Maranello rolls out racing and hypercar greats. Words Peter Tomalin. Photography Ferrari.
It’s 90 years since Enzo Ferrari founded his eponymous racing team, and the landmark is being celebrated with a fabulous display of racing machinery at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello.
Enzo formed Scuderia Ferrari in November 1929 to provide cars – usually Alfa Romeos – to the most skilled gentlemen drivers of the day, among them Tazio Nuvolari, who gave the marque its first win at the Trieste-Opicina hillclimb. Many more victories would follow, in the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio, at Le Mans, Daytona and Spa, and of course in F1.
The cars on display go right back to the Alfa 8C 2300 Spider, the very first car to sport the Prancing Horse as part of its livery at Le Mans in 1932, and come right up to date with the SF71H, the Formula 1 car raced by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen only last season.
Other star exhibits include the 500 F2 in which Alberto Ascari won back-to-back world titles in 1952 and ’1953, the 312T that helped Niki Lauda to his first title, and the F2004 in which Michael Schumacher took 13 wins to take his final title in 2004.
Among the closed-wheel race cars on display are the 166MM that gave Ferrari its first win at Le Mans 70 years ago and the 275P that dominated the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1964 before going on to win the Nurburgring 1000km and Le Mans.
The Maranello Museum is also staging an exhibition devoted to Ferrari hypercars, exploring how its most advanced road cars have pushed the boundaries of technology and performance. The cars featured here span from the 288 GTO through F40, F50 and Enzo to the hybrid-powered LaFerrari. There’s also a recreation of the inner sanctum of the Ferrari Style Centre where VIP clients get to spec their next hypercar, with colour palettes, fabric swatches, leather samples and a myriad of other materials that can be combined to create a unique supercar.
Both the ‘90 Years’ and the ‘Hypercars’ exhibitions run until May 2020.
Clockwise from above Scuderia celebration includes nine decades of F1 cars; endurance racers also feature Hypercars exhibition stars LaFerrari.
