Inside Ferrari’s ULTIMATE Restoration Workshop

this is the Ferrari classics department this is where the most valuable cars in the world come when they need a place RNR showing me around today is the boss Andrea Moder what are we doing here? Basically, preserving our heritage, our history and keeping alive, not just the memory. but the legacy that a great man, our founder, left us, the first seed, if you want, was in 2004, it was Je Todd's idea, we have to admit that he understood perfectly to what extent our history, our values ​​were radical in our cars in all the production that we did and then this activity began that later became official with a specific department in 2006, okay, great, and what we are looking for for you to take care of everything once it is 20 years old is like this, it is becomes CL after 20 years, according to our records, we can talk about classic Ferrari cars and we really try to preserve each one produced from March 12, 47 until today is December 5, 2023, so the December 4, 203, sometimes the idea of ​​original is often confused with authenticity we work for authenticity if you care we are looking at an F40 um an F40 for sure in its life at least replaced the tires the filter so at least In the end it is not the original that left the tires but if they were the correct ones if the filters were correct the car is authentic as it was when it left the factory, but what about some of the cars?

All cars have stories. Yes, this one, for example, has a small crack. in the paint and in the Kevlar there it is, it has been used, it has been used, it is part of history. Does it depend on the owner? Do customers here call you owners or custodians or collectors? that keeps these wonderful Jewels for a while and then perhaps they are transferred to his son or someone else who would like to maintain the Legacy in the future, as you were saying, the question remains of whether the body should be preserved or whether it should go . for a body

restoration

just in case, but you can guide them if you think, of course, yes, especially when it relates to safety things, safe things, we can't miss any of them and we have to go over all the details in the case of SE, we have a tour.

Andrea starts by showing me a 335k Mia, we look at the details of the rain gutter on a 212 inter and talk about a 250 that came back for its more modern disc brakes to go back to the original factory drums, the car left the factory on disc drum and, throughout its history as Ferrari, we did not put brake discs on this specific model, nor on the model in general, so the owner would like to recover the car and the condition in which it was It sold, so we're going back and, of course, it has it. all the paperwork and everything that goes back yes, thanks to the archive, thanks to the information we have, we can go back exactly like a time machine that day, that model, so that you know the days when they were put together, the days when they were they built and everything I went into that, yeah, wow, it was just because Enzo was particularly picky about the way he kept records or he was just very picky, good choice, fastidious, I think he was very committed to having every piece of information, but then something catches my eye, a gorgeously scruffy 512bb, new owner. the new collector H is just asking us to take care of this, so what are you going to do with it?

I mean, it's up to you and him to have a discussion. We'll have it here next week. The car. The car arrived in a couple of days. A few days ago, he will be here next week to discuss exactly the next step together. I'm sure he's asking for a mechanical

restoration

because he'd like to keep the car running, so we don't know about the body yet, what's his intention? It sure looks like it's lived a life, yes, it has, let's just say it's been preserved in this condition for a long time. When I came down here, you could still see the wood over here where where the kind of cap on the end of the wing is missing really the car has been uh it's been stuck Stu as it was and uh so yeah, I don't really know.

I have no idea what kind of restoration you would do. I'd like to continue you have all the you have all the notes about this car everything everything we came across a 1957 bareta 500 TRC that won its class in the m IIA four times and then we get to my personal favorite what's the story here ah this is this has a story that I can tell ah it's nice it's nice this car originally belonged to the famous filmmaker Roselin okay and the car was bought to go from Rome to Oslo From Rome to Oslo, yes, with his wife, who was ingred bman ah H en the time when they had to pick up the Nobel Prize so they drove this from Roome to Oslo to pick up the Nobel Prize exactly exactly oh my word the car was full of luggage and there was a nice exchange between uh rosellini and our founder uh because uh rosellini didn't complain but explained to our founder that ing bman had such a large amount of luggage that he had to pack all the cars with his suitcases, so that's really how it is. this was relatively practical for a nice, nice, nice, the car is, again, it's been restored, we did it recently, we did some work on the engine and on the mechanicals at the front, yeah, mechanicals, I know, it's that rack, that's the argument that they had between R and Eno because, uh, the film had a lot of baggage and to go up to the roof exactly and he was asking permission to install, he had to ask permission from Enzo and he received permission to have it, so that that's the reason I was using the car. full of Leed yes, yes, fantastic, yes, wow, and it is that the original, the original, the original, not only not only not only the rock but also the luggage, oh, that is the yes, wow, yes, this is the heart and soul, isn't it? it's what you do, sure, but again we went back to the original specification, to the idea of ​​our founding engine, the gearbox is the core of the soul, so engine maintenance happens in this area, maintenance over analysis rolling, we review an original Columbo V12. and a boxer 12 from a Rossa tester, so those of the components that come off the car are OWN, the owners must have some value, so the owners absolutely want them back, unfortunately I'm not so happy to see so many . boxes around here but they contain parts that were in the car and after restoration they are returned to the owners because they want to keep them, uh, yeah, because this part of automotive history for them is that they have this is what comes out of there and enters.

