In Mid 2009 a friend of mine & me had the idea to do a little trip with some of our friends and our Z3 Coupés.

We wanted to drive some mountain roads in italy, but we wanted also something else. But what... hmmm... Italy... Cars... aaahhh.... Ferrari, maybo Lamborghini, Pagani...
The participants would be all car crazy, so why not.

As time goes the coalation of the willing got smaller, some bought other cars, others got a girlfriend and where from there on no more available. But of course there were enough people who wanted to do the trip with us and in April we knew that 14 people in 7 cars will go to Maranello at the end of may.

On Sunday, May 23rd we headed down south to the alps, south of Munich we met up with the first group of friends, a BMW e36 328 touring, a z4 m roadster, a Wiesmann MF3 and myself in my Z3 2.8 Coupé.









Meeting point for the rest of the group was the Restaurant/Hotel Eberle in Bolzano, which is about 100 km behind the boarder in so called "South Tirol".

But before we would have our lunch there, we had to destroy some miles on the Autobahn, the old "Brennerstrasse" and a mountain pass called "Jaufenpass"
The weather was cloudy, but as soon as we left the Autobahn in austria the sun came out and the roadsters got topless.









As fast as we got up the pass (and down on the other side) we arrived at the restaurant aboout 45 minutes to late, but the people who has to wait there had also one ore more passes to go, so no need for bad faces.
Together we had a fabolous lunch with some really good dessert.



Also the view over Bolzano was great:




At 2 p.m. we started the cars for the last 150 miles, my co-driver entered the drivers seat at my z3 and I "must" behind the steering wheel of the Wiesmann. Poor me
The weather was excelent (25°C), the road quite empty for the most of the time, so we did the miles in nearly 2 hours (thanks to the speed limit on the motorway in italy).









Our hotel for the next 5 days was the "Maranello Palace", which is about 1 mile from the centre of the village.



After storing the lugage in the rooms we went to downtown Maranello to see the first horses + to get something to eat. Both points where successfull:







The last thought as we went to bed was the next day and first of many highlights of the Tour, a tour at the Ferrari Museum and the Ferrari factory!

The pics shown are not from me, but from my buddie Stefan (schnuse.smugmug.com).

Stay tuned for the next days!

 

I'm looking forward to more! Great stuff so far. Looks like a fun trip, especially with that Wiesmann along for the ride.

 

Z3 M Coupe WIN!!!

 

I now want a proper pizza after viewing these pictures, love the Z3 and Z4M. Red over red is stunning.

 

Thanks for the positive reactions, I hope my rusty english is ok and the text is halfway readable…

Passes & Pizza day 2...

Highlight of the day, maybe of the tour, as mentioned before a tour through the museum and the factory of Ferrari!

Because of my hobby as car-photographer I have several contacts into the car-world, so I warmed them up to get a possible chance for a factory tour, but all the answers where similar: “just for owners”, “in principle possible, but to get a term is like a win in the lottery”, all the way negative...
But, never give up, one of the participants of the tour was a Ferrari client, she rang up her dealer and 8 weeks before the start of the tour we get the Info: “Factory tour possible, date is May 24th”, actually the day we wanted to start the tour, but with chance of the tour we just replaned everything.

At nine a.m. we started to the Galleria Ferrari, the Start of the Tour. We should meet our guide there at 09:30.



At the parking area of the museum a cute, young italian woman salutes us with the words: “You want to drive a Ferrari? 10 Minutes for only 60 Euros!” whereon the Crew of the Ferrari California who is with us just pulled out there Ferrari Key and the smile in the face of the young woman collapsed

A few meters after was another young lady, this time from head to toe in Ferrari Clothing. Maybe our Guide? Stefan asked her, and all she said was “Yes, yes, follow me, I want to show you something”, turned on her heel and walked straight to a building which was nowhere near the Museum…alone of course

I was at the museum a few years ago, there was one company who sold the guided driving with the Ferrari in a very good, non flashy way, the way it is now in my eyes is just ridiculous!

We went into the Museum and asked the Lady at the desk in english if there is a factory tour for us, should be booked, etc. etc. and she answered in bright GERMAN “Yes you`re right, here are your visitor-id`s. I wish we had our faces photographed as she said that, Alexandra (the guides name) could hardly detain her laughing! During the tour we came to know that her boyfriend got a job in the near of Maranello, she came with him and is now employed at Ferrari. Lucky she!





