A new department has been opened in the foundry of the old Maranello factory called Ferrari Classiche (Ferrari Classics). Its purpose is to maintain and restore road cars built by the company before 1986 and Ferrari racing machinery from any year. On paper, that covers about 250 different models and 100,000 cars built by the Prancing Horse over almost 40 years.
Under the management of Roberto Vaglietti, Ferrari Classiche is equipped to provide the marque’s collectors with a complete overhaul and restoration service. And in cases where spare parts are impossible to find, the new organization will be able to make them using the technology of the period in which the cars was built.
The new venture’s ace in the hole is its access to literally thousands of original technical drawings stored in the Ferrari archives, which are essential to this restoration work and to checking the cars’ conformity to the original in each case. Such rigorous verification is essential if a car—and there is a realistic potential of about 40,000 of them—is to earn the Ferrari Classiche Certificate of Authenticity, which will attest to its historical value. Each certificate will be signed by Piero Ferrari, the company’s vice-president and son of the Great Man.
Said Piero of the new venture, “I am always amazed by the passion that these cars generate in their owners, which is partly why we have begun this new initiative. Traveling around the world, I have noted the fact that Ferrari needs an organization like this, which opens its doors to these customers. Many of them have never owned a contemporary Ferrari; they are passionate about the ‘old’ cars. That is the nice thing about historic cars: the pleasure of keeping such objects alive.”
by Robert Newman
