Visit To The Ferrari Factory

[sharkster]

Clicky for pics

http://cars.msn.co.uk/carnews/ferrarifactorymay05/#1

Maranello: The home of Ferrari

by Peter Burgess, last updated May 9 2005

This is a story about a trip to the car enthusiasts’ Mecca, Maranello. It’s the place we have read about since we were kids, where they build the cars that still have the most evocative badge in the world, Ferrari.

The omens are good right from the start. BAR F1 star Takuma Sato is on the flight from Heathrow to Bologna, so we quickly put together a conspiracy theory that he is paying a discrete visit to the home of the prancing horse. He is whisked away from the airport and we see nothing more of him. The Planet Hotel is bang opposite the old factory gates. Underneath is the Ferrari store, selling everything from overpriced mugs and T-shirts to small bits of bodywork from crashed F1 cars. Across the car park, in a nondescript yellow building, is the F1 operation. We eat pasta and veal that night in the Montana restaurant up the road, walls lovingly adorned with pictures of Michael Schumacher helping out in the kitchen, and countless images of past drivers, their helmets and overalls displayed around the walls. This place is a shrine.

It’s quiet tonight, even when Sauber F1’s Felipe Massa strolls in for a late meal. Davide Kluzer, our inside man at the factory, arrives even later, torn between paperwork, AC Milan on the office TV and a hearty dinner. We talk late into the night about anything and everything to do with Ferrari, eventually calling a halt with the realization that we have a full day ahead of us in just a few hours. Three days earlier, in Crickhowell, Wales, I had been woken by a traction engine trundling past the window of my B&B at all of 10mph. This morning it’s Massa’s Sauber pounding around the Fiorano circuit that does the business. From the Planet’s windows there’s no F1 car to be seen, but there is a procession of factory workers all dressed in Ferrari red overalls and jackets, just like they are on the way to the pits at Imola.

And so it’s time to visit the factory and the big surprise. The acreage of buildings is just enormous. Ferrari builds 4,700 cars a year, about the same as Aston Martin, yet the Italian plant must be ten times bigger than Aston’s new Gaydon operation (see our link to our report from our visit there at bottom). With good reason. Ferrari makes far more of its cars itself. While Aston Martin engines are built in Germany, and the gearbox comes from a specialist manufacturer, Ferrari makes the large proportion in house. So the factory has its own foundry to produce the castings and a separate, clinically clean machine shop to finish the engine blocks and cylinder heads. Teams then assemble the power train, complete with transmission, for later installation.

The investment must be astronomical, and it’s difficult not to wonder why so much has been devoted to, say the engine shop, when they turn out a mere 20 units a day. Part of the answer is that Ferrari should be building engines for Maserati, but that adventure, when Ferrari effectively owned the other Italian company, has come to an end. Trying to develop economies of scale with one brand of cars costing 100% more than another just didn’t work. Now Maserati is in Alfa Romeo’s hands...

The aluminium bodies are built down the road in Modena at the Carozzeria Scaglietti before being shipped to Maranello for assembly. Ferrari manufacturing started off in Modena but moved to Maranello to avoid the bombing during the Second World War. Another cute difference with Aston Martin can be seen in the naked form of the body and chassis. The British brand, to its credit, designs its cars to be very readily repairable. Learning from sister company Volvo, (also part of the Ford empire) there are deformable structures at the front, which can be unbolted and replaced if the frontal impact is not too severe. There seems to be none of that in the F430 and while it undoubtedly passes all the crash test requirements, it has to be extremely costly to fix. But who ever said Ferrari ownership was going to be cheap?

If you are the type to count the cost, Ferrari ownership was never going to be for you. The stories of supercar makers being adversely affected by the world economy are arguably more of a concern to Porsche, many of whose buyers earn their income the traditional way, than for Ferrari whose super-rich buyers have far deeper pockets. These wealthy owners are coming from further afield too – Ferrari has recently opened showrooms in Shanghai, Moscow and St Petersburg.

Do you want Michael Schumacher's car?

If you are at the very top of your game you can buy a car built across the road from the larger factory. It will be at least couple of years old but the heritage will be impeccable – it will have been raced by Schumacher or Barrichello. Ferrari Formula 1 cars used to be sold off to old friends, but now as many as 5 cars a year are available to a broader field of buyers. There are rules, however. The two-year minimum age is there to ensure the technology has been superseded. You cannot change the livery, nor can you use it to promote your own business. If you sell it, Ferrari has to be given first option to buy it back.

But the upside is the stuff of dreams. There are a dozen Corse Cliente events a year on circuits around the world. You turn up with your grand prix car and Ferrari provides full F1 mechanical backup with pit crews who have done the business at the sharp end but now value their free time a bit more. There’s no racing in theory, but stick a bunch of F1 Ferraris on a track and there’s bound to be competition. The cost? It starts of at around one million euros for a car without a great history, much more for one of Michael’s winners. Don’t even think about the running costs.

Back in the main factory, it’s welcoming to see the mix of new and old craft. Lasers are used to mark the templates on the hide skin, and the computer-controlled cutter then follows this pattern to extraordinarily fine tolerances. But then the leather is handed over to a bevy of women on sewing machines who bring the seats, panelling and dashboard together. It’s this mix of old and new that helps keep Ferrari at the top of its game. It’s undoubtedly expensive to build such high technology cars in such small numbers, but the end result is worth the effort. We should be grateful there are still enough buyers out there who keep the demand strong.

[fuzzo]

for a minute there i thought you have been there...

[sharkster]

for a minute there i thought you have been there...

a bitch at uni did her internship there for a yr

[fuzzo]

a bitch at uni did her internship there for a yr

hope she liked cars....

[sharkster]

hope she liked cars....

yup she was an automotiv engineer...ugly but still