After a short welcome-drink Audio Tourguides where given to us, combined with a small info-map about Ferrari and the advice just to take pictures inside the museum, not inside the factory.





First station, after a short movie about the changes inside & outside the factory premises, we began our tour through the museum.
On two stories (gross separated in Race- & Roadcars) there are quite many cars shared. Because of updates of the exhibit two areas of the museum were closed, in total aprox. 30% of the cars couldn`t be shown. Bummer for us, but the rest of the exposed cars was compensating.













45 Minutes later, Alexandra guided us outside of the museum to a rather special coach:



Now the acutal factory tour stars, but before that, we all had to shut down our cameras, to don`t even get the idea to take a picture or two.

Through the old factory gate we entered the site on the “Viale Enzo Ferrari” and drove straight to the engine assembly line. On aprox. 10,000 square meter 70 employees create (in 100% capacity) 70 engines for Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.
Yep, you just saw right, Alfa Romeo. The heart of the 8c comes from Maranello as well as Maseratis GT.
Highlight of the engine assembly was a mini-exhibit of 12 classic and current Ferrari models who really let our hearts beat faster. 288 GTO, 288 GTO Evoluzione, 550 Barchetta, 575 GTS, F430, F360 Barchetta & several other cars standing together to give the employees some examples for which artworks they are building the engines.

Station two was the paint shop, sadly just from the outside, but interesting at all. Especially we came into the joy to see and hear a 599 GTO which rolled brand new out of the factory. What a car!

We kept moving to the assembly line of the 8 cylinder models, in words the California and the 458.
I have been to several automotive sites as BMW in Regensburg and Munich or Audi in Ingolstadt, so as maybe some of you. But you have to switch the clock into a new direction if you come ot a small series producer like Ferrari.
It takes an entire three days to assembly a California or a 458, not counting the time for the painting or the motor assembly!
With lots of “aaahhh” and “ooohh” we walked through the assembly line, amazed about the cars we saw and how the mounting of the individual parts was done. Especially two special colourful exemplars of the California splitted the group in two, one was a very bright blue, the other was a car painted nearly in german cab colour… But overall we had the same taste. At point 12 o`clock the line stopped and the workers got into their lunch break, so we headed on station further… Ferrari Race Division, the heart of the brand!

First stop in there was, as in the factory before, the engine assembly, but, because of the known restrictions in development and maximum quantity per season, the room was pretty empty. Around five engines were built up, but they were covered because of the lunch break. On we go to the assembly of the F1 cars, four shops with one car in it, just separated by a gate to the Testtrack Fiorano.
The rest of the party was on the road to Turkey to the next F1 Race.
But never the less we were stunned by the shown car as well as the trophies, Pictures and Posters with which the walls were pasted and time runes out to fast as we went to our last Station of the Tour, the Ferrari Clienti Section!

Clienti means Customer and below this rather simple name hide two departments who just can hardly be overbid. At first there are the XX-Customers, those people who own and race an FXX or the new 599xx, and on the other hand the F1 Clienti, where money seems to matter no more. These are guys who have their own Formula One Race car, bought from Ferrari and driven by Berger, Prost, Schumacher etc.
In the first hangar we saw all existing eight FXX plus also eight 599xx. We were stunned by the sheer purism and the fantastic look of the cars, but compared to what we saw in the next hall this was all a child`s birthday.

A door opened, Clienti Division Part two, five Service-Stations, each engaged with a F1 car, but the tour guide just went on and left the cars unspoken… HELLOOOO?!?!

30 seconds after this infamy we knew why she didn`t mentioned the five cars. We got into a hall which was about 50 meters long and 15 meters wide, in this hall stood about 40 (FORTY!!!) F1 Cars, eight where just empty chassis, but the rest of these cars were ready for action. Our lower jaw just dropped down, some of the group where from now on just gasping
The Tour guide uses tongues of angels to get us back into the bus to end the tour at the Ferrari Store. There we got to other goodies who let us remember of this very special day, even we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

Now it was around lunchtime, so we headed back to the museum, avoided to get bothered by the rental Ferraris, to get a small Snack at the bar and walk around in the museum again.

