Ferrari’s F70 supercar glimpsed in spy photos made by Ferrari

In the old days, spy photographers traveled the world hunting future models under testing by automakers in disguise. A few intrepid shooters keep the craft alive, but automakers have starting cutting out the middlemen and simply providing their own spy shots, posed by their publicity departments for maximum teasing. Here's the latest proof of how far the trend has gone: close-up photos of the upcoming Ferrari F70 supercar -- a 900-hp, V-12 hybrid monster -- published by Ferrari in its own magazine.

Decades ago, automakers went to extremes to keep details of new models secret, partly to gin up intrigue and partly to keep customers from delaying their purchases until the next model came out. Before Ford launched the first Mustang on April 1964, Lee Iacocca kept the car's image under wraps until revealing it in a daylong nationwide ad blitz and news push -- a trick Steve Jobs and Apple would use for new phones decades later.