The first thing you see when you enter the museum is a collection of Ferrari's Formula 1 (F1) cars and engines. If you are not familiar with Formula 1 it is an international class of racing whose car specifications are set by a committee of the Federation Internationale de l'Autmobile (FIA). The specifications set the engine size, number of cylinders, whether turbos or superchargers are allowed, car weight, length, etc. The cars are open wheel (think of Indy cars) and are considered to be the most advanced and fastest race cars in the world. F1 is an outgrowth of the Grand Prix races of the 20s and 30s and was officially codified in 1946. A car formula or specification is agreed on and all competitors must design and build cars that meet that specification in order to race. To encourage innovation and development the car specifications are changed periodically. For example, for 2006 to 2013 seasons engines were 2.4 liter, normally aspirated (not turbo) V-8s and were limited to 19,000 RPM. Now in 2014 the engines must be hybrid, 1.6 liter, turbo charged V-6s, and are limited to 15,000 RPM.
Each team must design and build their own car but they are allowed to buy engines from one of the other teams. Today there are 11 teams each fielding 2 cars per race, but there are only three engine manufacturers. Some teams are famous car manufacturers like Ferrari and Mercedes others are small mostly unknown teams such as Force India and Marussia. Races take place all over the world including places like China, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, USA and Europe. Some of these races are very famous such as the Grand Prix of Monaco.
Ferrari is the only team that has been active in F1 since the beginning and they had many of their F1 cars on display. Below are examples of the ones that I thought were most interesting.
This first one is from 1952 and is a front engine car with a 4.4 liter V-12. At that time the Indianapolis 500 was part of the F1 schedule and so this car raced at Indy.
This car is from 1961 and is the model that American Phil Hill used to win the World Driver's Championship. Phil is the only American to ever win this championship. It had a 3.0 liter V-10.
This car is from 1964 and had a 1.5 liter V-12. What made this car interesting to me is that I saw John Surtees racing this car at Watkins Glen in upstate New York.
Here is the photo I took way back in 1964.
This car is from 1971 and had a 3.0 liter V-12.
This car is from 1979 and had a 3.0 liter flat 12. Kind of weird looking.
This is a normally aspirated 3.0 liter V-10 that was used in the 1995 - 2005 time frame.
This car is from 2009 and is more like what we are used to seeing today. The biggest change over the years has been the growth of the aerodynamics. The combination of the front and rear wings as well as the body design generates a large amount of down force equivalent to four or five times the weight of the car. Theoretically, one of these cars at speed could drive on the ceiling and not fall off. Why do they generated so much down force? To generate traction. The amount of traction you get from a tire is a product of the down force times the coefficient of friction so the higher the down force the higher the traction. This enables these cars to pull four or five Gs in a turn and stop on half a dime.
They also had some of their racing sports cars on display. This is one of the oldest dating from 1951. It started life as a model 212 Export Barchetta and was powered by a 2.6 liter V-12. However, it was remodeled in 1953/4 to become a fictional make "Burano" for use in the movie "The Racers" starring Kirk Douglas and was raced in the 1955 Mille Miglia as part of that movie.
This is a 330 P3 race car from the mid 60s. Its interesting as I got to see one of these cars racing at Sebring, Florida back in 1966.
And here is a photo I took back in 1966.
This is a model 512 M race car dating from 1970. It was featured in the Steve McQueen movie "Le Mans".
Here is a current model Ferrari racing sports car. This is a model 458 GT2 that participated in the 2011 Le Mans race.
Here is a photo I took of one of these cars at the 2014 Sebring race.
Here are some photos of recent or current production street cars. This is a model 360 Modena. It was the first full aluminum monocoque construction Ferrari. It had a 3.6 liter V-8 putting out 400 HP and had a top speed of about 185 mph.
This is a Ferrari California. It has a Twin Turbo V-8 and if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.
This is what the engine looks like, a Twin Turbo V-8 putting out 560 HP.
After we left the museum we took a quick swing by the Ferrari test track. Had to take a quick picture through the trees.
Now we are off to the city of Parma where we will grab dinner and spend the night.
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