Ferrari points out in great his 70th birthday

AFP

AFP

Friday, September 8, 2017 15:03

UPDATE
Friday, September 8, 2017 15:07

Look at this article

Some of its models can reach millions of dollars at auction, and its cars are again at the forefront on the circuit of the planet… Ferrari celebrated this weekend its 70 years, and the legendary prancing horse is still as fiery.

Three days of celebrations are planned in the north of Italy to mark the event. First to Milan, where converged Friday afternoon, some 500 cars from different countries, and then to Modena and finally to the cradle of Maranello, with guests sorted on the shutter.

Michel Lemaitre, 79 years of age, has
Ferrari for over 20 years and came to Nice. “It is a great passion. It started very, very young. But at the time I didn’t have the means to buy me a Ferrar “, he explained to the AFP. “It’s a lot of sacrifices, but it’s such a passion that you don’t look”.

70th anniversary of Ferrari

AFP

The Ferrari, according to him? “It is freedom, a myth”, something “a little unique” and “a beautiful sound of engine.”

The saga officially began in 1947, when the first
Ferrari, the 125 S, born from the imagination of Enzo Ferrari, a former race car driver who has made his weapons at Alfa Romeo, comes out of the factory gates in Maranello.

It is adorned with what will become the symbol of the brand, the prancing horse pays tribute to Francesco Baracca, aviator of the Italian squadron of the Aces killed in combat in 1918, who sported on his aircraft.

Enzo Ferrari used to say that the mother of the driver told him to put the prancing horse on his cars as a good luck charm, and that he had added a “yellow canary” to remember the colors of his hometown of Modena.

70th anniversary of Ferrari

AFP

The Ferraris were quick to impose themselves on the collective imagination.

The cars are reserved to some “happy few”, ready to pay 200 000 to over a million dollars, for limited editions. And you must be patient: in the past year, the boss of Ferrari, Sergio Marchionne, acknowledged it took up to three years waiting for a Ferrari 488.

The chain, which has taken its independence from Fiat Chrysler (FCA) by the end of 2015, is now listed in Milan and New York, and displays the results to make envy more than one constructor: $ 4.5 billion in sales in 2016 for just 8 014 cars delivered and a net profit up 38%, to 483 million.

The brand offers an “industrial craftsmanship of the utmost quality, along with the dialogue extremely tight with their clients,” says Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè, professor of strategy at Bocconi University, Milan.

70th anniversary of Ferrari

AFP

It “introduced in its manufacturing processes a lot of customization: the steering wheels, the seats, the interior…”, with customers welcomed to the factory, to communicate their desires, ” explains the university, for which Ferrari is the “dream factory”.

According to him, a Ferrari “deserves”, “You must be part of the club. There are so many upstarts, the new rich who want to be admitted, but they are viewed with some suspicion”, he says.

Ferrari, “summit motor sports”, was truly “a brand of enthusiasts: it really had to be, because it was all the down time, although of course people don’t say”, recalls the historian of the automobile, Patrice Vergès.

Today this is less the case, the judge does it, evoking more “a brand of dyed net worth” making “investments”.

70th anniversary of Ferrari

AFP

Because the Ferrari collection are snapping up gold price: the most expensive car ever sold at auction was a Ferrari 335 S Scaglietti, 1957, was sold in early 2016 in Paris for 46.5 million dollars.

On the tours, the oldest team engaged in Formula 1 still dream of his fans. It could offer to its 70 years, the best gift of all: the title of world drivers, with the German Sebastian Vettel, in the fight with the British Lewis Hamilton on his Mercedes.

After 68 seasons in the discipline of motorsport, Scuderia displays an impressive track record: 228 victories in the Grand Prix for 721 podium, 16-time world champion constructors ‘ and 15 drivers. The latter dates back to 2007, with the Finnish Kimi Räikkönen.