It takes a special kind of confidence to modify a new Ferrari. After all, who wants to mess with what many people regard as perfection. However, Imola Racing, a member of the DIMEX Group of Wiesbaden, Germany, specializes in doing exactly that. We’ve got some photos (but unfortunately, not many details) of the latest tuned Ferrari to roll out of Imola Racing’s garages in Germany. This widebody 612 Scaglietti sports a full body kit, monster wheels and a unique paint job.

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Might it be possible that the General would consider going retro for its next Corvette? It’s worked wonders for the current crop of remade pony cars, with Chevy’s own Camaro being a prime example. Some might argue, though, that the modern ‘Vette has never really strayed from its core ethos of offering big performance for a relatively low price, so perhaps it’s not in dire need of visiting the past for inspiration. On the other hand, its current styling is an evolution of the C4 design and doesn’t bear much resemblance to past classic generations. Continued

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With GM facing well-publicized challenges — along with just about everyone else who needs a little thing called money — certain high-profile and expensive programs are crowding up on the back burner. Even America’s sports car, the Corvette, is not exempt, with CAFE regulations clouding the view inside the ‘Vette Nation’s crystal ball.

Motor Trend, commenting on the C7 Corvette’s delayed arrival, has said that the new coupe won’t appear until the 2014 model year at the earliest. The mid-engined route has also been scrapped, since it would simply cost too much to re-engineer the entire car for the purpose of easier integration of fuel saving tech like cylinder deactivation.

That means a six-cylinder is still being talked about — by GM outsiders only, at this point — as an option for the C7. If we take the Camaro as an example, that 2014 introduction date could mean late 2012, but that still only gives you four years to mentally prepare for a budget- and economy-minded V6 Corvette. Get cracking.

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It’s been more than a decade since the “recession-proof” Chevrolet Corvette had to endure a production cut due to excess dealer inventory, but that’s apparently the case once again. Citing slow sales related to the ongoing automotive recession, GM will turn off the Corvette’s factory lights during the week of October 6th. When Vette assembly resumes the following week, production will be scaled back to 15 cars per hour (normal speed is 18.5 cars per hour). Unfortunately, GM says layoffs will accompany the new schedule at the Bowling Green facility, with up to 75 workers losing their jobs. While surprising, the news isn’t entirely unexpected. Corvette sales were down 8.5 percent for the year through August of 2008. They only rebounded after GM included the model in the employee pricing sale… and we all know a shot in the arm like that won’t hold out over time.

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Our friends over at Jalopnik hit the jackpot with these new shots of the Corvette Centennial Concept that was built to play a role in next summer’s blockbuster ‘Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen’ as well as to celebrate General Motors 100-year anniversary. The futuristic Corvette concept takes several styling cues from the older Vettes including the split rear-window from the ’63 Sting Ray. GM has been awfully quite with the Corvette Centennial so we’ll have to take Jalopnik’s word that the concept does not preview in any way the forthcoming C7 Vette.

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The ‘63 Corvette Stingray split-window coupe may not have been quite as aerodynamic as GM would have us believe, but it does remain one of the most iconic designs of all time. So iconic, in fact, that one shipyard is considering taking it to the water to see if the shape is seaworthy.

Bo Zolland of Sweden’s Strand-Craft shirks the minimalist design of his home country’s most prolific furniture chain with the most exquisitely designed and crafted teak-decked retro runabout ever to grace the surface of water, with a little Corvette flair thrown in for good measure. The blueprints call for a carbon-fiber hull and a big block engine with competition prop drives (we see two engines powering the one above). Strand-Craft is taking orders for an untold limited number of Stingray speedboats to be made on special order according to the customer’s speficifications, and we have a feeling there might be some Corvette aficionados who’d be eager to bring their passion out of land-lock and out onto the open water.

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Blue Fusion is the latest company to join in on the latest trend here in the States of re-bodying new Corvettes to look like the second generation model of the 1960s. Dubbed the Rossi 66, Blue Fusion’s Corvette will use the current C6/Z06/ZR1 platform and dress it with a body that mimics the lines of the 1966 C2 split window ‘Vette. Or at least that’s what Blue Fusion supports as the only year that the split window made its appearance on the C2 Corvette was in 1963 – talk about a big booboo.

Model-Year blunder aside, the first production version of the Rossi 66 will be displayed at the SEMA 2008 in Las Vegas this fall. The car will be built to order at he company’s facilities from a new C6, a C6/Z06/ZR1 or a customer supplied C6 donor chassis. Along with the coupe version, Blue Fusion says that it is also preparing a fully functioning convertible and various stages of Sport and Competition versions that will include a GT2 class type for full on-track racing applications.

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