VERTU / FERRARI Ascent special edition launch - behind the scene's!!

Thought this may be of interest to some, as I'd always wondered what goes on at a product launch. What I can say is its bl00dy good fun ! wink.gif

Brief outline:

Vertu (www.vertu.com) sponsor a pair of Ferrari GT race cars and therefore have a good relationship with them, they have designed a new limited edition phone to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Ferrari and the phone was launched on Tuesday @ Ferrari. All I can say about the phone is that it's gorgeous; the word 'quality' doesn't really cover it!

So we flew into Milan on Monday to hook up with the ad agency before transferring to Maranello via a restaurant in the old town of Parma for a lovely meal. Most of the people here are correspondants / journalists in the lifestyle market, but also motoring press guys too - and have come from all over the world for this shindig.

I managed to get some snaps of proceedings on Tueday:

Arrived at my room to find a small gift pack from Vertu...


Leaving the hotel to head off for a Ferrari factory tour...


Just before getting off the bus for the factory tour...


In Ferrari reception...


Very desirable pice of plastic


Time to go!


No pics in the factory, they take your camera off you! The factories are fantastic, as you'd expect; I was struck by how spacious it felt and how clean everything was. Its surprising how much space is devoted to display areas; some seriously rare kit (288GTO Evolution anyone?!) I didn't really appreciate just how handbuild Ferrari's were until now; all the engines are handbuilt but one guy, and the main assembly line is completely manual - the 'body in white' comes in painted and then gets slowly built up as the cars go down the line.
There are separate lines for V8 (20 per week) & V12 (8 per week) although the lines are interchangable so V8's will occasionally go down the V12 line if production requires it (in fact there was was one 430 half assembled amongst the 599 & 612's on the V12 line when we visited).

The famous Cavallino restaurant across the road from the factory gates... can you tell its near Ferrari?






After the factory tour we were taken to Fiorano where the launch was taking place... they had some toys for us to look at too...




We were taken out for some laps in this weapon after lunch...:thumbup:




At the launch. Anyone recognize the french chap in the middle?




The designer, Frank Nuovo speaks....


The device




The engineer, Hutch Hutchison


Some poor pics of the device; taken on a few seconds on a dinner table!












They had a glorious 599GTB on display. First time I've seen one outside of a motorshow and looks fantastic. For me a much better effort aesthetically than the 430....
















Some non-standard cars...




My Fiorano taxi


Then back to the hotel and off to the famous Montana restaurant for dinner. The place is dripping in motoring history with lots of signed helmets, piece's of racecars, pieces of road cars, pics, autographs etc. etc. Oh, and the food was awesome wink.gif

So thats a day on a press event, many thanks to Vertu www.vertu.com for inviting me along - brilliant, beautiful phone - just a bit out of my league $$$ wink.gif

Feel free to ask any questions about the event, the phone or the factory visit etc.......

 

No problem, seems logical that it'd be of interest to you Ferrari guys! It was a very enjoyable experience.....