Only a couple of days ago a Ferrari exec confirmed that development had started on an ‘XX’ experimental version of the LaFerrari supercar, and now we have spy shots of a LaFerrari prototype that’s likely to be for just that car. The potential LaFerrari XX prototype was spotted testing on the Nürburgring, and according to our photographer it managed to lap the German circuit in time of about 6:35. This would give it the lap record for a car based on a production model, which currently stands at 6:47.50, as set by the Pagani Zonda R back in 2010. We say production based because, like Ferrari’s previous XX cars, the LaFerrari XX won’t be a regular production model and thus not street legal.

The prototype is unpainted, revealing the bare carbon fiber body panels, and its windows have been replaced by a racing-style polycarbonate set. It’s too difficult to tell what other changes have been made, although we’re told the car was tested with different sets of Pirelli tires. This suggests that the LaFerrari XX is still in the early stages of development.

On Tuesday, Antonello Coletta, the head of Ferrari’s Sporting Activity Department, which handles all of the automaker’s track programs apart from Formula One, revealed that the LaFerrari XX was in development, with a launch likely to take place early next year. This means we’re likely to see the car unveiled to the public at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show next March.

Coletta also said that rather than extracting more performance from the standard LaFerrari’s hybrid drivetrain, which is already producing upwards of 950 horsepower and 663 pound-feet of torque, engineers will focus on the handling of the car. He explained that the LaFerrari was tuned for the road and that a track-only car like the LaFerrari XX requires completely different settings.

Look for the LaFerrari XX to benefit from some weight-saving measures, improved aerodynamics (with a focus on downforce), slick tires, new suspension, and revised electronic stability and traction systems.

While the LaFerrari is being produced in a limited run of 499 cars, all of which have been sold, the LaFerrari XX will likely add a couple of dozen units to that tally. The XX cars are typically kept and maintained by Ferrari, with owners flying in to various race tracks around the world to drive the cars on the track and provide feedback to engineers. The program is designed for Ferrari’s most loyal customers, although it’s not unusual to find XX cars for sale on the used car market.

Stay tuned for updates as development progresses.

Beautiful again

Ferrari LaFerraris are becoming an increasingly common sight on the streets of Monaco. Not a single day goes by without spotting the hybrid supercar in the Principality.

So it comes as no surprise we have one more video of the LaFerrari to share with you. WillLillo SuperCars has filmed the Italian supercar cruising around and we must say it looks fantastic as usual.

We work with embargos all the time in the world of journalism, and especially in car journalism. When manufacturer A invites us to drive the new such-and-such, they will set an embargo date that, in theory, will allow all the front-line titles to publish their thoughts pretty much at the same time.

Hence the reason you’ll see a great wave of “We’ve driven it” type publicity about the new BMW M3 in May of this year, because that’s when BMW has set the embargo for driving impressions of its new uber-saloon.

Except rarely is it as simple as that. Take the new M3 as a case in point. As it stands the UK’s journalists won’t get to drive the car on this occasion until the afternoon of the date itself, which means the only way you’ll be able to read about the new M3 on its embargo date – from a UK title – will be online.

The dear old magazines that still publish on something called paper won’t be able to publish until at least a week later, and that makes it very hard indeed for the likes of Autocar to publish anything meaningful by the following Wednesday. Which means our main magazine coverage of the new M3 will feel at least two weeks out of date when it appears in the magazine.

And that’s entirely thanks to the embargo system.

But in a weird kind of way, what goes around comes around with embargoes. Sometimes they work in your favour as a title, sometimes they don’t; it all depends on which day of the week the embargo falls upon.

So we all tend to get on with and agree to the embargo system by and large because, if you think about it, there really is no other way of being fair to everyone over, say, a two-year period. Eventually, everyone will get one up during that time. And at some stage they will go one down as well. Que sera sera.

Unless, of course, Ferrari happens to be involved. Allow me to explain.

Soon, I will be driving the new LaFerrari at Fiorano with a strict embargo date of 30 April. And on the face of it this looks very much like a bingo moment for Autocar (the magazine) because 30 April is a Wednesday.

Trouble is, Ferrari has quite understandably set a second embargo date of 12 May, which will apply to all other syndicated words about the car. In other words, if you are a front line invitee, you can publish on April 30. But if you’re not, then you won’t be able to publish words that you’ve bought (or sold) to other titles around the globe until 12 May.

Which is fair enough on Ferrari’s behalf. They want the titles that they have invited personally to be able to publish first, which makes sense.

But as is the way with publishing, we also want to then syndicate those words to other titles around the world in order to keep the wolf at bay financially; and without being able to do so, most publishing houses would go out of business.

Which is why it was somewhat perplexing to be informed by the Scuderia’s press office that, as of late this week, the embargo date for the syndication of words about driving LaFerrari has now gone back by a fortnight – to 26 May.

Result; editors of the world’s car magazines and websites that haven't been invited to drive the car direct, and who were relying on those who have to provide words and pictures to publish on 12 May, have just gone into a complete flat spin. Hundreds of cover stories that were due to hit the streets globally about the car on or very soon after 12 May have just disappeared into the ether. And I’d imagine the phone lines at Maranello have been reasonably busy ever since.

And so there you have it. The joys of the embargo system explained, sort of. And no, I have no idea how Ferrari will police this particular embargo once the initial wave of publicity has broken on 30 April – although I’d imagine that the threat of a 50,000 euro fine to any front line journalist whose words are published outside their stated titles before 26 May, might just be enough to put most people off. And if you think I’m kidding about the fine, think again.

Enthusiasts around the world – ourselves included – have been anxiously awaiting the ultimate supercar showdown. After all, we seldom see three of the world's preeminent exotic automakers come out with such closely matched machinery in such close proximity as we have with the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. That showdown could occur on no better a playing field than the Nürburgring, but the automakers haven't exactly been playing ball.

Porsche set down a lap time of 6:57, staking its claim as the fastest street-legal production car ever to lap the vaunted Nordschleife. Rather than challenge Zuffenhausen head-on, though, McLaren has only said that the P1 has clocked a time of under seven minutes, and though Ferrari has been testing the new LaFerrari at the Ring, it hasn't released any official time at all. Maranello may, however, be preparing to announce an even faster time.

According to word we're receiving from across the pond, Ferrari has clocked a lap time of 6:35 – only it wasn't achieved in the road-going LaFerrari, but in the upcoming track-bound LaFerrari XX. That model, which was just confirmed and spied last week, will follow in the footsteps of the Enzo-based FXX and the 599XX, which itself recorded a lap time of 6:58 in 2010. Because it's not street-legal, it didn't contend for the same honors, and within a couple of months was pipped on the leaderboard for non-street-legal vehicles by the Pagani Zonda R by over ten seconds.

If verified, the LaFerrari XX lap time would make it the fastest production-based (but, due primarily to its slick tires, not street-legal) car ever to lap the Nürburgring, but would not be enough to dethrone the Porsche 956 in which Stefan Bellof clocked a 6:11 lap time to take pole position at the sports car endurance race in 1983

We recently learned from Jalopnik and UK magazine Autocar that the darlings running Ferrari's press office will fine journalists and publications invited to test-drive their new LaFerrari supercar €50,000 (about $69,000) if they release a review of the hybrid model before April 30 for "front line invitees" and May 26 for "any journalist whose words are published outside their stated titles".

We wonder if any embargo applied on videos without words, because Germany's Sport Auto has just published a three and-a-half minute-long teaser with their test driver Christian Gebhardt running around the test track in the LaFerrari…

Well, until the other outlets join in, treat yourself to the sounds of Maranello's finest in the video that you will find just below the jump.