Last week I took a family vacation to Europe, aboard the world's largest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas. It did a number of stops in Spain, France and Italy, and I told my wife and kids "This is our 3rd trip to Italy and I don't want to see another Church or another Marble Statue, I'm going to the Ferrari Factory and Museums, who wants to go with me?"
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"OK, how about this, you guys all go to Cinque Terre and I'll rent a car and go by myself at the La Spezia port stop." They said "fine" so I reserved a Alfa Romeo at the rental car agency for that day. It was a 2 hour drive from there to Modena and then another 20 minutes to Maranello. I intended to do both museums (Modena is historic to Enzo Ferrari, Maranello is the factory and more about the cars).
I walked a mile from the port to the rental car agency to collect the Alfa and in typical Italian style they said "Ummmm, sorry - we only have one car left and its not an Alfa". What choice did I have? "Whatever you have is fine long as it runs". So I wedged myself into this underpowered, short-chassis Fiat 500 with a manual box and headed off over the mountains.
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I rented a GPS as well, and was so glad I did that - I'd never have found these places without it. Time was critical, I had to be back to the cruise ship by 7 p.m. so I couldn't afford to burn time getting lost. Driving in Italy is easy, people are courteous and no one rides in the left lane. It's like how the USA should be, but isn't. People let you in, there is no road rage and you don't see anyone on their mobile phones. It's a real pleasure to drive there, and I was winding that Fiat up for all it was worth. And of course the views were spectacular.
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First stop the Modena museum. I won't bore you guys with all the 80 or so photos I took here and go on and on about the spectacular auto art inside, just show you two basic shots and tell you that I could have spend the whole day here, but limited myself to 2 hours. The old building is the house/workshop that Enzo grew up in, the modern building has the cars inside
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Then it was off for another 20 minute ride to Maranello, where the factory is located in a rather plain, blue collar city in a less-than impressive complex. This is the main entrance to the factory. It is not open to the public, however if you are a Ferrari owner your dealer can set you up with a private tour.
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And the Museum located next to the factory. I took way too many photos inside to post here, several hundred of the cars inside.
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For about two blocks on either side of the Museum are Ferrari concession stands, and they sell everything you can imagine with the Ferrari logo on it and also rent Ferraris for fun drives. You can rent them for as little as 10 minutes, or as long as 3 hours. I decided I had to do that, I mean - how often do you get a chance to drive a Ferrari in Maranello, Italy? 10 minutes gets you through a few traffic circles, 20 minutes you're still in town so I opt for the 30 minute package that gets you out into the countryside. I have always wanted to try a front-engined, 12 cylinder Ferrari so while most these places have California's and 360's / 430's I found one that has a 2010 599GTB, a car I have lusted for for quite some time. Price? $ 410 for half an hour. What the heck, you only live once.....
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I signed up for this one:
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They send along one of their employees with you, but they don't nanny you and are there mainly to show you where to turn and how to get back to town. The 599 is a spectacular car - and how can you not like the sound of a V-12 engine? It's extremely quick, very well appointed, and gives you a kick when you step on the gas that my 991S can't match (612 HP vs 400 HP in the Porsche). It is finely balanced in the handling department, however the 991s is more responsive and more of a driver's car, the Ferrari is the OMG LET's GO ride. As we wound our way around town, its amazing how many Ferraris are around on the streets, including the newest models from the Factory in that wild black and white digital camouflage, just cruising the streets on short test runs. I enjoyed most of the 599 very much, but absolutely hated - HATED - the F1 transmission. It was slamming home hard jerks with every shift, enough to rock you in your seat, and that was both in auto mode and in manual on the paddles. I would never own a car with this transmission, it ruins it. Now, to be fair this was a 2010 model, and the newer Ferraris are supposed to have a much smoother one, but for the life of me why did they stop making manual gearboxes at Ferrari? I predict that the Ferrari to buy for your garage would be one of the manual trans ones, they are going to be quite valuable vs these F1 trans cars.
The 599GTB reminded me very much of an Aston Martin V12 DBS, though smaller. It was not a "gotta have one now" experience and if anything it made me feel there is a lot of value in the 991S (and I never thought I would say a $ 100K car has value), but considering a 599 is over twice the price - its not twice the car by a long shot. While the 991 can't match the 612 ponies of the 599, I think the Porsche is more fun to drive overall, but of course the style of the Ferrari is simply breathtaking and its a beautiful car.
And just for the record, I bonded somewhat with the little Fiat 500. There is great satisfaction and big fun in taking a gutless car and driving it flat out in the mountains, working' that gearbox for all its worth to keep momentum up with the big BMW's and Audis that were darting in and out of the tunnels at speed.
If anyone wants to see more photos, let me know!
Duane
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P.S. All the above photos were shot with a FujiFilm fixed lens X100T camera and were not retouched. What a great camera for travel, 1/3 the bulk of my big Nikon D7000 and no loss in photo quality. One of the world's great travel cameras.
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