Ferrari red colours world of local car connoisseur
Fabrizio Sciola among fans cheering on their favourite car on Grand Prix weekend
Fabrizio Sciola’s love affair with Ferrari blossomed when he was 12 and an acquaintance of his father’s pulled up in front of their house in the same red sports car he had seen actor Tom Selleck driving in the 1980s Magnum P.I. television series.
“I was out playing with my friends in the streets … back then, kids used to play in the streets, no iPad,” said Sciola, 43. “Then, all of a sudden I see this Ferrari … it was a 308 Magnum P.I. car parked in front of my house! I just couldn’t believe it, like this is the real deal! It wasn’t a poster, a magazine or TV … it was right in front of my eyes. It was totally mesmerizing.”
From that day on, Sciola had dreams of owning a Ferrari. That fantasy came true six years ago when he purchased a green 1995 F355 Spider that needed quite a bit of work. He had it repainted red, completely restored the interior himself and had mechanics rebuild the engine.
“I spent quite a bit of money, but it runs pretty well now,” Sciola said last Thursday morning after a downtown Shell Canada/Ferrari media event that featured Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel.
“Some consider it to be the last real Ferrari because at the turn of the millennium, they sort of became a little bit more … I don’t want to say corporate, but they started upping the production numbers, they changed their dealerships,” Sciola added about his F355 Spider. “Before, it was you had to beg for one and hope that the dealer assigned one to you. It became more of a business, so to speak.”
Sciola is president of the Ferrari Club of America — Quebec Chapter, and is also managing director of the Scuderia Ferrari Club Montreal. He was dressed fully in Ferrari red at Thursday’s media event and grinning ear to ear as the Canadian Grand Prix weekend was starting to gear up.
“This is Christmas,” Sciola said with a big smile. “It’s Christmas week.
“My friends, when we get together, all we do is talk Ferrari, drive Ferrari, discuss Ferrari,” he added. “Our wives are just completely fed up.”
Sciola owns two Ferraris, adding a blue 1997 456 model, which is a V12 automatic, to his collection three years ago.
“It’s a nice four-seater with two very small seats in the back,” he said. “My kids are still small, so we can do family outings now as well.”
Sciola said he attended his first Canadian Grand Prix with his father when he around six years old and they went to every race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for about 30 years.
“In every Italian family, F1 takes a big place,” Sciola said.
But it’s not only Italians who cheer for Ferrari in Montreal. There are always thousands of fans dressed in red at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Ferrari is without a doubt the most popular F1 team in the city, partly due to the fact Quebecer Gilles Villeneuve spent six years with the team and won six races before dying in a qualifying crash at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. Montreal Gazette Formula One columnist Walter Buchignani refers to Ferrari as the “sentimental home team” at the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I think they’ve been able to very cleverly market the brand and milk the history of it and transform it more into a lifestyle than just racing and automobiles,” Sciola said about Ferrari’s appeal. “They’ve really been able to go beyond that and get heavily into merchandising.”
While Sciola already owns two Ferraris, he said his dream car would be an F40 model that was designed to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary and was the last car personally approved by founder Enzo Ferrari, who died in 1988. When the F40 made its debut in 1987 it had a factory suggested retail price of about US$400,000.
“Something that’s a little more attainable would be a nice modern Ferrari California,” Sciola said about the two-door, grand touring sports car. “I’d love that to be the next one if the finances permit it one day.”
This has been a good season for Ferrari in Formula One. Heading into the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari was leading the constructors’ standings, while Vettel was first in the drivers’ standings and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth.
How would Sciola celebrate a Ferrari victory at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve?
“Champagne,” he said with a big smile.