Ferrari's 458 'Niki Lauda' Is A Sick Joke Waiting To Be Made

This is a special edition Ferrari 458 Italia, and it's about to become the butt of many a sick joke. First though, here's some context.

What we have here is a Ferrari 458 Italia Niki Lauda edition. It’s a one-off (so far), commissioned by a keen Ferrari customer who’s a big fan of Niki Lauda. Any why shouldn’t he be? Lauda won three F1 world titles (two for Ferrari), helping end Ferrari’s 11-year constructor title drought. The man is an F1 legend. Immortalised in film, of course, during 2013, in Rush...

Thing is, Lauda isn’t just famous for his superhuman driving ability and keen technical eye. Mention his name and most will recognise he pulled off one of sport’s all-time great comebacks, surviving a fiery smash in his Ferrari at the 1976 German grand prix and returning to race just three GPs later in Italy, despite sustaining massive facial and internal injuries. Essentially, you think Lauda, and you think Ferrari fire.

Now the 458, good as I’m sure it is, has suffered an unfortunate reputation for going up in flames. Indeed, early in its life the car was recalled because of a fault with the rear wheelarch liner adhesive, which caught light when the car got very hot, and caused several high profile fires.

Okay, more than several.

Hmmm....

Quite a few, in fact.

Yep...

Ferraris are conspicuous. If a 458 is toast, someone will notice.

And here’s the rub. It only takes a quick hand on Photoshop for someone to turn the rather lovely Lauda-edition 458 into a smouldering meme. And, should that car ever go up in smoke, I think the internet might have a bad-taste banter meltdown.

Any ideas for some worse F1-edition supercars? Comment below...