Recent years have marked dark days for the Alfa Romeo brand, but the fascination of Italian exotics overseas lives on. The Bella Italia Concours took place over the weekend with vintage and luxury Italian sports cars from Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini on display. While the event is organised by the Ferrari Owners Club of San Diego, the latter Italian brands are invited in recognition of their equally iconic status.

2011 is a big year for Italian supercars with the new Lamborghini Aventador having been released, and the original Ferrari FF four-seater shooting brake making an appearance. It will mark a new era for this world famous Italian icon being the first Ferrari model to get a boot and all-wheel drive. In the meantime, Alfa Romeo will make its way back to US shores, possibly with its first true sports car in a long time, the Alfa 4C GTA. Watch the video to see what went on show at the Bella Italia Concours in San Diego.

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These travel Ferrari accessories give you the chance to have a little of the prancing horse style, without the expensive car. On the other hand, if you’re already the lucky owner of a Ferrari, these new Ferrari Store leather bags will look great draped over the passenger seat of your vehicle (or carried around the office to show just what you’ve got parked downstairs).

The new leather bags from Ferrari Store are designed to be practical but elegant luxury Italian accessories, with a computer case made from calf leather costing 1,250 euros. It has a CD pouch on the inside, an adjustable shoulder strap, a removable cord carrier case and a front compartment for pens, business cards and a calculator. The bag also comes in brown, in nubuck or smooth leather and also has a strap function at the back to be attached to a trolley suitcase.

The 48ore business briefcase and travel bag is perfect for short business trips. It’s made from smooth calf leather and costs 1,450 euros. The interior of the bag is divided in three parts, with two separate all-purpose compartments and a third “organised” sleeve for documents and other business needs. Both of the Ferrari bags carry the prancing horse logo and have contrasting stitching and zips and Ferrari print interior.

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Yesterday, during his trip to Italy, the U.S. Senator John F Kerry stopped in Maranello to visit the Ferrari facilities. Here the American politician, who was the Democrat’s candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 2004, met his old friend Luca di Montezemolo .

The “prancing horse” president showed him around, thus giving the senator the chance to admire the latest Ferrari model, the FF. Mr. Kerry was then taken to the Fiorano track, where, helped by the famous car tester Dario Benuzzi, he tried the beautiful 458 Italia.

Source | Ferrari

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After the luxury Ferrari Opus book starting price of $4,100 USD, here is a Ferrari accessory you might be able to afford. The 2011 spring Ferrari clothing collection includes these leather jackets inspired by the interior of the cars the company makes.

With a decidely sporty look, these Ferrari leather jackets can be matched to jeans and other casual gear, or if you know how to dress it right, you could go more upmarket, too. They are designed to reflect Ferrari’s passion for motorsports and are made with the same attention to detail that Ferrari leather seats and stitching can boast.

The black leather jacket has been designed for men, while Ferrari has dedicated its more feminine light brown to women. The luxury Italian accessories can be bought in Ferrari stores for a price of about €790.

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This Lamborghini Murcielago laptop marks the seventh accessory from the collaboration between the Italian brand and Asus computers. The Asus VX7 comes with Lamborghini-style taillights out the back and the raging bull logo on the lid. Luxury bits include leather-lined palm rests.

It comes in Lambo orange or carbon fibre and has a 2.0-GHz Intel Core processor, 16GB of RAM and a dual hard-drive setup which has 1.5 TB of storage. That’s all very cool, but be prepared to pay for the badge, as this Lamborghini notebook comes at €1,995.

Lamborghini laptop: the Asus VX7

Source | TCMagazine

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Let’s just say that Ferrari is like no other Italian brand - it combines high performance motorsports and luxury accessories and seems to have no problems doing so. The Official Ferrari Opus book is a case in point. The hefty book starts with a base model costing 4,100 USD. It has 852 pages and a total of 2,000 photographs and while a very exclusive Ferrari accessory with just 4,100 copies being produced, you might want to consider using it as a weight - it weighs about 37 kg and is about 50 cm tall.

