Anyone ever go to the Ferrari factory or rent a Ferrari in Italy?

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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Starting to think about a trip to Italy, I looked online and whole day Ferrari rentals start at $1000EU. Don't want to rent a whole day, just for an hour or two. Also, interested in touring the factory.
 
Lived near Venice from 07-10.

Unless it’s changed, the ‘tour’ is of the museum at the factory and not of the factory. Lamborghini is the same way. Ducati is an actual tour of the assembly and include the museum.

If your going to Italy (and especially Tuscany) it’s not a bad side trip, but it isn’t a destination in and of itself.

I’ve also driven a Lotus and an F455 at Silverstone as part of the track day experiences. Those can be worth it depending on how the driver experience is structured.
 
I've done the 'museum' tour. I'm not a Ferrari nut, so it didn't do a whole lot for me, but there were some nice cars on display... sort of as you'd expect. it broke up the drive from Florence to Venice nicely enough, but it's not a thing I'd do on purpose.

If you're nuts about the car, probably worth getting it over with, you'll get way more out of it than I did. :)
 
If you are going to Venice spend some time in Verona as well. Very cool vibe. They have concerts, operas etc in Arena di Verona.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Hmmm, ok. Disappointed, but good to know.
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What’s the actual purpose of either going to Europe or driving a Ferrari?

There’s a ton of cool ways to do either or both...you can PM and set up a call.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Hmmm, ok. Disappointed, but good to know.
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Sorry if I was skooshing a dream or something. I've seen cooler Ferraris at Mecum Auctions, but again... I'm no aficionado of the brand.

The Petersen in Santa Monica, that's some good car tourism IMHO. I could spend days in that place.

As stated above, I can think of better things to do in Italy, and better places to drive exotic cars. :D
 
I flew for a driver, who Ferrari sponsored. The closest airport is in Lugano, Switzerland. Watch out............kinda steep approach!!

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You can rent Ferraris in the US as well, Enterprise has a luxury rental division that has them.

If you just want a short drive, you may want to check out Xtreme Xperience. They're having their preseason sale right now if you want to do a drive next year.

I'm going up to Atlanta Motorsports Park on Saturday, have a drive in a Porsche 911 GT3 and a Ferrari 458 Italia.
 
schmookeeg said:
The Petersen in Santa Monica, that's some good car tourism IMHO. I could spend days in that place.
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Now in downtown LA... new building.. and if you go be sure to get The Vault Tour... well worth it.. Anther one to see while in Los Angeles in the Nethercutt

I have been to the VW, BMW, Porsche, Henry Ford Mususme, and the Mercedes Benz museum and factory tour... the MBZ was by far the best of the brand specific musumes
 
I believe factory tours are only available if you're an owner (and can prove it).
 
if you are dead set on doing it in Italy, looks like it'll cost 700+ EURO
 
In Miami, it was $1200/day. They’re all automatics these days.


Tom
 
Ventucky Red said:
Now in downtown LA... new building.. and if you go be sure to get The Vault Tour... well worth it.. Anther one to see while in Los Angeles in the Nethercutt

I have been to the VW, BMW, Porsche, Henry Ford Mususme, and the Mercedes Benz museum and factory tour... the MBZ was by far the best of the brand specific musumes
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The Peterson museum is not downtown. It's on Wilshire Blvd. on museum row right near the LACMA. I haven't been since the renovated the exterior. I need to swing by one of these days considering I drive by it multiple times a week :) Side note....While Robert Peterson made alot of his money in the car magazine business, he also had his own FBO at Van Nuys...Peterson Aviation...but they then got gobbled up by somebody else in the 2000s...Signature, I believe.
 
Personally I’d say you’re better off doing a track experience with the car than renting it to toodle around the city or even the highway. Having driven Ferraris both on highways and on a closed course, it’s way more fun on the closed course. Actually get to play with the car. Plus if you get frisky at all on the highway, you have to worry not only about your own ability to handle the car but also look out for the moves of others.
 
