On Wednesday the
Ferrari 60 Relay arrived in Italy for its stage
around the island of Sicily. While the Tour will end in less
than a month in Maranello, the 30th May saw the cars
gathered on Piazza Verdi in Palermo, waiting for the stage
to start. Cars from Ferrari, from the present and the past,
participated in the day's stage, while the winner of the
legendary Targa Florio of the year 1965, Nino Vaccarella,
aka "the flying director", with his 275 P2 joined the event.
The Tour drove through uncontaminated nature over a stretch
of the old Targa Florio route. The 1965 Targa Florio and
Vaccarella's victory that year, inspired one of the official
symbols of the Ferrari 60 Relay, shown on the baton. During
the stage the driver stopped in the same spot with the same
car as shown in a photo from the year 1965.
In the afternoon the Tour arrived in Cerda, where the
participants honoured Cippo Masetti. Eventually the Relay
arrived in Caltavuturo, a village in the middle of the
Madonie nature reserve, which had completely changed its
face for the passing Ferrari 60 Relay. Amongst the
spectators and representatives from the authorities, were
many clients and even a 250 GTE 2+2.
On Thursday,
31st May, after the stops in Palermo and Catania, the Tour
arrived in Ragusa, where the new Ferrari dealership, Cronos,
was inaugurated. In the newly-created building the Dino 166
F2, the car, which won the edition of the Temporada
Argentina in the year 1968 with Andrea De Adamich behind the
wheel, was exposed. The former driver and current executive
director of the Ferrari driving courses was present at the
event.
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Cars from Ferrari, from the present and the past,
participated in the day's stage which took in the
legendary Targa Florio route (above, in Palermo). |
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The first stage of the 'Ferrari 60 Relay' in
Italy was attended by a very special participant:
the first "torchbearer" was the Nino Vaccarella in a
275 P2 (above, in Palermo), the Ferrari with which
he won the Targa Florio in 1965. |
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Ferrari is to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2007 with a
major event from June 21st to June 24th in Maranello, Italy.
Maranello will be the finish line in a "relay race" across
five continents where participants will carry a baton
embossed with symbols of the 60 greatest moments in the
company's history. The "Ferrari 60 Relay" kicked off back on
January 28th in Abu Dhabi, site of the future Ferrari theme
park, and will conclude in Maranello on June 24th, after
traversing about 50 countries in 148 days. The central theme
of the final events is technological innovation pioneered by
Ferrari in the 60 years of its existence. For the occasion,
Ferrari is assembling its 60 most important innovations,
ranging from aluminium pliers for disc brakes to the
electric differential and the F1 gearbox.
Against this backdrop Ferrari has organized its first
concours d'élégance: a series of events on the track, at the
factory and at the Galleria Ferrari in Maranello celebrating
the elegance of the Ferrari. An Opera Omnia book will be
published on the company's history, a collection of pictures
and data on all the road cars and race cars built by
Ferrari. The baton for the Ferrari 60 Relay was specially
created to symbolize the history of the company, from its
first success at the Rome Grand Prix of 1947 to the Ferrari
FXX of 2006. Ferrari's clients are carrying the baton around
the world in their cars.
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