It is stuff like this that makes me pumped up to be an ADV1 wheel distributor. These wheels look absolutely incredible on the Ferrari Enzo.
ADV.1 Wheels / Martino Auto Concepts / Pirelli Tires Ferrari Enzo Project

ADV5.2SL’s
20×8.5 / 21×13
Pirelli tires 375/20/21!

I scan a lot of great blogs for my inspiration. Here are a couple of things I wanted to share with you all this weekend.

1. Rice Paddy Art in Japan

My friends at ASI Japan posted this cool and quirky trend on their blog recently. They have a number of pictures of rice fields with some pretty crazy art integrated into them.

link: http://asituning.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/showa-ward-nagoya-is-on-fire/

2. Austin Powered (by F20C)

I love my S2000 and I love light weight sports cars. What is not to love about an Austin Healey Sprite with a S2000 motor swap!? With all of the time we spend discussing tuned cars putting out huge power #s, I can pretty much guarantee you that nobody is having more fun with 240hp than the owner of this car. Quantifying the fun of driving a car is never as easy as quantifying horsepower.

link: http://jasonsgrainofsalt.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/austin-healey-sprite-a/

3. Bosozoku Style Ferrari!?!

A Berlinetta Boxer 512LM Ferrari got some JDM Boso-esque modifications that I never would have imagined. This is truly unique and quite crazy! As insane as it is, it’s even more impressive when you remind yourself how tame and dated the regular Ferrari is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_Berlinetta_Boxer

link: http://ra64freddy.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/bb512lm/

There we have it, table scraps for the weekend. I really don’t like to put recycled content on here, but hopefully you can find some value in my perspective and sharing these things that excite me!

If I had the money you’d see me rolling in this Ferrari F40 LM that’s currently for sale. This thing is MINT. And when is the last time you saw a Silver F40 LM (never). Super super clean and hardcore. One of the best cars ever. Somehow, there is only 800km on the car! Amazing and yet shameful for the previous owner at the same time…

This is what dreams are made of.

WIN.

After seeing this picture I instantly started looking up prices of used 308 GTBs ($30,000 for those wondering). This car is flawless and a perfect example of retro JDM tuning with a Exotic car twist. If I could own this car for anywhere near $30,000 in this condition I’d be lining up for one right now.

Nakamura Engineering is one of Japan’s most well regarded Ferrari tuning and maintenance shops. We’ve featured them on this blog before, but this latest picture of their 308 GTO is one of the cleanest and best cars I’ve seen lately. You totally forget that the car is 30 years old looking at this picture!

I’ll be posting some more on Nakamura Racing soon…

In the meantime here are some older shots of seemingly the same car:

PS – Thanks to Jason’s Grain of Salt for bringing this 308 to my attention!

http://jasonsgrainofsalt.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/ferrari-308gtb-in-japan/

Although it is not officially from ASI, perhaps this may represent a direction they are considering for a future Ferrari 458 Italia aerodynamics kit? I really like the winglets over the rear fenders in this kit. I’ve been waiting a while for someone to make a well integrated x wing type design into aftermarket aerodynamic tuning.

It’s fun to look at aerodynamic design! The 458 Italia in itself brings heaps of new inspiration courtesy of Pinninfarina so it’s quite fun to start to imagine tuner versions.

When you’re ballin’ in Japan and you have an S2000, ASM is perhaps the only place to go. But what if you went with something a bit more expected like a Ferrari? Well, Nakamura Engineering is there for all you well-heeled JDM Ferrari owners.

Anyone who has corner-weighted a suspension can see there is a lot of awesomeness going on in this picture! These people have their act thoroughly together and they had better! They take care of everything from 308′s and F40′s all the way up to one of the Ferrari factory’s old F1 cars!

With that kind of reputation, Nakamura understands when they build a project they need to go all out and what better way to do it than with a 1000hp Testarossa? Forget flat-fours and sixes; real men rock flat-12′s!

A while back Ben shared with us some pictures of the ASI Ferrari F430. A very clean car I may say. After that post, I felt compelled to show you guys a Ferrari 430 GT3. In the past I have several times seen GT cars up close, but never bothered to share their specs or info; that is, until I saw the ASI Ferrari F430.

I thought: ” why not share the pictures I have, and see what people think?” So here I am.

A Ferrari 430 GT3 as you can see from the first picture above resembles very close the street version; that is partially due to the strict FIA regulations.

The front-end of the car is very similar to its sibling. For aerodynamic purposes, the front splitter and the vented-hood are added and changed respectively. Along with these two body panels, all the other exterior body panels are switched to dry carbon fiber for obvious reasons.

In the picture above you can see the rear wing’s stanchions which are mounted onto the chassis through the rear hatch. They have been engraved with numbers and degrees to facilitate and speed-up the aerodynamic changes done in the pit area. This clever method is only useful when the car is properly balanced on the scale, and all the corner-weight has been done.

Cooling as you can see, is a very important issue while racing; that’s why this Ferrari has two L-shape massive-radiators sitting right behind the front bumper, one on each side of the car, and an additional third radiator located right in the center. This approach has to do with the fact that many GT3 race-cars have a RR layout, and cooling could pose some issues.

Suspensions duty are taken care by Sachs 4 way coilovers, and as you can imagine all the polyurethane bushings have been replaced with spherical bearings to give the driver a more precise feeling of the car while racing; a given I must say.

Ever wonder what a “big brake kit” looks like on a GT car? Those monoblock Brembo GT brakes feature six titanium pistons up front, and 4 pistons in the rear. What’s tricky about those pistons is not their size (which are designed this way to allow more modulability with the brake pedal), but the fact that they are drilled to allow heat to escape better. With this type of design, the pistons stay cooler and provide better clamping force throughout the race.

There is A LOT more to talk about GT3 race-cars. If you guys are interested, I will cover more of it in the future.
Here are more pictures of this Ferrari GT3:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20733247@N06/page34/ (page 34,35,36)