Ferrari Museum

The Ferrari museum adjacent to the company’s manufacturing plant at Marandello is complementary to that at the childhood home of Enzo Ferrari at Modena 27 km. north, with which it is linked by a shuttle bus service. Enzo Anselmo Ferrari (1898-1988), whose father, Alfredo Ferrari, had a mechanical engineering workshop at Modena, was inspired to his career in making and driving high performance cars by watching the Circuit di Bologna motor race in 1908. He became a racing driver and in 1932 founded the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix team. Subsequently he turned to making parts for other racing teams, and in the Second World War to manufacturing armaments. Allied bombing of his factory in Modena led him to move to a new factory at Maranello.

In 1947 Enzo Ferrari founded the car manufacturing company Ferrari SpA, which in subsequent decades produced high performance vehicles which owed their glamour not just to outstanding design and mechanical excellence but to the successes the company achieved in Formula One racing, and earlier world championships, in the 24 Hours race at Le Mans and in the Mille Miglia. In 1969 FIAT acquired 50 per cent of the company and that share has subsequently increased.

The museum at Marandello opened in 1990 and was extended with a new wing in 2004. It is devoted principally to Ferrari’s role in international motor sport. A ‘pit stop wall’ shows visitors something of the tensions of racing Formula I cars, and offers the opportunity of taking part in a real tyre changing operation. There are stimulators which give tastes of what it is like to drive a Formula I car. A cinema shows short films illustrating the history of the Ferrari company in motor racing of all kinds. Visitors to the museum can also go on guided tours of the factory complex, sometimes called the Cittadella Ferrari, passing along the Viale Enzo Ferrari and viewing the famous Fioramo test track.