At 3 p.m., even the last Cavallino was photographed and “my tourist party” get twitchy… What to do… A friend of mine gave me the advice to drive out of Maranello and up the hills.
We packed our stuff, get the car keys and headed out of the town. One eye on the restaurants on the side of the street, the other on that perfect bit of road we found. Immediately we climbed about 800 meters below Sea Level and had a wonderful view over Maranello and the surrounding region. We followed the road for maybe 40 miles before we drove back to the hotel to make a plan for dinner.





On our way up the hills we saw a Restaurant called “La Noce” (The nut), a so called “Acetaia”, a farm where Aceto Balsamico (special sort of vinegar) is made. But we just noted that as we arrived, respectively as the waiter (and son of the owner) asked us if we want to see there storage on the other side of the street.







He gave us an very interesting presentation about the production of the Aceto we had the chance for a degustation of the speciality in which we tasted among other a 12 year old Aceto Balsamico which let my taste buds go nuts. What a taste, and it seems like all I get at home in germany was just trash!
Back at the restaurant, our expectations for the dinner were high, we took a four-course meal which included a starter, two different main courses and a dessert. Drinks were also included, I didn`t have to drive anymore, so lets get this started
Without pictures it may be hard to picture this, but I guarantee you, it was one of the best meals I had in my life, a true feast for the senses.

Some of the pictures are again of my buddy Stefan, the rest was taken by me.

Stay tuned for tomorrows day three when Passes & Pizza continues at Pagani & B Engineering!

 

"coalition of the willing"

Sieht nach na Menge Spaß aus. Danke für den ausführlichen Bericht. Ein Besuch in Maranello steht definitiv auch auf meiner To-Do Liste !

 

Great thread, thanks for sharing with us. Looks like you guys definitely had a great time.

 

thanks for sharing more! I'd love to visit the Ferrari factory some day. I'm looking forward to hearing about Pagani!

 

Tuesday, sort of half time and again, the entire day had a full schedule. In the forenoon we wanted to visit the newest smithy for supercars, Pagani and in the afternoon we had a fixed date at the company B Engineering, a name which maybe a few of you might know, for all the others, if I drop in the name “Edonis” maybe you get the name now.

But one thing after another. At 10 a.m. we hade the tour at Pagani, which means we had to leave the hotel at 09:30 to be there in time. The drive went trough some villages and a short piece of highway, but this short track was enough to lose the MF3… So we stopped and immediately the girlfriend of the drive was at the side of my car to give me her cellphone with her boyfriend on the line.
The factsheet I released before wasn`t in the car, a navigation system luckily was, so I dictated the address and with 5 minutes delay they arrived at the factory. Francesco Bini, the owner of the company “Motostars” waited already for us. Motostars is the company which you have to call if you want to visit pagani, but they also offer other tours to other motoring aims as Lamborghini or Ducati.





Then we went into the Pagani Showroom, for nearly every one in our group it was the first time, for myself it was the third time to visit them after visit in 2005 and 2007, but I was as blown away as the rest.

Two Paganis welcomed us, a Zonda F and a Zonda R, both held in carbon fibre, perfection on 4 wheels.
Francesco started to tell us about Horacio Pagani and his career, but for me this was more or less white noise in my ears… I was stunned by the two cars in front of me, It didn`t matter where to look, everything was at least 10% better as we saw it the day before at Ferrari. All this in this little small workshop in a industrial area where no blanket tourist ever would show up!

















After his speech, Francesco wanted to show us the production area, right beside the showroom. But again (unfortunately), no cameras allowed so we had to leave them in the showroom. Nice detail, the depository for our cameras was a saddlebag of a Zonda, not on a car mounted, but I think that my cam laid in worse places!



In the assembly were three cars, a blue Zonda S, an orange Zonda F, both for service and, between the other cars, the newest creation of Pagani, the last expansion stage of the Zonda. After the Tricolore this one is just called “Zonda Uno”.
It`s colour scheme looked a little bit like the Vitaphone Racecars which raced in the FIA GT Championship.

Here`s a picture I found on the web:


After our chins were back at the place they belong to we went off from the cars to the shop where the carbon fibre mats are cut and get ready for the autoclave. A small piece of such a mat was handed out, and it was hard to believe that this wobbly and light material will be he ultra-strength Carbon we all know.

