Ultimate Road trip, Ferrari/Lambo/MBPorsche Factory

Hotel in Italy are cheap. You wont have any pbs finding hotels in Modena for that $$ or even less.

Sunday everything is closed.

500 miles is nothing. You can do it in 6 hours .

 

How about some youth Hostels? That would be the chepaest way to stay I think.
BT

 

If you want to base yourself in Maranello....There is a great hotel called the Executive Hotel. It is located right next door in Fiorano. The accomodations are great and the price is cheap.

 

For many years Ive lived in Munich and when friends from the states came to visit I would always run the same route. Maybe it works for you maybe not. But it was great for me.

I fly (they fly) Delta to Munich directly from Atlanta.

Starting in Munich we drive to Stuttgard to MB and Porsche. Its about a 1 1/2 hour drive depending on car and traffic. Tour both. takes a whole day and then come back to Munich

Next day tour Munich and BMW including Factory museum and Deutsches Museum (VERY COOL MUSEUM!!!!!)

3rd Day - Audi tour. drive to Ingolstadt. Again its a full day. back to Munich.

Leave Munich for Maranello. It is roughly a 6 hour drive ...again depending.

Once in Maranello I spend 2 nights. I get there the day before the tour and head to the stores both days

next day - tour Ferrari and back to Ferrari Stores

last day - tour Pagani, Lambo ect....

closing thoughts. Ive done this route a half a dozen times with friends and for me it works out wonderfully. driving over the alps is easy even in winter as I go over Brenner Pass and not over a 2ndary road (I tried going through St. Moritz once in winter and learned the hard way)

If you drive there ARE speed limits on most roads and if you take the train, service is great in Germany and good enough in Italy. GL and post any questions

 

Don't forget - you have to a Ferrari owner to actually tour the Ferrari Factory- apply through your closest Ferrari dealer

 

In actuallity Budget hotels are only a littel bit more than a hostel so We deemed it (last year) worth the extra 10 bucks to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel.

 

Don't forget to budget for expensive gas and tolls. On Italian freeways they have tolls - I think I paid 27 euro just at one booth. I don't know what it's like now, but gas was about $4.50 a gallon when i went. Even in a little economy car that can be $$$.

Splitting it with a friend, I still paid more in gas and tolls for about 4-5 days of driving (it was 2 week trip, but we were staying places) than I did to fly from Toronto to Munich.

 

Gas is currently about 1€/litre for diesel and 1.20€ for unleaded (not sure what that works out to in $/gallon) and tolls on the autoroute/autostrada can get expensive. Why don't you fly from London to Bologna instead of Milan/Venice? The autostrada from Milan to Modena/Bologna is horrible and you'll waste time and money better spent on buying drinks for beautiful Italian girls. A good place to check driving distances, times, and toll costs is the Michelin website:
http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

sounds like a great trip!

 

Brenner Pass is through Austria & Innsbruck.

I take the A8 out of Munich towards Salzburg, then south on the A22 through Innsbruck and Bolzano to the A1. East on the A1 like 2 exits and you are there.

You would have to really get lost to end up in Switzerland...but then again an ex-girlfriend ended up getting us sooo lost once we ended up in Luxenburg by mistake. Long story. dont ask.

btw - Toll roads in Italy take Visa. They usually charge just once and thats when you exit. Don't worry about food as the "Auto Grill" stops have amazing panini sandwiches

 

While you are by bologna I would also recommend visiting the Ducati and Maserati factories. I did Ducati, Maserati and Ferrar when I went to Italy.

 

I did Ferrari and Cranchi boats. Now I have a Sunseeker.

 

I actually did Ferrari, Lambo, and Pagani all a year and a half ago. I did it by train, and bus. I did all three out of Modena. by bus Maranello, Sant'Agata and San Cesario are both about 30 minutes from the bus station. I stayed at a cheap but nice hotel ($30) right next to the Modena train station which is a 10 minute walk to the bus station. The Ferrari factory is restricted but the gallery is for anyone. And the Lambo museum is free too. Pagani is in the middle of country and we had to walk 30 minutes from the bus stop, know where you're headed for Pagani! It's in San Cesario Sul Panaro, in a very small building. We emailed ahead and got a full factory tour. The whole building had 10 cars in different stages of being built. Amazing time though. At Lambo we asked for a look of the factory from the old lady in the museum who had worked there since it started apperently and she gave us a quick look behind (just no pictures aloud). We saw the 2006's before anyone else. View of the back on Lambo after the sneak view. I turned back and quickly shot one off as we were leaving:
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skip pagani, it's really small. no museum to see, just a few zonda's being built..nice but short. lambo is a lot more stunning, there's the whole history of lambo in their museum..i liked it a lot more

 

Rent the smallest car that you, 2 friends and luggage can fit into. Do not accept a "free" upgrade to a larger car at the rental counter. You want good gas mileage, and be able to park in tight spaces. When you are off the autostrada you'll be glad you have the smaller car.

 

im interested in going to italy in the next few years, is there anyway to get past not having a ferrari to get into the factory?

 

if you work there.

 

1) Nothing beats sleeping in a car if you're on a tight budget Tried and tested.. just not the best option if you're to drive for many hours the next day as you might not get the best of sleep, but should be fine if you take turns driving. My brother and his friend toured the whole of Europe sometimes sleeping in a Seicento - folded seats, inflatable mattress... did the job

3) Eaaasy. In december I did Innsbruck (Austria) - Poznan (Poland), which is 1000km (>600miles), in under 11h, but with extremely foul weather and frequent stops (in a Mitsubishi Colt ). So you should be fine.


If you decide upon Germany you should also check out Meilenwerk Dusseldorf. AMAZING collection - here are some pics from a different forum;
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=105821

 

I have seen all of these factories, and definitely would say that Ferrari is the best, Mercedes is good, Porsche is good, and Lamborghini is not really worth looking at. The Lamborghini factory is basically a huge manufacturing plant in the middle of nowhere with not much to see.

 

dont bother renting a bmw, they are overpriced by rental companies. go with a volkswagen passat or golf. great car for the trip with a powerful turbodiesel engine.

I did 3,000km in on from rome/venice/monaco/nice. Great car for high speed cruising.