Red reborn

We got a rare glimpse into the department that restores and maintains some of the most valuable cars in the world

TURNING a corner of one of the many buildings at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters, the sight of a 1973 Ferrari 312 B3 Formula One car’s nose and front wheel stops me dead in my tracks. It happens again as I enter the building I’ve been trying to nd … except this time, I don’t know where to look. There is an immaculate 330 GTC on a lift, as well as a 500 TRC and 250 LM – both receiving full restorations – and another concourse F1 racer, a 1968 Dino 246 Tasmania. Peering inside the Dino, I’m surprised to nd a plush, period-correct cockpit with cloth covering and a small, beautifully machined gearlever to the right of the steering wheel. The car is compact, sleek and beautiful.

My reverie is interrupted by the greetings of two friendly employees with an invitation to follow them to their archive, a place that is the main reason this entire department actually exists.

Sitting down at a large wooden desk, the head of the department, Luigino Barp, takes out a folder from one of the high shelves and places it in front of me. “This is the folder we have of the rst Ferrari, a 125 S,” he explains. We carefully leaf through the engineers’ technical drawings of the fuel pump and the connecting rod. Although it was a 1947 model, the drawings are actually dated from 1946.

“We have all the details of the rst 30 000 cars up to 1979 here in the archive. From there onwards, it is all on computer.”

These documents are used daily to check details when maintaining or restoring cars. “We learn something new every day. Back in the early days, every panel on a Ferrari had a number, so now we can tell when a car has been modi ed or crashed,” he says.