Through the famous red brick archway and turn right. It looks like a dead end, but here in a tucked away corner, dwarfed by the main production building and only 50m from Maranello's main entrance, is a workshop. It's smaller than you imagine, more cluttered. This is where the world's most expensive cars come when they need a spruce up. Ferrari's Classiche department.
You'd also imagine it's been here since the beginning. But back when it got going in the Fifties and Sixties, Ferrari didn't know it was going to be a big deal. It was a race team. It built cutting edge racers to the latest regulations. It was all about what's next, not what's past.
It was Jean Todt who spotted the value in the back catalogue and realised that if others were restoring and rebuilding Ferraris, heck, the firm itself should have a stake in that. That was 2004. Just 20 years ago.
The Classiche (that second one is a hard C) unit got going two years later.
"It exists to preserve our heritage, our story and keep alive the legacy that a great man, our founder, left us," Andrea Modena, head of Ferrari Classiche, tells me. Once a car is 20 years old, it's designated a classic and falls under the umbrella of Modena's team. "We try to preserve every single one produced from 12 March 1947 until this precise day 20 years ago."
He's taking me for a tour. The cars are crammed in tightly, none shown special dispensation. I get the impression that if they had more space, Classiche would expand to fill it. There are just six bays, plus a separate benched area for engine and gearbox work. Nor is it immaculately clean. I walk beyond a divider and find boxes full of old parts and some ancient machining tools.
この記事は BBC Top Gear UK の March 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は BBC Top Gear UK の March 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
HEAD TO HEAD VANTAGE vs 911 TURBO
For as long as we can remember the Porsche 911 has been the default best sports car money can buy. Does the new Aston Vantage represent a changing of the guard?
BOSS LEVEL:PART TWO
In a world exclusive, three makers of the world's most powerful hypercars are cordially invited... to drive each other's creations
THE THEORY 0F EVOLUTION
Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar's future, or gone mad?
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
The Jesko Attack drives like a conventional supercar. Brakes like one, turns like one, grips like one. But it doesn't accelerate like one.
STIC LAPS are back!
It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.
URBAN OUTWITTERS
Does the solution to city motoring lie in designs from the past with powertrains from the future? TopGear goes in search of answers... at rush hour
FUTURE FERRARIS
If you thought Ferrar's past was colourful, wait until you see what it's cooking up next. The future's bright, the future's rosso
DIRTY DOZEN
Ferrari's new super GT makes no secrets about what's under the bonnet, but can it swallow five countries in just a few hours? Better get on with it...
MYTH BUSTER
\"ADAPTIVE DAMPERS ALWAYS NEED TO ADAPT\"
The S2000 from a parallel universe
Meet Evasive Motorsports’ Honda S2000R, the car the Japanese firm should have built itself
