The story of Ferrari presented through a new exhibition for enthusiasts

Designed by Benedetto Camerana, the renovated Maranello museum space presents the history of the prancing horse and its founder with documents, photographs and cars spanning seven decades.

Benedetto Camerana renews Ferrari's museum spaces in Maranello

Emilia-Romagna, at the foot of the Apennines, Ferraritown, more commonly known as Maranello, in the province of Modena, and the capital of motoring since 1943, the year in which Enzo Ferrari moved his company from Modena in order to escape the bombings.

Almost all the pubs, restaurants, hotels, florists and stationers have names which in some way make reference to Ferrari and his red cars, and the street names are divided between statespeople and racing heroes. But there is no doubt as to who holds the throne. In the town square there is a monument to “The Drake”, as he was fondly known. Just a short walk from this spot, passing alongside the Enzo Ferrari Auditorium and the Dino Ferrari middle school, lies the Company Museum, at number 43 of a long street which is also named after Dino Ferrari.

Inaugurated in 1990, the three-story building covering a total of 2,500 square metres is now the Ferrari museum centre together with the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena which opened in 2012. In 2017 there were 530 thousand visitors to the two venues, with 160 of these coming to Maranello. These are very respectable figures and future visits are set to increase with the recent refurbishment of the latter venue. 

Designed by the architect Benedetto Camerana – who was responsible for the museums for the Juventus football team and Alfa Romeo, and the numerous spaces at the Turin Olympic Village in 2006 – the various areas do not simply display cars, they tell a story through a setting which leads the visitor through rooms, each presenting a chapter or episode.

To this end, Camerana’s team has created a system of nine walls which, like scenery, redefine the areas, set out a path through the exhibition, provide visual support with the graphic designs by Studio Fionda and, last but by no means least, provide additional display space for photographs, drawings, models and monitors.

Even the slim but clearly visible stands on which the cars are displayed have been carefully considered. On the one hand, there was a practical need to set a refined limit to the sometimes-overwhelming desire of visitors to get a little too close, and on the other the diktat of the guardians of Ferrari ideals, who were unwilling to accept pedestals whose height would have disturbed the proportions of the design.

The new museum layout was recently inaugurated with two exhibitions: “Passion and Legend” and “Driven by Enzo”, both of which will run until May. The first looks back over the history of Ferrari and its founder through documents, photographs and cars from over the seven decades, subdivided into four thematic areas: Enzo Ferrari; How a Ferrari is created; A Question of Style; Ferrari Racing; Formula 1. This section includes the 250 GT Berlinetta, the Dino 246 and the 812 Superfast, as well as the racing vehicles driven by Schumacher, Schekter and other champions.

The second is instead dedicated to the four-seater vehicles used personally by Drake and includes the 1960 250 GT 2+2 and the 456 GT personally approved by the owner in 1988, just a few months before his death. 

Exhibition title:
“Driven by Enzo”; “Passion and Legend”
Opening dates:
September 2018 - May 2019
Venue:
Museo Ferrari
Address:
Via Alfredo Dino Ferrari 43, Maranello (Modena), Italy

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