The Ferrari Opus is bound in red leather and comes in a carbon fibre case. Each copy has been signed by Ferrari F1 drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. If you want to spend more than those four thousand dollars, you’ll have to upgrade to the Cavallino Rampante edition which contains a random selection of important Ferrari autographs. Only 500 copies of it will be made and it costs 7,000 USD.

Those previous two books start to pale in comparison to the rest of the Ferrari Opus collection pieces. The Enzo edition contains signatures from living Ferrari World Champions on a single silver-foiled sheet. 400 copies will be available at a price of 37,500 USD. But if that’s still not exclusive enough, get your wallet out for the diamond-studded Prancing Horse edition - after the jump.

Continue reading: The Official Ferrari Opus book with diamonds costs $275,000

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Spain did not bring good luck to Marco Simoncelli; the Italian was leading the race at Jerez when he had an accident and was therefore compelled to leave the race, thus handing home victory to Lorenzo. But in an interview, Super Sic told reporters that no help came from the marshals; they were not sufficiently helpful in trying to get him back in the race. The same complaint came from Stoner. “Afterwards nobody – said the Italian- was pushing me to restart the bike”.

Well, we are sure that Marco Simoncelli will outstrip his colleagues in the upcoming race in Portugal. He sure looks like Valentino Rossi ’s heir apparent (figuratively speaking of course).

Italian racer Marco Simoncelli on his accident at Jarez, Spain

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Italy’s Lamborghini supercar brand has a new weapon in its line-up - the Aventador. The new model was recently revealed at the Geneva Motor Show and is an evolution for Lambo which should increase the company’s fortunes after struggling profits. The luxury Italian brand, despite making sales, has needed to renew its ageing line-up, and the new Lamborghini Aventador is a smart-looking model which is highly anticipated by fans.

Already sold out for 2011, here we see the Aventador in a video from the streets of Berlin. Appropriately, passers-by stop to observe the stunning model flexing its revs on the pavement, before the Italians step out to stop traffic and organise some manoeuvres in true Italian style. Who else in the world would back up a Lamborghini in city traffic with someone waving the other cars to a stop? Check out the Aventador in live pics from the motor show below.

Source | Autoblog.com

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To celebrate 150 years of Italian unification, just about every Italian brand and business has done something for the national party; it’s just that some brands can afford to really celebrate in style. Like Italian supercar manufacturer, Lamborghini, for example. It produced this Lamborghini Gallardo Tricolore edition to pay homage to the Italian flag. The model features an elegant white exterior tint with an off-centre stripe in red, white and green.

The Gallardo Tricolore will also make it to production in announcements from the company. What’s more, Lamborghini says this won’t be a limited run special edition, so we’re assuming you can order yours whenever you’re ready. It has the usual spiky design from Lamborghin and 550 hp. See it in the pics below.

Lamborghini Gallardo Tricolore

Continue reading: Gallardo Tricolore celebrates Italy

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The fame of the Ducati brand has increased thanks to product placement in various movies of late, such that Ducati shares second place with Audi behind Apple in brand recognition in the US. The results come from a study conducted by Brandchannel and show that the recent roles of a Ducati in Tron Legacy, Knight and Day, Takers and The Expendables are paying off.

In particular, the appearance of a Ducati Hypermotard in Knight and Day has had a particularly good response, despite controversy over the fact that some stunts were performed with an Aprilia bike and not a Ducati. Even though former Ducati rider in the MotoGP Casey Stoner has moved to Honda and is the favourite this year to win, we get the feeling stuff like Keira Knightley’s Ducati ride in the Choco Chanel ads will help, too. It’s a big achievement for the Italian motorcycle brand particularly in the current economic climate with an industry going through some crisis as well.

Source | Autoblog.com
Photo| TwoWheelsBlog

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