Ferrari Mailing List: Ferrari Factory Tour

[Doug & Terri (dnt]

FG asks "What's the general advice in trying to book [a Ferrari tour] it?"

 

Short answer:

As my old Hungarian friend, Tibor, who escaped the Russians in 1956 would say "if you don’t ask, you'll end up with the same answer as if they said no. - always ask."  I have had two tours - one in 1979 which was a walk in and once in 1999 as part of a car guy tour.

 

Long answer:

Picture this - it's 1979, Tibor and I have just dropped a friend off at Ljubljana airport in, then, Jugoslavia.  What do we do now?  ROAD TRIP to Modena and the Ferrari factory.  Off we go.  The factory comes up "POW" on the left hand side of the small street - no fanfare - just like the books show it - brick building with an open fence and a couple of Ferrari badge like signs.  No activity - it's the second day of the month long holiday vacation in August.

 

We park next to the factory and walk in.  The little guard sitting in the building doesn’t speak English - we don’t speak Italian.  But with sign language and what not he conveys to "come back at 1:00."  We go across the street to the Cavallino Deli - no restaurant just a deli and near 1:00 we go back to the office. 

 

There in the very small lounge sitting in front of a yellow tiled checkerboard wall - one tile with a Cavallino, and then a solid yellow tile is the current F1 car.  The F1 has two names and two numbers one for each side.  Gilles and Jodi, 11 and 12.  I take a lot of pictures. 

 

At 1:00 a fellow dressed in gazillion dollar Italian suit, wearing a gazillion dollar watch comes out and asks if he can help us?  We'd like to see a little of the factory.  Uh-huh, well, do either of you own a Ferrari?  No.  Do either of you work for Ferrari?  Uh, no.  Do either of you work for an independent Ferrari shop?  No.  Well then - sweeping his arm arc describing the small lounge with the F1 car - You have seen a little of the Ferrari factory. 

 

So I spoke up - both of us own Porsches - and in the mind of a Porsche owner the last car to own is a Ferrari.  Hmmmm - he looks at his watch - and then asks - would 45 minutes be enough?  Hearts leap - yes.  Would it be ok to bring my camera.  Sure.  And off we went, crunch crunch crunching across the gravel inner court. To final assembly building. 

 

One other little story - as we near the finally assembly building across the gravel court it's about 1:10 and a siren goes off - for maybe 10 seconds.  A long time.  Since the factory is on holiday and there are no workers I asked if that signaled the end of the lunch hour?  No - they are testing an engine - if it stays together, we ship it. (!!). 

 

In the building I recall walking by the huge mills with stacks of 12 cyl blocks waiting for machining.  There was a rack of unfinished crank shafts and at the end of our destination in the building new cars are scattered about.  It was the first time I'd ever seen a BB512 up close - brown.  There were other cars in various states of completion but I forget what they were or going to be.  At the end of the 'tour' I asked for the fellows name and address.  He wrote "a name," (I forget) followed by "Piero."  I often wonder if it was Piero Ferrari - tho that wasn’t the name he used.  I ought to get the slide out and post the picture and ask if anyone recognizes this man.  Ah ah ah.

 

A final observation- 20 years between visits had changed the factory as if I had gone to the site where Disneyland was going to be in 1954 and had a glass of orange juice from the orange groves  at a local restaurant and then came back 20 years later to find Disneyland in the very same spot.  1999 was VERY different.  So add 15 years to that - plus the politics of the animal - well, no doubt there's going to be other big changes -  I bet.

 

Onward

DOUG