Recently, a customer was kind enough to share a written account of their most recent trip to the Ferrari Factory after not having been for 42 years, and we thought it was too special to not share with you all:

“I had toured the Ferrari factory on one previous occasion. This was in 1982 when I joined a trip organised by the British Ferrari Owner’s Club. In those days, it was still a small operation and there were 308’s undergoing final preparation before delivery. It was during the visit that I realised that the boss of Maranello Concessionaires had driven his ‘company car’, a Ferrari 400i, over from England to join us and that added real substance to my boyhood dream of driving my own Ferrari down to the factory. I’m quite confident that our GTE would have made it the 1,000 miles from our home to Maranello but we decided that we would be more comfortable in our Roma. 

The road trip to Italy, gave us the opportunity to drop in on some GTE friends in Basel, Switzerland and in Turin, on the return leg. However, the trip would not have been complete without calling in on our favourite Champagne house, Diebolt Vallois in Cramant, as a final stop. We enjoyed the old hillclimb at Vernasca between Piacenza and Parma, took in some of the Mille Miglia roads including the Futa and Raticosa passes and drove some of the mountain roads used by the Ferrari test drivers. Of course, we also took the opportunity to visit the two Ferrari museums in Modena and Maranello to view their latest exhibitions. 

To say there have been some changes to the factory over the 42 years, would be grossly to understate the case. Our whole experience was very professionally organised and the facilities, so very impressive. I’m certainly not an expert on car factories but what Ferrari have put together in Maranello must be amongst the very best in the world. The highlight of my previous visit was for our group to be ushered into a darkened office to meet Enzo Ferrari himself! The office is still there, just inside the courtyard and parked outside was a Purosangue in Verde Dora. This, of course, belongs to Piero Ferrari and as Vice-Chairman he sits in his father’s old office. And just as we were turning away for the next part of our tour, he came out into the sunshine to talk to some colleagues. Not quite such a close encounter as with his father but a special treat to see him nonetheless.

We were privileged to be shown just about every facet of the factory and were very impressed with the air of calm which prevailed in the various departments. In the Design Centre, we were shown the new 12Cilindri, a front-engine, V12 GT Ferrari, a true descendant of the GTE. Wow! We also got to visit the racing department where cars were being prepared for later in the year as the current cars had already left for Imola. Additionally, we were even allowed into the hallowed Classiche Department! This proved to be the most crowded work area on the site with some very interesting early models being worked on. We finished off with a splendid lunch at the famous Montana Restaurant, a haunt of many of Ferrari’s personnel and drivers. 

The icing on the cake though, was being permitted to park the Roma in the forecourt in front of the famous arch of the factory while we enjoyed the tour. Of course, we couldn’t leave without capturing the classic shot of our car under the arch. Mission accomplished after 42 years!