Welcome to the Hooniverse News! As always, this is a weekly recap of some of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or bull. I just throw in a little opinion of mine because I can. This week:

• Ferrari 488 gets the Spider treatment

• Chevrolet Colorado now available with a diesel at a premium

• Ford Apollo Edition Mustang raises $230,000 for charity

• Elio Motors’ crowdfunding campaign proves successful

• Listen to the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio for the first time

• What’s your automotive news?

Ferrari 488 Spider

Whenever a new mid-mounted V8 Ferrari comes, a new mid-mounted V8 Ferrari Spider follows. A few months after Ferrari debuted the 488 GTB, the turbocharged replacement to the 458 Italia, we’ve got the 488 Spider to have occupy our dreams. It’ll make its first public appearance at the Frankfurt motor show this September and will most likely hit showrooms next spring.
As expected, all the mechanical goodness introduced in the 488 GTB hardtop carries over to the Spider mostly unchanged. About 661 horsepower and 561 lb.-ft. of torque originate from a 3.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and is put to the ground through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Peak torque starts at 3,000 RPM which helps bring its 0-60 mph down to three seconds flat. 0-124 mph is taken care of in 8.7 seconds and can most likely break 200 mph as long as you haven’t grown fond of your hair.

The 488 Spider gets unlimited headroom courtesy of a retractable hard top similar to what debuted on the 458 Spider. Ferrari made the switch from cloth to keep the structure weight down and improve cabin comfort when it was up. The 488 Spider’s retractable hard top adds 110 pounds to the overall weight, but it’s still 20 pounds lighter than the 458 Spider which had the same kind of folding mechanisms. Like a true Ferrari, the 488 Spider doesn’t lose any torsional rigidity thanks to its modern aluminum spaceframe chassis.

This is also the most aerodynamically efficient Ferrari spider ever built thanks to some complex engineering (because Ferrari). Countless hours in the wind tunnel yielded a blown spoiler, an aerodynamic underbody with vortex generators, and flying buttresses to direct air into the engine bay.
If you want the ultimate drop top Ferrari, this is the one.
[Source: Ferrari via Autoweek]

Chevrolet Colorado diesel priced

Chevrolet’s all-new Colorado was a huge step forward for the all but abandoned midsize truck market when it came out last year. Detroit’s first truck of this kind in years has quickly become a favorite, with GM claiming it to be the fastest-selling truck in its market. At launch only gasoline motors were offered but GM had promised new diesels would follow shortly. That promise is about to be kept. The first Chevrolet Colorado with a diesel will go on sale this fall with a $3,730 premium over similarly equipped gas models.
The diesel motor of choice is a new 2.8-liter Duramax turbo diesel four-cylinder with 181 horsepower and 369 lb.-ft. of torque. They promise great responsiveness and smooth power that will allow for a max towing capacity of up to 7,700 pounds. It’s available as an LT and  Z71 Crew Cab with two or four-wheel drive. The diesel also features a smart diesel exhaust brake system, a Hydra-Matic six-speed automatic matched with a centrifugal pendulum vibration absorber in the torque converter to reduce powertrain noise and vibration, integrated trailer brake controller, and a 3.42 rear axle ratio.
All other features typically found on the Colorado gas models, like a factory spray in bedliner, Chevy MyLink, OnStar 4G LTE with WiFi hotspot, lane departure warning, and others are all found on the diesel model as well.
[Source: Chevrolet]

Ford Mustang Apollo Edition sells for charity

2 weeks ago, Ford announced a new one-off Mustang built to honor everyone involved with NASA’s Apollo. It looked like a Saturn V and had orange neon underbody lighting to make it look like it was going through re-entry. That one. The car was built specifically to be sold for charity at this year’s Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture Oshkosh, an annual event known as the world’s greatest aviation celebration.
Oshkosh has come and gone and the Apollo Edition Mustang has a new home. At an auction benefiting EAA youth aviation programs, the Ford Apollo Edition Mustang sold for $230,000, all of which goes to the charity. This Oshkosh-bound Ford, one of several created for EAA charity auctions over the years, brings the total amount Ford auctions have raised close to $3,000,000 since 2008. Not bad at all.
[Source: Ford]

Elio Motors’ successful crowdfunding

Ever heard of Elio Motors? If not, you will now. Founded in 2008, Elio Motors is trying to bring an ultra-high-mileage vehicle to market through revolutionary manufacturing and a startup attitude. The car they’ve got is a three-wheeled car simply called the Elio and it’s expected to achieve up to 84 mpg on the highway and go on sale for $6,800 apiece next year. It’s got a real motor built by IAV, a real transmission built by Aisin, and a real closed-cockpit body.
To bring a mass-produced Elio to market by next year though, Elio Motors needed some more equity. For the past month they’ve been running a crowdfunding campaign through StartEngine and have received non-binding indications of interest valued at at least $25 million from over 6,000 investors. They’re still taking “indications of interest” from StartEngine, which is good because they’ve already received nearly 45,000 reservations for the little three-wheeler. Both accredited and non-accredited investors can get in on the crowdfunding action.
Funding from this crowdfunding initiative to build an additional 25 prototypes for testing and validation so they can eventually be ready for mass production. Elio’s first production site will be in Shreveport, LA.
[Source: Elio Motors]

Hear the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

[youtube]https://youtu.be/JBvbrPPUZzI[/youtube]
Alfa Romeo’s beautiful Giulia lineup is perhaps one of the most anticipated cars to originate from the boot nation, not least because they debuted the fastest model first. The Giulia Quadrifoglio is the top-of-the-line, Ferrari-powered saloon car that’s occupied our impressionable young minds and our dreams of attacking the never ending Italian back roads forever until it inevitably breaks… no, that might just be me.
We’ve slowly learned more about the car since its debut last month, but today we can all learn with our ear holes. Alfa Romeo released the first video that focuses on the raw sound originating from that ~3.0 liter (video says 2.9) twin-turbocharged V6 without any interference. The Ferrari guys helped with this one and it’s easy to understand why that’s a good thing. It produces at least 503 horsepower (510 metric horsepower) and it sounds great while doing it, as demonstrated in the short video above.
[Source: Alfa Romeo, MOTOR1 via Autoweek]

What’s your automotive news?

A picture of a Porsche 911 with a neat speedster conversion taking a picture of a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.

Just when you thought sitting in traffic on a 100-degree day in the south was bad, a Lamborghini rolls by to make your situation suddenly seem ideal. Now it’s your turn. If you saw, drove, bought, broke, or otherwise did anything newsworthy that you want to share with your fellow hoon, sound off in the comments.
Have a great weekend.
[Image © 2015 Hooniverse/Greg Kachadurian]