I love seeing all these notices written at the end, so you're like 250 GTOs, these bits of cars and the car, but the process basically works this way, we get cars like the 512 that we were. Looking, we share with the owner what kind of activities they would like to see done and then from that point we do a first disassembly of the mhm car and an analysis of each piece, literally one by one, one by one. Everything is taken to fit a car into exactly one of these bays and then it is completely disassembled. The parts are placed on this cart and on these racks and analyzed one by one.

Then, first of all, the pieces are identified, as we can encompass, it cannot be. repurposed can be used as is so these are the three okay and what about things like sometimes you know owners come and go? I want something completely new done and everything else and you just think, oh, you're going to lose some of the essence of the type of wear and tear of the car and its history uh we do have to admit that it was more common in the past uh a few years ago there was much more than I use the word temptation over restore, yes ok especially some collectors were interested in having Chrome everywhere Chrome that was not really consistent with history, but the real joy here is not the cars, but what's in this glass-walled room.

Right next door, this is the Ferrari archive, all the paperwork since the company was founded, from the production details of each car to F1 race reports and from original design drawings to handwritten notes, As we said from the beginning, how can it be done. I mean the direction, the ideas, the guidance, literally, came from our founder and what he was asking of his competition team, of the Scaria Ferrari, of the team, so we still have the entire competition report book, so that 1956, 1956, so this. because he didn't travel to races, right? That's the point where his life was between Moda, where he lived, Maranello, where the factory was, a little further up the hill, Sarah Matsoni, where they were trying to test the car that was his life. at the same time, I was really interested in knowing everything that was going on wherever in the world they were racing, so I was really meticulously asking the engineer to report everything when I mean Everything is Everything, um description of the car , yes, weather conditions, uh, but also the mood of the driver and the same for the cars, these fabulous Ledges Lucas remains among the followers, he ran well, he tried in the last part of the race to win third position, but Barça has been better than him, better than him, so he has the description which is the description of the driver, then he has a description of the car, description of the car, then, the revolutions at which he was going, yes, how much temperature, oil temperature, everything, the file was eventually moved to microfilm and after the 8,000th car it went digital in the late 80's and if you're wondering why they have the original stamps around the sides that allow technicians to verify that the markings on the engines match the seals that would have been used.

What is this drawing? Here is a drawing of a rear spoiler. this book is a book related to 1968 okay so each of the books was originally written by hand and then later in the factory so we have the first analysis done by forgi yes on the introduction of aerodynamics in an F1, so wow! Speaking of F1 606b chassis O7 uh modification done on May 16, 68 um, the car came back from the Spanish GP the same day they took everything apart and Gary started thinking about how to fix a rear wing to increase downforce, wow, so this is the first design of the first idea of ​​the rear wing how to fix it where to fix it versus the roll bar as you can see how to mount it on the engine so this was a Ledger engineer this 4's Ledger to work was going to do with the cars and exactly and I had to document it because I knew the boss would have asked would have asked exactly look what I mean there's no place like this so you have this is this is this is Ferrari here isn't this Ferrari?

Shouldn't we have been able to do what we're doing after we stopped filming? Andrea came up with an absolute Zinger. He said that last year one of the other departments had gotten in touch and said, "Look, we found these old boxes in the corner of a dusty warehouse and he wanted to take a look at them and if not they were going to be thrown away and he thought, well , yeah, I mean, there's a lot of this, but it's always worth a look and it turns out that in those boxes were the original drawings of the Columbo V12, probably the most famous engine that ever existed.

Come here to this incredible place. and learns that, far from knowing everything, Ferrari is still discovering its own history.