You're correct regarding the August vacation issue.. my son and I are trying to get a factory tour slot August 28th and Ferrari of Denver said that the entire factory was shut down and they couldn't even request a slot for September until September 1st 🤷♂️
-------- Original message --------
From: Peter Rychel <dino308gt4 [at] hotmail.com>
Date: 8/8/23 9:37 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: Mark <misc [at] 308systems.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] We gonna need a bigger boat.
Actually you are lucky for the private tour because as far as I know, nearly all of Italy goes on holiday in August. I'm surprised the factory was open. I guess to meet production numbers, they have to stay open all year now.
Yeah, I heard that the Scuderia shields on the fenders are hand-painted now... Probably charge the same price! Surprising because I'm sure it would cost more - labour-wise - for someone to paint them on, instead of having a cloisonne badge made and popped on.
Hopefully it'll be a number of years before the entire model lineup becomes all electric. At the recent Roma Spider preview I attended last week, the salesmen were rather coy on when that car becomes hybrid. Not many models left that's only gas.
I’m back from my visit to the factory and the F1 race at Spa, Belgium. I’ll try to send a few short highlights everyday.
First, I actually had a PRIVATE guided tour of the factory. The other 2 guys didn’t show up. My 2 other visits (2009-2016) we were 10-12. I had again the same notebook that was given to me by Ferrari in 2009. So, now in the same book I have notes
from my 3 visits. I’ll compare the numbers through the years.
This picture is actually where will be the new paint shop and the all-electric car Ferrari will built in 2025. For those who know the factory, this is facing the exit/entry door when test drivers went out. Now they go out on the left of the new
official entrance.
-15 new models by 2030.
-Shield on the side: Now the shield is actually painted on the car. I think it’s fantastic.
-F1 Cliente: They sell all the F1 cars (need to be 2 years old) Client can keep the car if they want, but can’t try to start it. It can be used as display only. Otherwise, Ferrari keeps the car and organise shipping and maintenance when you want
to participate in special events (15 in 2016). They are actually running out of space to store them. So, they built another building on the test track.
-3000 employees in 2009, now 5000.
-33 % female employees.
-If I read my notes correctly: 5 days to built a car / 62 cars a day.
-85% handmade. If work is too redundant then a robot does it.
-10 test drivers in 2009 / now 100 because employees are encouraged to test the cars (don’t know what the qualifications are).
-Upholstery 40 employees / 5 pieces for 1 car.
-All reject leather pieces are recycled. Example in keychains, etc,
-All cars are tested 80-100 km. This hasn’t changed through the years.
-Still have a Maserati engine line even though it is owned by Stellantis.
-V-12 1 employe needs 5 days. No more signature, they use a barcode to identify the mechanic.
-Trees and plants in the engine building is mostly to keep the temperature and humidity at a steady level, absorb pollution/dirt.
-Romeo and Juliette are gone or will be gone soon: They use thermal interference process (no clue what it is).
-F1 building: I saw a 60% scale model / takes 4 days to assemble an F1 car / 60 F1 engines a year (with Haas and Alfa Romeo)
-2009: 900 F1 employees / 2023: 1400 (for 2 cars).
-Another new building for ACTIVITA SPORTING GT (cars I saw were 296 challenge FXX (40 in the world), FXX EVO Aperta (34 in the world). In the same building 35 F1 Cliente. I saw 2 modern F1 (Vettel’s F1), these are much much bigger when you see
them with Schumacher’s cars and other F1 from different decades.
-Maranello 17000 habitants.
Funny fact I didn’t know: Enzo Ferrari never wanted a Museum for his cars. The Museum in Maranello opened 1 year after his death.
Reading my own hand written notes was hard at times. Hope you enjoyed.
Michael Savard (1918 308 GTSi)
aol.com)
