If you ever had doubts about which prancing horse with superpowers qualifies as hypercars, the current exhibition in Maranello will clear this problem for you.
The Ferrari Museum in Maranello is the largest of the three Ferrari museums, accessible through a single ticket. This trio of the Ferrari Museums is the crown jewel of Italy’s famous Motorvalley, a 100km long route around Bologna filled with the elite if Italy’s car industry.
It could take a week to see everything, but the three Ferrari museums are manageable to accomplish in a single day, even with a few add on programs, like a driving experience.
It takes about half an hour to drive to Maranello from the Modena site, but there is also a shuttle service to commute visitors. While there are other pilgrimage sites around Modena, Maranello is primarily about the prancing horse.
The main site is surrounded by dozens of driver experience companies and souvenir shops, with appealing starter packages where the automotive dreams are portioned to a spoonful of 10 minutes to attract even the most hesitant visitors.
The main attraction of Maranello is, of course, the museum of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team that combines temporary thematic exhibitions with a few more permanent stages.
The first segment offers an insight into the working environment of the Commendatore, showcasing his office with basic furniture and decoration (along with a flatscreen?! : ) ).
The room also illustrates the evolution and tradition of the brand by showcasing a sets of Le Mans race cars, on the left: a 1963 Ferrari 250LM and its aluminum chassis. This car is even more successful these days at auctions than it was on the tracks back then.
On the LM faces off with a modern-day 812 Superfast also accompanied by a naked chassis, that showcases the refined technology behind the cars and their evolution in 50 years.
This summer the Maranello Museum awaits visitors with a truly impressive Hypercar exhibition dedicated to the glorious high-end bloodline of elite Ferraris that sparked a new breed of sportscars.
Since the very first models, every Ferrari is special and the prerogative of a lucky few. High-performance V12 engines mended by vast racing experience paired with state of the art technology has always been the backbone of the 70-year-old company. The “budget” V6 series was primarily motivated by homologation purposes, and the Commendatore rejected the idea of bearing the Ferrari name at the outset. By now even the lightweight V8 series is an expensive entry into the world of new Ferraris, there is no such thing as a compromise when it comes to the prancing horse.
But from time to time Ferrari comes out with a car that outshines the entire car industry and can only be described in absolute terms. Thanks to the intensive competition that characterises car industry, others picked up the glove thrown at them and hence the new category of hypercars were born.
The Ferrari hypercars are all limited series model reserved for the very few even among Ferrari customers. Each model follows Enzo Ferrari’s personal philosophy of aiming to make every new model the best car of its day, and each new, more advanced addition is the embodiment of cutting-edge research, setting the benchmark in the automobile world. The hypercars exhibition now showcases a bloodline of cars from the 288 GTO to the current FXX-K and dismisses any doubts about what the factory considers a hypercar.
The first car of the exhibition is the GTO from the year 1984, with a design closely aligned to the Ferraris of that era, with a more aggressive lining.
Three years later, the world saw the arrival of the mother of all modern Hypercars the uncontested ruler of every adolescent’s poster wall during the ’80s, the Ferrari F40. The designation served to honour the company’s 40th anniversary, but it also made history. The F40 is a road legal track car with the performance to back that claim, using turbo technology and the composites from the F-1 expertise. But most importantly the F40 had an astonishing style to match that technological refinement.
The design of the Ferrari F40 was so spectacular that the next car closely followed its footsteps, while the technology under the bodywork advanced considerably: the Ferrari F50 was essentially a Formula 1 car technology with a GT bodywork. The engine derived from the 1990 F-1 car and was bolted directly to the monocoque chassis forming an integral part of it.
The next hypercar was unveiled in 2002, with a name dedicated to the Commendatore. The Ferrari Enzo was developed with the help of Michael Schumacher and remained the very pinnacle of road-going achievement of its day. Inspired by the Ferrari single-seater, it featured a particularly innovative human-machine interface, the Manettino with controls moved to the steering wheel, following the advice of the most successful F1 driver of all time.
Unveiled to the world in 2013 as its name implies the LaFerrari is the quintessence of a car produced by the Maranello brand. It was also the first Ferrari to sport a hybrid HY-KERS power unit inspired by the current Formula-1 cars, unleashing around 1,000 horsepower.
The Targa version, the LaFerrari Aperta, was unveiled in 2016 and I had the opportunity to sit in one in Paris. The revised bodywork is a result of some superb aerodynamic work to prevent that the car would become the most expensive hair trimmer.
The final car is the FXX-K, the ultimate evolution of the LaFerrari. FXX-K is Ferrari’s rolling research and development programme centring around a laboratory car based on Maranello’s first hybrid. The K in the new car’s moniker is a reference to the KERS kinetic energy recovery system to maximise performance on the track.
Freed from any homologation requirements and regulations, the FXX-K will never be used in racing series but for that, it was made free of compromises. In 2017, a new EVO kit was introduced, to extend the program for two years with a new FXX K Evo version.
The FXX-K peaks at a whopping 1050 cv of which 860 derive from a 6262 cm3 V12 combustion engine and 190 CVs from an electric motor optimised too for track use.
The hypercars are joined the design static model of the Ferrari P80/C, the latest addition to the one-off programme which allows owners to create a truly unique version of an existing model, moulded around their personal wishes. The P80/C was designed solely for track use, based on the Ferrari 488 GT3.
The odd one out is the blue 488 Pista, powered by the most powerful V8 engine in the Maranello marque’s history. This car a special series sports car with the highest level yet of technological transfer from racing.
The company is so proud of this car that it was also featured in the Modena site as the lest exhibit of the engine museum.
While the hypercar exhibition impresses fans of the modern high-end cars, the following chambers perfectly complement it with racing legends of almost a century, honouring the 90th anniversary of the Scuderia Ferrari, with enough ammo for another post.
FOR AN OVERVIEW OF ALL THE CAR MUSEUMS I EVER VISITED, CHECK OUT THE INTERACTIVE MAP:
Hey, odd question. I visited Museo Ferrari during a similar time period and was wondering if you recorded any of the vins of the vehicles shown above. Thanks!!
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