AKiss20 said:
Personally I’d say you’re better off doing a track experience with the car than renting it to toodle around the city or even the highway. Having driven Ferraris both on highways and on a closed course, it’s way more fun on the closed course. Actually get to play with the car. Plus if you get frisky at all on the highway, you have to worry not only about your own ability to handle the car but also look out for the moves of others.
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This ^^^^^^^^^^^

Personally I would say you're better off renting something and driving the Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munich. It is a frigging raceway..


mr_happyland said:
The Peterson museum is not downtown. It's on Wilshire Blvd. on museum row right near the LACMA.
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Yeah, you got me there... All the same in Hell-A :p
 
Ventucky Red said:
Personally I would say you're better off renting something and driving the Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munich. It is a frigging raceway..
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Plus the Germans actually understand the concept of lane discipline. Something we in the US (and certainly the Italians) could do with a refresher course, or actually, learning it in the first place...
 

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Ventucky Red said:
This ^^^^^^^^^^^

Personally I would say you're better off renting something and driving the Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munich. It is a frigging raceway..

Yeah, you got me there... All the same in Hell-A :p
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Recommend early Sunday mornings for that. The traffic here is way worse than people expect. I have a hard time getting up past 200 kmh on a regular basis. Looking at the A8 right now (the highway between Stuttgart and München) there is a 6 mile backup at 1pm. Not even rush hour.

I am looking at doing a track day thing at Hockenheim next year.
 
kgruber said:
I flew for a driver, who Ferrari sponsored. The closest airport is in Lugano, Switzerland. Watch out............kinda steep approach!!

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Closest airport to what? There are 100 airports closer to the Ferrari factory than that.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
In Miami, it was $1200/day. They’re all automatics these days.


Tom
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There is a reason most Rental Ferrari's are now using the fully auto transmission models is the renters abuse the paddle shift models, we used to rent our F430 out and it cost us a fortune keeping clutch packs in the car due to sport mode starts off the line.. In the end the abuse the car got wasn't worth continuing to keep it on the rental fleet.
 

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mryan75 said:
Closest airport to what? There are 100 airports closer to the Ferrari factory than that.
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When your Falcon 50 owner, who drives for Ferrari, and won at Sebring, says it's the closest..................then it is!!
 
I did my Xtreme Xperience drive on Saturday, and I thought I'd share the video with you. This is the Ferrari 458 Italia, which has a lovely sounding 4.5 liter normally aspirated V8.


I did a Porsche drive as well, I'll share that one tomorrow.

What you're seeing here is what I would call a safe lap, but would not necessarily be the the fastest line. The XX folks have this stuff dialed in, where they can produce consistent safe laps that are at a sporting pace for drivers of widely varying attitudes and aptitudes. This is the third time I've done this with these folks. The first time was in an Audi R8 and a 911 GT3, the second was was in a Nissan GTR and a 911 GT3 RS, and this time with the Ferrari and a 911 GT3. Last year I didn't drive with them, instead I did two SCCA Track Nights, one in a rented Mustang and one in a rented Camaro.

Atlanta Motorsports Park is one of those automotive country club style tracks. It was drawn up by the Tilke design bureau that has done most of the recent Formula 1 circuits. It's twisty and technical with lots of elevation changes, and a short (and not entirely straight) main straight. It would be a tough place to hold a motor race as there's only one place I think you could do a contested pass, and that's into the first turn. I've been told that Spec Miatas have held a race here, and they're small enough and slow enough to have a decent race. For lapping days and events such as this it's a great facility, you could do many hundreds of laps and still have things to improve upon.
 
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As promised, the Porsche drive.


I enjoyed driving the Ferrari, but I loved driving the Porsche. When I was done with my laps, the instructor asked me what I thought. I was speechless, the car is that good. I've done three of these drives, and every instructor I have spoken with has said that the 911 GT3 was his favorite.
 
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