Francesco urges us to the next station, another hall in which the two autoclaves stand, the R&D department is and the raw body parts are fitted together before they will be painted. Beside two already assembled but not painted Zondas there was a third one under a hood, which was apparently a Zonda R.
After a short info about the operating cycles inside that hall, another piece of Carbon fibre was handed out, this time a fresh baked on. We all guessed that it could be a piece of the rear shell of the cockpit, the part between the seats.
Light but yet ultra-strength, amazing how much the small mat we saw earlier changed their appearance.
As we marvelled around the piece of carbon, Mr Pagani himself showed up in the production to had a short chat with the workers. A short “Bon Giorno” in our direction and he was back in business.

After the visit at the shops we headed back to the showroom, existing questions where answered and the option for souvenirs was offered. Fine-boned as I am I asked for a T-Shirt in XXL I liked, and, oh wonder… Not available…
So I comforted myself with a DVD about Pagani. Afterwards Francesco could convince Mr Pagani to make a group photo with us before we left his company.



Gobsmacked by all the impressions we found ourselves a good two hours after the start back at our cars. Start for the next date was at 3:30 p.m. so what to do… Lunch seemed a good idea, so we started to the town of Modena which was in the middle between Pagani and B Engineering.

After a short drive we found some parking spaces for our cars and after a ten minute walk we hit the historic district of Modena and went straight to the Café Concerto, one of the must see Things when you are at Modena.





We went there with 14 people, within a few moments the staff put together a few tables and we could begin to study the menu… but… there was non… ok, so what else? Buffet with Italian food, all you can eat for 15 € including water. Sounds good, so we stocked ourselves up with antipasti, salad, pasta, pizza and desserts en masse. Beside the wonderful arranging it was (again) a taste adventure! In Germany you have to search long for such good Italian food, especially for such a good price!

At a certain point your stomachic says “full full full”, but your brain just yells “more more more”. At least a compromise was found, for a portion Tiramisu and a little Espresso was still place



After that delicious lunch the group splits up, one part wanted to see B Engineering, the stayed in Modena for some sightseeing.
As we drove along the Maserati factory arises on the right side, we wanted to visit this to, but even with our contact from the dealership it wasn`t possible to get inside. But we had quite good compensation the next day.



Edonis, just a few words. The Edonis is a supercar that is constructed on base of the Bugatti EB110. B Engineering bought the remain cars & parts of the company Bugatti, in words the EB110 and the EB112 which also includes all drawings, severall body shells, engines, etc. together with the company Dauer in Nuremberg (Germany), who sold the EB110 under their own name till they went bust during last year and has been also bought by B Engineering.

B Engineering dedicated themselves for customer service and building their own car form the parts they bought. The Edonis.
The engine size was raised from 3.5 to 3.7 litres, the only part which stayed untouched was the carbon fibre chassis. Out- & inside of the car were completely new designed and offered to possible customers since 2001.
Out of 21 planned cars just three has been sold so far.

As we arrived we had a similar situation as before at Pagani. To be honest, it was even worse. Nowhere in the world you would suspect a supercar less then here, but, oh boy, were we wrong!

After a short waiting Mr Frederico Trombi, one of the owners opened the gates and asked us to step inside. After a short welcome and a short biography about himself and the company he guided us to the workshop and, as well as at Ferrari & Pagani, our jaws dropped down.



At first sight we saw three EB110, one Edonis and several other cars, hidden under blankets, including a Lotus Elise and other Bugattis.







While wandering through the hall we also spotted some parts who didn`t seem to fit on no car we saw so far and after we took a look behind the next shelf we could feast our eyes on a brand new Lamborghini Murcielago LP670 Supervelcoe which was here for some optimization, however that should be necessary…



The hall was indeed a playground for most of us (to be exactly all blokes, the ladies get themselves a cappuccino and wait till our mania was over)





After we took “some“ pictures we were led into another hall, and again: gape!

Several Formel Cars and a Lotus Esprit S4 in Race Trim smiled at us, on second view we also spotted a BMW 850i, but this car didn`t smile, because the tyres were flat and a thick coating of dust was on the once shiny paintwork.
These were cars that “suddenly appeared” as Frederico Trombi said grinning.



But all good things come by three as we know, so we entered a third hall and, surprise, our jaws dropped once more down to earth, some of the group even just start laughing. Seven brand new Ferrari California stood there, even with their paintjob protection films on. Mr Trombi reveals the secret… Ferrari & other manufacturers use the hall as a temporary store before the cars get delivered to the customer or the dealers. Some days before there had been some Mercedes SLS and “it`s always a surprise what will be next” Mr Trombi said.



