars are a sulky lot by nature. Leave them to their own devices and they'll quickly grow despondent. That's why so many owners have more than one exotic in the stable. The Dubai Police seem to have caught on to that fact, having just added a Ferrari FF to help keep the force's new Lamborghini Aventador company. The duo will patrol the city's more affluent regions to promote the area's image as a mecca for money.
Mission: accomplished.
Of course, the Dubai PD certainly isn't the first law enforcement agency to adopt flashy cruisers, and car gods willing, it won't be the last. There was the Nissan GT-R gussied up for police duty, as well as the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and the Mitsubishi Evo X, but we have to say the DPD certainly has the most lust-worthy stable at the moment.