In 1990, the Australian National Rally held its’ concours as a public event at the newly opened Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre. It was a great success and raised a substantial amount for charity. The NSW Ferrari Club thought it was about time to recreate such a gathering and sought out the support of Italia Motori principal – Tony Graziani. Within five minutes, the irrepressible Tony G. had agreed to provide cash flow for the project and so, the event was a goer.

Darling Harbour was booked for Sunday, August 13, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead agreed to embrace the event and the first invitations were issued. Virtually everyone in NSW owning a Ferrari was contacted, whether club members or not, to maximise the quality and variety of the display. We used every database at our disposal and contacted almost 700 people, inviting entry.

The response was very positive and in no time, we had filled every spot in the vast hall and attracted just about every great car left in NSW. Laurie Sutton (the principal of Scuderia Veloce) was especially kind to us, offering his Enzo and F40 and a great array of memorabilia to auction, including a genuine F1 Ferrari nose cone. The Enzo is such a rare sight and it gave us our “hero car”, around which to base all our promotion. Judging by the crowds around it all day, it was a great attraction.

All up, we boasted about 130 cars including the Enzo, two F40s, all six NSW 275GTBs (the first time they have ever been in the one place together), four Daytona, Guido’s F1 car, a Lancia Stratos, a 206S replica, the first ever Alfa Romeo – the G1 (on loan from Neville Crichton, Governing Director of European Automotive Imports, the importer of Ferrari and Maserati into Australia and New Zealand), a Lusso, Sue Miller’s stunning 250 Pininfarina cabrio and at least one of every Ferrari model since the early 60’s. Naturally, all the modern cars were very well represented.

The cars were displayed in sequences to help the public understand the evolution of Ferrari over the years – one sequence was all the 12 cylinder berlinetta from the Lusso to a 575M, another every mid-engined car from the Dino to the F430, all the convertibles and so on. The club sought media assistance to publicise the event because of the fund-raising potential for the Hospital and at AUS$12 per adult, with children under 16 free, it was considered good value. It took a lot of arm twisting but the event did eventually receive quite good media support so, all we needed was a good day and a good crowd and everyone would be happy. Sydney turned on a perfect day, Darling Harbour is easily the best venue for such an event, with lots of other attractions for the family and the FCA NSW members put in a huge effort to make it a well-organised event.
 

By the time the gates opened at 9 am, there was a queue of people waiting to get in and the crowds just kept coming solidly all day. Just under 4500 paying adults and about a further 1500 kids made for a very well-attended event. The crowds around the Ferrari merchandise stand were five deep all day and at day’s end, if they had put the empty boxes on the counter for AUS$1, someone would have bought them as well.

The event had a very happy atmosphere, with lots of people we hardly ever see in attendance and lots of catching up and laughter over old stories were in evidence. David Levy debuted his nearly completed “yellow car” to the delight of his many friends in the Ferrari community. This car is David’s personal variation on the theme of a 275 or 250 but features a 400+bhp fuel injected 5 litre Ferrari V12. Beautifully and largely hand made, keep an eye out for a forthcoming article on this fantastic creation.

The NSW Club also conducted its annual concours in conjunction with the display and about 40 cars were presented for judging. The standard was very high but all the usual concours experts were beaten by a freshly restored 246GTS entered by Ian Cummins. Superbly and expertly restored by Ian’s well-known team, the Dino was an absolute stunner and close to unbeatable. Concours stalwarts like Tony Galwey, the Piazzas, Dave Warren etc. all dominated their classes and the judging panel led by Gerry Duyvestyn performed heroically to get the job done in front of an audience of thousands.

The day went so very well and the public clearly enjoyed themselves. They seemed surprisingly well-informed about the cars and understood what a rare opportunity they had to see so many special cars in the one place. They were also outstandingly generous and the donation tins kept filling up the whole day. Mind you, running the gauntlet of Lorraine and Mark Whitehouse at the entry door without making a sizeable donation was not for the faint-hearted. One club member approached Mark to complain about having to queue for an entry ticket along with the public so Mark told him AUS$30 in the tin should do the trick and he could go straight in! He paid up immediately.

By day’s end, we had raised just over AUS$65,000 for The Children’s Hospital and clearly made a lot of people very happy. The members of the NSW Ferrari Club were rightly pretty pleased with themselves, especially given the scale of the event. Without the generosity of a great many people, the event would not have been possible but Laurie Sutton and Tony Graziani deserve special praise. Laurie has been such a kind benefactor to the club over so many years but it takes a pretty special person to continue that support long after the Ferrari franchise has moved on. Tony Graziani continues to be a great friend to the NSW club and his enthusiasm and uncomplicated manner made life so easy throughout this event. It took him five minutes to decide to support it and every single time he was asked for assistance or advice, it was immediately available. Thanks to all the entrants and club members for making this such a memorable event. The next one is scheduled for 2011 so, start polishing!

by Ian Gow