Round about two hours after we started we got ourselfs some booklets of the EB110, said goodbye to Mr Trombi and went back to the hotel. Myself was forced to drive a Ferrari California from a friend of mine, because she wanted to go with the Wiesmann. Poor me…

At night we went to a rather famous restaurant, the Ristorante Montana.









Every F1 driver goes here to get his pasta from Maria, the owner and cook. The whole place is full of F1 souvenirs as driver suits, helmets, pictures & many things more.
Despite from the poor service the food & the vino was rather magnificent!

After the dinner we thundered upwards the hills again to make some pictures of that gorgeous view down, but even before that we made some pictures in front of the Ferrari factory.







As we drove back to the hotel midnight was near and we were all glad to get some sleep before tomorrow the cultural part begins and we will visit a country estate for a rather special collection of cars.

 

Day 4, Wednesday, we got only one date which was on 3:30 p.m, so what to do till then…

The day before some of our group decided to drive to Bologna, others wanted to have a look at the Ferrari test track, I wanted to go to Modena to take a few pictures, do maybe a little bit of shopping, but basicly just hanging around, doing nothing.
So I went with 5 other guys to Modena.

In front of the Hotel:


About 09:45 a.m. we started, I let the Z3 at the hotel and seated myself at the co-drivers seat in the Wiesmann. The other guys picked the BMW 135i and went in front because of the navigation system on board.

At the drive to town the usual scene. As Ferrari mad the Italians are, as soon as they saw the Wiesmann we saw Thumbs up, heard compliments and let the people smiley as we drove away, giving the Wiesmann the spurs.

At first we went right to the Cafe Conzerto to visit the Cathedral of Modena, but on our way we just went for a quick look in every of the many haberdashers we came along. So we needed for maybe half a mile a good 30 minutes, but luckily we didn`t need any euro, because (in my case) it won`t fit or it just was not special enough.

Some impressions:








After the cathedral we went trough the city...



Until we ended up here:



It was a market hall, quite like I knew them from Spain. So we went inside:







Although we had some breakfest, soon our stomach began to mumble, so we went back to the Café Concerto for a cappuccino and maybe a little piece of cake… I have to say it again, what a fantastic Location, on the out- as well as on the inside.







After that we just went on throug Modena





and landed after the lunch at another small little cafe where we had another little snack and some of us did something about their low alcohol level. The drink is called “Veneziano” or “Sprizz” and is a mix between Aperol, prosecco (Italian sparkling wine), soda, ice & a slice of orange as decoration.





Time went fast, so we had a little ice cream on our way back to the cars and headed to our next location, the Panini Collection. Ah yeah… and again, poor me, I had to drive the Wiesmann...



Panini is well known in Germany and the rest of Europe as a producer of sticker albums for example the Soccer World Cup, TV series and lots of other themes. I remember it well, I had several of these albums as a kid.
Beside the production of the stickers they also have a farm with more than 500 cows who give their milk to produce the famous Parmigiano Regiano.
And beside the cows there are a lot of classic historical cars which was the main reason we visited the farm.

But first we got a short tour around the farm, including the production area of the cheese.















Then we went on to see the cars. Mr Panini started collects beside the sports cars also motorcycles, old agricultural tractors and typical Italian cars:





















After we roamed a while through the prestigious collection the tour guide led us to a small showroom for the tasting of the Parmesan we saw earlier. The prepared pieces didn`t last long and some of us wished to have some of that Balsamico vinegar we had two days ago. I think everyone of us bought at least one kilogram of the cheese before we said goodbye to the people of the farm and our tourguide and went back for the hotel.

At half past seven we met in front of the Hotel to go out for dinner at the Ristorante Cavallino which is in front of the old entrée of the Ferrari factory. I was responsible for the booking, did everything via mail, including the menu. Unfortunately the restaurant thought we would come for lunch and I always meant we come for dinner, so no table was reserved for us, but thanks to their flexibility we could get the menus we all wanted.

The dinner was great, so was the wine. At 11 p.m. we went back to the hotel and drank at the bar a last Sprizz to stave of the last night in the Hotel, because tomorrow would be our last day!