My journey to Mecca (the Ferrari Factory)

So, we have just retuned from Italy. It was a fantastic trip for the whole family. Of course, I had take one day out of our trip and make the journey to Maranello to visit the Ferrari factory.

Our home base for this trip was Rome. I originally thought I would rent a car and drive to Maranello. What looked to be a four hour drive on Mapquest could take 6+ hours (and certainly longer coming back to Rome at Rush hour on a Friday evening). So I elected to take the train. We had taken the hi speed train (designed by Pinninfarina) to Florence the day before and it was very efficient and comfortable. Of course, the train to the factory could not be that simple.

Our hotel was right near one of Rome's 7 main train terminals. However, the only trains that got me to Maranello in time for my 10AM tour left from another station across town. Working backwards from the time I had to be at the factory (10AM sharp), there was a train which arrived in Modena (closest to Maranello) at either 8:15 or 9:45. Modena is about 15K from the Factory, so I elected to take the earlier train. This train was scheduled to leave Rome at 4:28AM.

My Blackberry alarm clock rand at 3AM. Surprisingly, I only hit the snooze once. Quite frankly, I had not slept well the night before. I kept thinking about what advice I was going to give Luca Montezemolo on future product design or discussing the "Massa problem" with Jean Todt . After a quick shave and shower, the cab picked me up at 3:30. I was at the train station 45 minutes
early (first time in my life). This was not the station in the tourist part of town, but closer to where the local workers live. But the train did not come at 4:28, or 4:38, or 4:48 or 4:58. No one seemed to mind except me. Late trains must be the standard and probably an acceptable excuse for being late to work.

The train finally came around 5:20 (glad I got up so early) and was a complete disaster. This was not the modern, comfortable, Pinninfarina designed coach that I had experienced the day before. It was a dark, smelly, cattle car, with 6 person compartments only (which were all taken up by sleeping families). If you have seen the movie Eurotrip when the lights go off on the Italian train, you know what I was feeling. This train did not have a 160MPH bullet engine but an eastern block choker diesel that made most local stops to Bologna.

Of course, I missed my connection in Bologna and had to take the later train. This was sonething close to our Metra train. Modena is only 3 stops from Bologna.

I rushed off the train and caught the first cab I could find. 35 Euros later (soon to be worth $500 , I got to the front gate (yes, just like the one in the pictures circa 1967). I handed my credentials an d waited in the waiting room with an American dad and his son. There was a vintage 50s roadster shell on the wall that I believe to be a Mondial and a lighted picture display of the history of Ferrari.

After a few minutes, the three of us were bused to the others at the start of the tour. I made it.

There are no photos allowed at anytime inside the factory :-( Normally, I would have snuck in a few shots but it seemed sacreligious to do this, so I did not. The tour lasted two hours and consisted of 12 guests. 4 were from Italy, 5 from Spain and 3 from the United States (all three of who were late).

My first impression was how modern, clean and brightly lit the factory was. It reminded me of a combination of an Intel clean lab and a Hollywood studio tour. There are a handful of buildings that are each the size of a Wallmart.The factory is open 24 hours a day (three shifts of 8 hours) for 6 days a week. On Sunday, th ey have one 8 hour shift and two cleaning shifts. They are constantly cleaning during the work day as well.

While much is assembled by hand, the production of major parts is mainly automated. There are two robots (named Romeo and Juliet) that dip pieces in liquid nitrogen to strenthen them. Quality controls and checks are everywhere. The factory employs 2800 employees. 2000 work on production cars and 800 on work on the Formula One program. The F1 pilots and Ferrari management will often walk through the factory (although not when I was there :-( They make sure everyone works as a team to make Ferrari as successful as it can be. All employees and their family have healthcare provided at the factory by the doctors of the Italian Olympic team. There are areas for free language lessons, classes, movies etc. Very much like silicon valley companies.

While Maseratis and Ferraris really are made side by side, there are some obvious differences. The Maseratis have a more timed production cycle. Groups are seperated by component (engines, gearboxes etc.). There are large digital clocks over each station with the amount of time left to complete you part and move it on to the next station. They complete about 75 cars a day, roughly 25 Ferraris and 50 Maseratis.

There are also differences between how the V8 and V12 Ferraris are made. There are untimed assembly stations for each car. However, one person assembles each V12 motor (not the same person for each motor) and signs (via number) each engine for quality control.

One thing that is still done largely by hand are the interiors. You can see the cow hides being cut by a large machine but there are about 8 women who sew each hide by hand.

There are new buildings under construction. I get the feeling, they want to expand production (currently 6K cars per year) over time.

There a re dozens of unpainted 430s, 612s and 599s sitting outside waiting to be finished. You can't tour the painting facility but we walked by the building.

The F1 Wind tunnel building is also on the campus but is top secret.

As I left the tour, you can see the outside of the five windows for Enzo Ferraris old office which I understand is largely in tact out of respect.

Overall, the tour was excellent and really gave me a perspective of what a modern and technologically advanced business that is Ferrari today. My expectation was closer to the tours of 15 years ago when many of my friends visited the factory. Initially I thought the scene lacked some of the romance that I had hoped still existed. Then again, they made 348s 15 years ago and they are making 599s today.

After the tour, I had to fill my tank at none other than the Cavallino Ristorante. Enzo Ferrari ate here every week and is still frequented by the Pilots and Ferrari management. I was pleasantly surprised how excellent the food was (I am convinced there are no bad meals in Italy, just varying degrees
of good and great).I had a fabulous lentil soup, pasta (of course) and Sangiovese (also, of
course).

After my carb reload, I headed right to the Ferrari museum. Outside is still theOrignal wooden buck that they created Daytona bodies from.

The museum was ok but there was very little you could not see at Pebble Beach or the Cavallino Classic. There was a few interesting Daytonas because they were preparing for the 40 aniversary celebration. I was able to purchase a great press kit for the event. There were a few old films of Enzo Ferrari and a recreation of his office. The rest of the factory has displays of F1 and production cars throughout the years.

The last leg of my trip was to the Fiorano race track. There was a F430GT's being tested at the track so I just followed the soun d. It is at the end of the road. Locals just sit in or on top of their cars or worktrucks whenever they hear race engines roaring.

Now I just needed to get back to Roma after my day of pleasure. I could not find a cab in the small town of Maranello but saw a bus to Modena that I swore was going the wrong way. It was just me alone on the bus. Unfortunately, you needed to have an advanced ticket (which I did not have). Thankfully, the driver and I hit it off, with m broken Italian and his broken English. Beyond
the hello goodbye, we both understood words like Kimi, Enzo and Testarossa.

At Modena, I caught the local train to Bologna with my "open" ticket. It turns out that you need to stamp an open ticket at the station (or you could reuse it again if the conductor didn't punch it) or face a 44 Euro fine (which is about what JP Morgan paid for Bear Stearns . This conductor was not interested in my knowing the rules o r my knowledge of Ferrari or Formula 1. It took much effort but I finally got him to just sell me another 5 euro ticket to Bologna.

Ah, the final leg of my trip (to the train station by our hotel). Would it be the cattle car or the bullet train. I was in luck and was back at my hotel by 7PM.

All in all, I would recommend the tour and taking the train to the factory. You can do it all in one day like me, or you can be smart and get there the night before and stay at the Best Western across the street.

Joe Seminetta

 

Not very nice and does not promote sharing personal experiences like this. Photos were not allowed in the factory (as I said). I might post some pics from outside but try to be little more polite please.

jts