Ferrari Automobile

The mystery deepened Monday in the case of the puzzling crash last week of a $1-million Ferrari Enzo on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Sheriff's detectives said Monday that they believe a gun's magazine discovered near the wreckage is connected to the crash, and they plan to interview an unnamed person who they believe was in the car with Swedish game machine entrepreneur Stefan Eriksson.

I really want to hate this car. The styling is bonkers. It's got a backside like a Botero painting. Thanks to its retractable hardtop, 2+2 seating and slew of cosseting conveniences (power seats, power tilt steering) the Ferrari California bends the scales at nearly 2 tons (3,850 pounds), which is utter sacrilege. The purist in me is appalled that this thunder-thighed California invokes the name of the original, the urbane and finely tailored 1960 250 California Spider SWB. That car, as Ferris Bueller would have noted, was a proper gran turismo Ferrari, with an honorable V-12 under the hood.

You don't see a $175,000 Ferrari 355 GTS every day. Apparently neither had a parking valet at the posh Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. After parking the car for a hotel guest, the 20-year-old was evidently overcome by the urge to drive the sports car. About 1 a.m. Friday he hopped in for a joy ride--and smashed the car into a palm tree only 30 feet from the hotel entrance, sheriff's investigators said. The car may prove to be a total loss.

For sale: 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso, 56,000-plus original miles, once owned by Steve McQueen, perfect condition, brown. Brown? "It's not my favorite color," admits Mike Regalia, the Thousand Oaks auto restorer whose car is the star of this week's Christie's auction in Monterey. "But Steve loved brown."

It started with a crash and ended with a fizzle as Bo Stefan Eriksson, identified as the driver of the infamous smashed red Ferrari Enzo, accepted a plea deal Tuesday in a Los Angeles courtroom. Eriksson, 44, is expected to spend about a year in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of embezzlement related to his dealings with two exotic cars and one count of possessing a gun illegally. An auto theft charge was dismissed.

Los Angeles prosecutors filed embezzlement, grand theft, drunk driving and weapons charges Monday against a former European video game executive, whose involvement in the crash of a rare Ferrari Enzo in Malibu two months ago has mushroomed into a case filled with international intrigue. The charges, more extensive than prosecutors had suggested last week, come as officials with Scotland Yard and U.S.

Ferrari of Beverly Hills plans to locate a dealership here on a temporary basis while it builds a permanent facility in Irvine. The City Council this week approved the two-year lease deal, in which the dealer will pay $15,000 a month for city-owned property at 7600 Westminster Blvd., site of a former car dealership.

Prosecutors on Tuesday delayed a decision on filing charges against a former Swedish videogame executive arrested on suspicion of grand theft of a rare Ferrari, which crashed in Malibu, and two other exotic sports cars. The prosecutors said they needed a few more days to review complex paperwork on how the vehicles were acquired. Stefan Eriksson, 44, who has been in custody since Saturday, will remain locked up because of an immigration hold issued by U.S.

As sheriff's detectives investigate last week's crash that destroyed a $1-million Ferrari, they are now looking into an obscure nonprofit organization that provides disabled people with transit in the San Gabriel Valley. The car's owner, a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the scene of the Feb.

The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority -- the tiny bus firm with its own police force that became part of the criminal probe into the crash of a rare Ferrari in Malibu -- appears to have made its last stop. But not before a final strange ride.

It started with a crash and ended with a fizzle as Bo Stefan Eriksson, identified as the driver of the infamous smashed red Ferrari Enzo, accepted a plea deal Tuesday in a Los Angeles courtroom. Eriksson, 44, is expected to spend about a year in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of embezzlement related to his dealings with two exotic cars and one count of possessing a gun illegally. An auto theft charge was dismissed.

Bo Stefan Eriksson, 44, driver of the red Ferrari that crashed in Malibu earlier this year, got a respite from the law Friday when a jury deadlocked on auto theft and other charges. The Swedish ex-felon was in orange jail fatigues, with his wife watching, when Judge Patricia Schnegg declared a mistrial in the case after jurors voted 10 to 2 for a guilty verdict. Eriksson grinned toward onlookers as he was escorted away to meet with his lawyers.

Eight months later, the cars still have their mystique. A black Ferrari Enzo. A McLaren Mercedes-Benz. And of course the by-now iconic red Ferrari Enzo, the more alluring for having been smashed. The names of all three cars flew around the courtroom like sparks Monday morning, enlivening an otherwise lusterless discussion of lease terms and payment plans as the trial of Swedish businessman and ex-convict Bo Stefan Eriksson got underway.

A Swedish businessman and ex-convict charged in the infamous crash of a million-dollar Ferrari in Malibu pleaded no contest Thursday to drunk driving. Bo Stefan Eriksson, 44, agreed to the plea deal to clear the way for his trial next week on grand theft, embezzlement and firearms possession charges, his lawyers said. "We want to fight the battle where the battle is. It makes no sense to chase windmills and waste the jury's time and the court's time," said attorney James Parkman.

A Swedish businessman who became notorious after he allegedly crashed an exotic Ferrari sports car in Malibu in April rejected a plea deal Monday that would have had him spend two years and four months in prison. Instead, Bo Stefan M. Eriksson, 44, will stand trial on seven charges of embezzlement, grand theft auto, firearms possession and drunk driving. He faces a maximum sentence of 11 years and two months if convicted of all counts.

The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority -- the tiny bus firm with its own police force that became part of the criminal probe into the crash of a rare Ferrari in Malibu -- appears to have made its last stop. But not before a final strange ride.

You would think, given the Ferrari F430 Spider's unearthly good looks -- its sheet metal like a fierce, turbulent flow of molten lipstick -- that the car would primarily be a visual experience. And yet, as I sit here reflecting on my week in this car, my brain trembling with San Andreas-like aftershocks and my hair fully locked in the horizontal position, what I remember most is its sound -- or sounds. This thing has more voices than Linda Blair in full antichrist mode.

Sheriff's deputies have arrested the Swedish video game executive who crashed in a rare Ferrari in Malibu in February, alleging that he didn't own that car and others in his $3.5-million exotic car collection, authorities said Sunday. Stefan Eriksson faces grand theft charges after detectives raided his gated Bel-Air estate Friday night, spent six hours searching it and then took him into custody Saturday night.

A man who authorities said may have been an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and a second man who has not been identified were killed Tuesday in a rollover accident involving a Ferrari, the second high-profile Ferrari crash this year in Los Angeles County. The accident on Cornell Road in Agoura Hills occurred about 3:15 p.m., when the silver 1993 Ferrari Testarossa spun off the road and flipped, the CHP said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies seized guns, badges and police cars Tuesday and arrested the founder of a small San Gabriel Valley transit agency at the center of an investigation spawned by the February crash of a rare Ferrari in Malibu. Deputies investigating the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority searched its headquarters in Arcadia, as well as a Monrovia body shop and homes in Bradbury and Whittier owned by board members.