Lots of pics are circulating on the interweb of what purport to be mules for new Ferrari models, though they are from legendary spy-snapper Hans Lehmann and he's not normally wrong. One is said to be a 430 Challenge Stradale, which is a logical development, but the other is a bit more exciting - allegedly a new entry-level Ferrari, a 21st Century Dino. If this is so, sadly it will not be a svelte little beauty like the original, but a much bigger car, as the use of 430 body panels on the test mule shows.

This is a common trend for Ferrari (and others) as its customer base gets older, larger and less agile. Shame, as a Boxster rival would have been nice for the youngsters, but maybe the marketing men think that accesibilty cheapens the brand, or it may just be about profit levels.

The original Dino had a 2 litre V6, but the new car is said to have a 400bhp V8, or about what the contemporary F1 car had when the Dino was conceived! It's likely Pininfarina will do the design work and an illustration of what it might look like is included, though why it's on the Monza banking is not clear.

"Dino"

The Challenge Stradale is a repeat prescription, a road going version of the fantastically successful race series which started with the 348. Ferrari have apparently upped the power and cut the weight, the new car is said to be at least 520 bhp and about 100 kg lighter.

Safety regulations mean that the door windows would not be plastic like on the 360 CS and the wheels have 5 normal lug bolts instead of one center bolt like on the Challenge cars.

The inside of the doors are said to be carbon fibre as is the rear grille and the wheels in magnesium. It looks like the brakes are upgraded with bigger discs. The car is said to be hitting the road in 2007.

Of course we have no inside information so have no idea whether any of these rumours are based on fact.

BTW the microphone helps engineers to ensure that the car will just meet legislated noise levels, has to be done even though most will probably be Tubi de-catted in short order!

"430 CS"