Thursday, December 12, 2013

Ferrari Museum Maranello

The other day we went to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. I first wanted to go visit the factory but after researching it a bit, I found that the factory in Maranello was not open to the public but a museum there was. We decided to go see the museum. 
 To get to Maranello, we would have to take a fast train from Florence to Bologna, then a regional train from Bologna to Modena, then from Modena, there is a bus to Maranello. Here is our train to Bologna.
 Life in the Fast Train! Fast trains are faster and more direct but more expensive. When we talked to students who have been living in Europe for a few years, they said that the fast trains are a rip off. While you could get to Bologna (or anywhere else) only on regional trains, it would take at least twice as long and you may have to transfer trains a few times. If you knew someone, you could do, "Car Sharing" (think hitchhiking meets social networking). To me however, time is money, especially in Europe where my time is so precious. It is one thing if you are living in Europe for a few years, but if your only here for a few months, the fast trains are the way to go when traveling far. Fast trains are also very nice on the inside and have comfy seats and a bar on the train. I love trains!
 When we got to Bologna we stepped out to the nicest train station I had ever been in. This part of the station was new and underground for the fast trains. The idea is to have the fast trains travel underground a lot so they can tunnel through the mountains and not have to turn as much. Regional trains that are slower will turn more so they are on the surface. I think it is a really neat idea!
 We had to go up to the top floor to get our regional train tickets. The top floor was older and like any other train station. We got the regional train to Modena and in about a half hour we were there.
 Once in Modena, I noticed that the city bus's ran on really neat bus lines that ran over top the street. The bus's were like electric trains! Europe is very green.
  The space above intersections became a complex network of wires. After a bit of a wait, we caught our bus to Maranello, where the Ferrari factory and museum are.
 The town of Maranello was very industrial with factories making lots of ceramic tiles for roofs and patios and things and concrete factories. Lots of boring factories. It is kind of funny to me that the town has so many boring factories and then the Ferrari factory.
 At the Ferrari museum! Like many places in Italy, there was some ongoing construction going on that will probably be going on for the next 10 years or so. In Italy, construction projects take forever because they do not pay for the project all at once. When there is some money, they put a little bit of it towards the construction and then when the money runs out, the work stops until there is more money. This means that construction can easily take 2-10 years depending on the job. Sometimes it seems as if time is stretched in Italy. Italians just don't understand time. Waiting is a lifestyle in Italy.
 We got our reduced price student tickets to the Museum and we began checking out all the awesome cars. This one was from 1966 and was used for racing.
 This 2009 Ferrari F60 was awesome! One of my favorite cars in the whole museum. It was so sleek and  it had so many curves to make it super aerodynamic. It is as if no detail was overlooked in making the car an aerodynamic racing machine. The car is little more than driver, engine and wheels.
 Way cool!
 There was a whole range of cars at the museum. From new cars, to old ones like this F2 from 1951. You can see the engine specs and the rpm's go up as the years go by. This one is at 7000 rpm while the 2009 F60 puts out about 18000 rpm!
 Here is a 1985 F1. From this view, it looks like a super fun go-kart!
 More racing cars.
 Walking all around these cars was really neat and you could see so much detail was put into making them perform the best.
It was really neat to see some of the old cars. This one had leather straps for the trunk and hood and a removable passenger seat cover.
The museum had a section dedicated to cars that were in movies such as this one that was driven through New York City in the filming of "Scent of a Woman".
Big engines!
Here Ali is in the, "Hall of Victories", a room dedicated to the recent years of Ferrari winning races. There were a bunch of F1 cars and engines and even more trophies all around the room. It was really neat.
Out of all the cars in the museum, this 2008 F1 car may be my favorite.
Another big V12. This one was for a street car.
Some cool Ferrari street cars....
I always like it when you can see the engine through the back window.
Here I am next to a new 2013 Ferrari.
This was an interesting room full of used to be top secret Ferrari concept cars. This one was an electric Ferrari that the front hood was modified to accommodate a different cooling system.
This one was pretty neat. It tested different engine components and a wheelbase for the LaFerrari car. It was intentionally made ugly with a peeling and incomplete finish so that it wouldn't attract too much attention.
If it wasn't for the wrinkling and it was just matte black, it could be some sort of crazy bat mobile in a movie where Batman is in Italian and in Rome and is mixed in with James Bond.
These were cars in the same room that traveled around different countries. The one on the right went through China. The one on the left drove through India.
This one traveled quite a long way going through the Americas.

This concept car tested a special composite frame within the frame that went around the passenger compartment. It was supposed to reduce the vibrations on the driver and give a smoother ride but it never had any significant results.
These Ferrari steering wheels were neat. Ferrari first developed these fancy steering wheels for their racing vehicles but found them so handy that they incorporated them into their street cars. With push button start and all sorts of other fancy options, the Ferrari steering wheel looks awesome!
This one looks more like your controlling a rocketship!
These Ferraris have lots of sponsors.
There were lots of Ferraris in this museum.
This was a big engine. It also had the gearbox attached.
Ferrari spent some time in the design of their seats. They look very fancy. I am sure they are really comfy.
If I could have any one Ferrari in this factory, I would have this one. Code named "Manta", it was never built but it is a scale model design for the La Ferrari car.
The entire car was so sleek and sporty. It just looked exotic!

Check out the cool back tail lights!
Manta!
The Manta and me.
This was another LaFerrari scale model. This design was code named, "Tensostruttura" and like "Manta", it was smooth and sleek.

The back of this car looks like some sort of weird sculpture not really the back of a car.
This is the LaFerrari. After many designs and prototypes, many elements from many of the designs were put together to form the LaFerrari super car.
Indeed, it is sporty, fast, exotic and expensive, all of the essentials of a ferrari sports car.
It is kind of a bummer to see that they didn't go with the cool tail lights like on the "Manta" but these more traditional ones still look good to me.
....I dont think this car has a trunk........

Ali and LaFerrari.
After oggling at the LaFerrari and quickly looking around at rest of the museum one more time, we followed the neon sign out of the museum to see the F1 simulator, and the Ferrari gift shop.
The Ferrari gift shop was crazy! They wanted about €50 for a T-shirt and even small keychains and things were very expensive. These things are nuts but I guess thats what should be expected from a company like Ferrari.
This was the Simulator. It was really expensive (about €20 for like 5 or 10 minutes). If I was more into cars, I might consider it but I really didn't feel like spending any of my money on it, especially when the racing games out on consols are look pretty darn good right now.
Outside the museum, there were several third party companies where you could test drive Ferraris and Lambourghinis. We decided to see how much it would cost to test drive it just to see....
So for 10 minutes or 9 km (whichever comes first) it €70 for the cheapest car. I really did not have that money to spend and I cannot drive stick well enough to drive one so we moved on. Checking out all the shops and cars was a good way to kill time while waiting for our bus back to Modena.
While on the bus we passed by some test drivers. It was pretty cool to see (and hear) them roar on by as they passed our dinky little van bus. Ali and I had a relaxing trip home with lots of writing in journals and once we were back in Florence we got to work on Art History stuff. With finals coming up, we have been SO busy lately. I never thought I would ever be as busy as I was in Alfred when I was in Italy but I was mistaken because now I just about am.

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