For all of the romance that Northern Italy holds, Ferrari was not nearly as dreamy of a setting as I had hoped. For starters we arrived to gloomy skies and fairly constant rain. In retrospect I probably should have seen that as a precursor or an omen for the day that would eventually transpire.
It wasn’t bad per say, but it wasn’t a hyperactive energetic blast of Italian Exotica either.
Originally Ferrari had been one of the more difficult places to ‘get into’, because let’s face it, they’re Ferrari. They don’t really need any more pub. Car freaks and housewives around the world know who and what they build. They constantly seem to have the ability to take the greatest, sexiest shape and reinvent it again and again, while never losing their sex appeal. In the world of design that’s not exactly the easiest thing to do repeatedly time and again.
Interestingly when we finally arrived at the front gates, any difficultly we had getting in dramatically changed. Suddenly the folks at the factory could not have been more helpful or more willing to share.
Ultimately however the downside – and the thread that I hadn’t recognized until later in the day – is that the amount of time and effort that it took to get through the layers of ‘the corporation that is Ferrari’ probably should have raised red flags in my gearhead soul. Because the Ferrari of today is not the Ferrari of your father. Today it’s a full-fledged corporate behemoth that seems on one hand to admire it’s past, yet on the other hand want to distance itself against all odds from the man himself, Enzo Ferrari.
For these folks Enzo is in many ways an enigma. He is both a legacy and a considerable amount of excess baggage. Maybe it’s just the modern multinational world that we live but just about everyone we spoke with was either very short about the man or didn’t want to go there at all. This lack of desire to touch the brands past baffles me - I mean lets be real here, it’s Enzo Ferrari we’re talking about, the inventor of Italian speed. Why a corporation – no matter how large – would want to distance itself from such a cornerstone automotive icon and individual completely surprised me.
That being said, the factory itself was something special to see. It was perhaps the most modern automotive factory I’ve ever been in outside of a Toyota plant. The most unique part by far was the vintage racecars they keep on the factory floor to inspire the employees. This was also the first factory I’ve seen with indoor plants – and I don’t mean one or two but rows on rows of greenery. A couple of other things that I found interesting: Ferrari has its own foundry onsite, they have recently opened their own restoration shop ( their version of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center), and the according to the tour guide the F1 engines get built on the same factory floor as the ‘regular’ engines.
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When I was 17, I actually drove one of Enzo’s creations> a 275GTS. I had died and gone to heaven. Ever since, I have loved his cars. They’re not all beauties, some were not that reliable or comfortable, but many were the source of pure lust. And they are the reason I ride a Ducati today. I couldn’t afford one then and I can’t afford one now. But some of that thrill comes through with a twist of the wrist, and that pomodoro red paint.
I’m sorry the Ferrari organization has gone so far over to the dark side . . . of the corporate world. But, I guess you have to make a profit if you want to continue to build artwork.