Ferrari Factory Tour Notes June 2007

I visited the factory on June 28, 2007 and thought my notes and observations below would be of general interest. I hope I got all the facts straight as I was scribbling quickly from the audio guide and while the group guide was talking.

Directions and signage to the factory tour entrance were not good. An Italian friend was driving and he had trouble finding it.
There is free two hour parking behind the factory store.
The tour lasted about 2 hours and is limited to the owner and two guests.
At check-in I handed in my invitation letter and it was not returned so you might want to make a copy.
Cameras were taken away in the reception area and returned after the tour.
There was a total group of about 20 people split between 3 guides.
We were first led into a room to see an introductory film about the history of the company.
All cars are built to order, in order and it is a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year wait.
Audio guides were handed out and we got to keep the Ferrari logo headsets and a booklet.
Ferrari passports were given to the owners.
The wind tunnel was designed by Renzo Piano, has a 5 meter fan, is for 1/3 scale models and has a maximum air speed of 300 km/h. Only used by Ferrari and mostly for F1.
Top speed of the new F1 is 360 km/h.
Because of the track's size, the cars can only can reach 280 on the test track.
About 3,000 employees total and 800 of them are in the racing division!
They seem to have very few suppliers and fabricate almost everything in house.
In 2009 there will be a new car assembly factory building but the cars will still be hand built.

Engine component shop:
They make enough parts to assemble 62 engines per day.
50 workers on each of 3 shifts. All other production areas work only one shift.
The 15,000 square meter shop is air conditioned and has 100 CNC machines.
A robot installs the valve guides, first dipping them in liquid nitrogen.
The foundry for engine parts is in another building.
Current and vintage cars and complete engines are on display in the shop.
It takes 35 days to make a crankshaft. It loses half its weight during machining.
The inspection room kept at 20 degrees C.

Paint Shop:
160 employees
Capacity of 62 shells per day.
I was surprised that the cars were not grouped by color to save time cleaning the paint system between cars.
All the Ferraris have aluminum body shells and the Maseratis are steel.
All shells are dipped vertically in a vat of corrosion resistant primer and rotated 360 degrees to get the primer into all nooks and crannys.
A worker sprays the jams by hand but robots paint most of the car.
There are 30 standard colors. They will paint your car any color you want. Last year 3% of customers asked for 35 different custom colors.
47% of the Ferraris last year were Rossa Red.
Shells are 20 minutes in the oven.
A shell spends 10 hours in the paint shop.
Body shells are made in another factory building off-site by 120 employees.

Engine Assembly Shop:
Engines are completely hand built.
99.5% of the engines are assembled without a problem.
The 8 cylinder Ferrari engines are 490 hp, 8 cylinder Maserati engines are 400 hp, 612 Scaglietti engines are 540 hp and 599 BTB Fiorano engines are 620 hp.
54 eight cylinder engines are built per day on a timed assembly line in a U shape.
There are 45 stations for the 8 cylinder engines spending 25.5 minutes at each station.
It takes 3 days to assembly an 8 cylinder engine.
28 Ferrari and 34 Maserati engines are built per day.
8 workers each build one 12 cylinder engine per day.

Upholstery Shop:
60 employees (almost entirely women) create the interiors from tanned hides.
It takes 3 hides for an interior. After noting blemishes, a hide is placed on a large table and various shapes are projected by light onto the hide. The operator moves the shapes around until he is satisfied and then the shapes are cut out with a laser.
The shapes are joined on sewing machines.
We also saw them using heat guns to stretch the shapes over structural backing pieces.

Car Assembly:
360 employees on one shift. Average 1 F430 per day.
The 8 cylinder cars are built on a U-shaped assembly line. It takes 3 days to assemble an 8 cylinder car.
The 12 cylinder cars are built in a straight line. The assembly line moves every 54 minutes and there are 32 stations. It takes 5 days to assemble a 12 cylinder car.
Engines are run on a dyno before being installed in a car.
I was told they even make their own carbon fiber parts.
I think they said there are about 500 options available. 92% of the cars are built with paddle shifters. Some of the cars being assembled had ceramic brake discs.
There are about equal amounts of Spyders and Coupes made.
Each car has a book about a quarter-inch thick that follows it through the entire fabrication and assembly process. The workers sign and stamp the books.

The factory auctions off their 3-year old F1 cars with or without engine.

They have a classic rebuild program for cars over 20 years old.

30% of Ferrari production goes to North America, 12% to Germany and 11% to Italy.

There are 10-12 test drivers that take each car on the public road for 50 kms. Afterwards the cars go to a touch-up area to have any problems fixed.

F1 assembly is done next to the test track which we were not shown.

Museum:
The charge was 12 Euro each with no discounts for owners. I took a picture of every car and engine on display. They had both production and racing equipment. They also had a display of Enzo’s office and a theater showing clips of Ferraris in films. Very entertaining.

 

Sorry, I went back to my notes and now I am not sure how many F430's are made per day.
Barry