A total of 120 classic and modern Ferraris which are valued at more than AUS$100 million are set to parade through Melbourne and Sydney on Saturday 3 March and Sunday 4 March to mark the 60th Anniversary of the legendary supercar maker and the most successful team ever in Formula 1. In both cities Ferrari owners will be carrying a unique baton as part of world wide relay involving more than 10,000 Ferrari owners around the world, which started in Abu Dhabi in January and which finishes in Ferrari’s Maranello home in June.

In each Australian city there will be 60 Ferraris in the parades, one for each year that Ferrari has redefined performance and motorsport success. In Melbourne, the Parade will start at the Crown Entertainment Complex at 09.00 am on Saturday 3 March and travel around the City Link, over the Bolte Bridge, through Royal Park to Lygon Street. Here the Ferraris will be displayed as part of the day-long ‘2007 Grand Prix Festival Celebrating Ferrari’s 60th Anniversary’, which will include the demonstration of a Ferrari Formula 1 car as a curtain opener for the 2007 ING Australian Grand Prix.

The following day in Sydney at 11.00 am on Sunday 4 March another 60 Ferraris will depart from Willoughby led by the Ferrari 60th Anniversary Relay Baton to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge before going through The Rocks to be displayed at the lower level of the International Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay.

“There has never been one Ferrari parade like this in Australia, so two of them, totalling 120 Ferraris on two consecutive days is the very definition of unique,” says Kevin Wall, the General Manager of Ferrari in Australia. “Between the two events, virtually every year of Ferrari production will be covered, from the very first Ferrari road cars, to the latest Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. It will be a visual and, with all those V8 and V12 engines, an audible feast!”

Ferrari is celebrating a remarkable 60 year history that started when Enzo Ferrari produced his first car under his own name, the Ferrari 125S on 11 May 1947. Just weeks later this first Ferrari won its first Grand Prix in Rome and started a motorsport legend, which has seen the Prancing Horse become the most successful team in Formula 1 of all time. Ferrari road car – or as the company prefers, GT car – production started the following year with the Ferrari 166 MM Touring, the first of a long line of V12 powered supercars that has lead to the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the latest product of the Ferrari factory in Maranello.
 

Over the years in between these two cars, Ferrari has become the very definition of the term ‘supercar’ and the benchmark against which all pretenders to the throne must be compared.

From this illustrious history of supercars, the two parades will include:

• Ferrari 275 GTB (1964): The first Ferrari with fully independent suspension, the 3.3 litre V12 275 GTB was very much a supercar in the classic mould with long bonnet, steeply raked windscreen and styling that made it a highly sought-after car in the ‘swinging sixties’.
• Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 (1964): Enzo Ferrari himself tested the first 330 GT 2+2 and used it as his personal transport, so this Ferrari was a clear reflection of the man behind it. A sober and elegant grand tourer with 245 kmh performance from its 4.0 litre V12. A huge success for Ferrari, more than 1000 were built by 1967.
• Ferrari 275 GTB/4 (1966): The 300 bhp 3.3 litre V12 engine propelled this Ferrari sports car to a top speed of 260 kmh.
• Ferrari Dino 246 GT (1967): Today’s Ferrari F430 can trace its roots, in its mechanical layout, styling and ethos, back to the compact mid-engined coupé that debuted in 1967 and brought mid-engined road manners to the road.
• Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (1968): Better known by its unofficial name, the Daytona is the archetypal supercar and defined performance motoring during its era, as well as providing a design by Pininfarina that has proven extremely influential.
• Ferrari 308 GTB (1975): Arguably, with its starring role in Magnum PI, the car that made Ferrari a global TV star, the 308 initiated the mid-engined layout around a V8 engine that remains at the heart of the F430 today. The 308’s styling, magnificent blend of sensual lines and strength has been described as one of the most beautiful cars of all time.
• Ferrari F40 (1987): Even by Ferrari standards, the F40 built to mark the company’s  40^th anniversary was a benchmark car and was the last super car devoid of electronics, making its performance – 0-100 kmh in 4.1 seconds and 324 kmh flat out – raw and demanding, as well as blindingly quick even 20 years later.
• Ferrari 550 Barchetta (2000): By the turn of the century, the Ferrari range had shifted into its present configuration, mid-engined cars with V8 power and front engine classic super car layout for the V12 sports cars. The 550 Barchetta harked back to the very first 166 MM as an open top version of the Ferrari 550.
• Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (2006): The culmination of 60 years of automotive excellence on and off race track, the 599 GTB Fiorano draws together technology from Formula 1 and from Ferrari’s road car expertise to produce a car that is actually quicker than an F40, but which is also luxuriously well equipped and, depending on conditions and driver requirements, docile and easy to drive or shatteringly quick.

Ferrari is celebrating this remarkable history world wide with a relay event of which the events in Sydney and Melbourne are the Australian legs. The relay started in Abu Dhabi, site of future Ferrari Theme Park, on 29 January. After Middle East, the journey goes across China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, America and the whole of Europe, and will end at Maranello on 23 June. The relay will involve over 10,000 Ferrari owners and their cars of all ages. These will act as symbolic “bearers” of a specially commissioned relay baton adorned with 60 badges symbolising the most extraordinary events in the Marque’s 60-year history.

Ferrari embarked upon this 12 months of celebrations having just ended an exceptionally brilliant financial year that saw the Company post revenues of €1,447 million (+12.3% on 2005’s takings) resulting in a trading profit of €183 million (+17%) and 5,650 deliveries to its worldwide dealership network, a new record.

Ferrari in Australia.

European Automotive Imports took over the distribution of Ferrari in Australia and New Zealand in 2005, promising to significantly lift the quality of customer service and provide local Ferrari fans with greater access to Ferrari’s remarkable products. This, it has comprehensively done, with new dealerships in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane matched by new quality Ferrari customer events. At the same time the number of new Ferraris finding homes in Australia has almost doubled.