To walk through the back gate of the Ferrari automotive works here and stroll down Viale Enzo Ferrari is to enter a museum of architecture. To the left is a wind tunnel designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, a soaring tangle of immense gray tubes and cubes where Ferrari’s ear-splitting, nerve-tickling, expensive automobiles are tested for aerodynamic properties.
To the right is the finishing plant for engine blocks and other components, designed by Marco Visconti — three sets of huge glass blocks floating on greenery.
Farther down is the sprawling new assembly hall, designed by Jean Nouvel, the French architect who won the Pritzker Prize this year, in gleaming metal and mirrored glass. One side faces a masonry wall of the old Ferrari works, erected in the 1940s by Enzo Ferrari, who started building his sports cars after World War II. In the evening, the ruddy color of the old wall is illuminated, casting an eerie red glow on Nouvel’s creation.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Ferrari’s project is to rebuild the entire Ferrari works, from engine block foundry to final assembly plant, not just one building, according to designs of leading architects. Moreover, the project is reaching its conclusion just as the global financial crisis, which will sweep away many of the bonuses that bought Ferraris in the past, undercuts the automobile market.
Last year Ferrari sold about 6,400 cars, including 1,761 in the US and Canada. In the first eight months of this year, sales rose almost 25 percent, to 4,953. If sales should soften in traditional markets, Ferrari is rapidly opening new markets. It entered China in 2004, and last year sold 200 cars there.
“There will always be 6,000 people in the world who will want a Ferrari,” Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said.
Ferrari’s results are good news for its parent company, Fiat. Ferrari accounts for only about 6 percent of Fiat’s total revenue, but generates more than 26 percent of its profit.
Montezemolo has followed the rest of the luxury-goods industry in democratizing Ferrari’s product range, cashing in on the magnetism of the Ferrari name and prancing horse logo to offer a broad range of consumer products in exclusive Ferrari shops, at prices well below those of its cars, which can cost more than US$200,000.
Ferrari opened its first store, in Milan, in 2004. It now has 20, including four in the US, and plans more.
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