Ferrari GB took centre stage at Salon Privé’s Private and Luxury Super Car Show, held late last week in the immaculate grounds of the timeless and very exclusive Hurlingham Club in London. Now in its second year, Salon Privé is a unique high-society event where VIP-guests can admire the most beautiful luxury and sports cars in the grounds of one of the UK’s most prestigious private members club, The Hurlingham Club.

This was the second high profile event for Ferrari GB in a matter of weeks, and just as they stamped their prestigious profile on the Festival of Speed, here they did much the same, although compared to the racy, charged atmosphere at Goodwood, the tranquil setting of The Hurlingham Club was simply a world away. "It's a different feel to Goodwood, Goodwood's one thing, this is another, every event has a slightly different focus," Al Clarke, Ferrari GB's Director of Communications, explained to Italiaspeed at The Hurlingham Club. "Salon Privé is a London garden party, The Hurlingham Club is a beautiful location, one hundred metres from the Thames, we're in a country house location in the middle of London and the event attracts a certain type of person who enjoys the finer things in life in a luxury arena, not just cars but with other luxury brands," he adds.

Ferrari's location in the grounds was perfect, the cars spread out across the entrance to the majestic gardens, resting underneath huge leafy trees which were backlit to provide more atmosphere. "At Ferrari we have the central position where we're able to present the range of cars, but more importantly we have time to spend with people who have taken time out," continued Al. "Today [Thursday] is ladies day so its a very elegant sophisticated event with beautiful style and fashion and people have the chance to come and sit and talk about the cars but also to enjoy that special time that people who buy luxury goods have time to sit down and talk about life, travel, cars, holidays and so on."

For this special event, Ferrari displayed a unique selection from its range of V8 and V12 models. The array kicks off with the 4.3 litre, 490 hp Ferrari F430 which represents the Prancing Horse’s class leading technological know how and sports car soul. "The V8 sets the tone, it's the benchmark for Ferrari performance," said Al. "It's in Blu Tour de France with a beige interior, elegant - and not immediately what you would expect, but one of the many different variations that customers are choosing on their cars." Complementing the sleek road-going F430 was its more raw ‘sister’ - born for the track - a F430 Challenge finished in in the white and black Team Vertu Racing livery. This car is currently racing in the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli series as part of the Ferrari Challenge Dealer Team GB.

While the two F430 variants bookended the line up, as visitors strolled into the gardens the first car they saw was Ferrari's most extreme performing sportscar, the aggressive, stunning 599 GTB Fiorano, shown at Salon Privé in eye-catching Argento silver and with a dark blue leather interior. "Very elegant and really reflecting the heritage of Ferrari which is of course is performance without compromise but is also all about elegance and Italian style," says Al. "And the 599 GTB Fiorano in the setting here, with beautiful trees, a lovely location brings out and evokes the memories of elegance and style."
 

The 599 GTB Fiorano continues Ferrari’s tradition of Gran Turismo Berlinetta models, which includes some of the most iconic cars of Ferrari’s history, like the 250 GT, the 275 GTB, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, and the 575M Maranello. The 599 GTB Fiorano, the most powerful production car Ferrari has ever made, has 620 hp, a specific output of 103 hp/l, a maximum speed of over 205 mph and reaches 0-62 mph in just 3.7 seconds. It's a car that simply continues to grow on the observer and a car that with an imperious blimp of its raucous throttle swats aside pretenders from rival brands such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

Top of the Ferrari range is the 612 Scaglietti, Ferrari’s flagship Grand Tourer, which features the finest Italian craftsmanship coupled to a range of "Carrozzeria Scaglietti" personalisation options which allow customers to truly tailor the car to suit their individual tastes. For Salon Privé last week the 612 Scaglietti appeared in a special Police livery; this was car was recently driven over 1,500 miles by Police forces drawn across the UK to lead the UK Leg of Ferrari’s 60th Anniversary Tour and to promote road safety messages.

"The 612 Scaglietti in police livery is now famous, and seen quite a lot this year in the UK at a number of events, emphasising the responsibility that Ferrari takes on the road very seriously so we have created this partnership with the police," concluded Al, who also pointed out that this particular 612 Scaglitti carried four large police officers in comfort over the 1,500 trip - more than amply demonstrating its "Grand Tourer" credentials. The "Think!" decals reflect a Police road safety campaign to highlight the danger and enforcement implications of using a mobile phone whilst driving. Wrapping up the Ferrari UK display was the "ceremonial baton" encrusted with 60 motifs remember 60 significant events that was used on the UK leg of the sportscar maker's global 60th anniversary 'Tour' during April.

Finally there were several past Ferraris around the grounds of The Hurlingham Club, including representation in the events first-ever 'Concours d'Elegance' and in a racing car display in front of the entrance. Here were two superb Ferraris with race-winning pedigrees. The F40 LM Chassis #74045 (Michelotti #13) was was seen recently at Goodwood and still carried the decals, was campaigned in anger during the 1994-96 seasons in the memorable blue colours of 'Pilot/Aldix', taking part twice in the Le Mans 24 Hours as well as a win at Anderstorp in the BPR series.

Alongside it was another car to have featured at Goodwood last month, an ex-Michael Schumacher, Japanese Grand Prix-winning F310B, and a car that has entered history is it was the machine the German drove in the title-deciding race at Jerez in 1997 when he had a controversial incident with championship rival Jacques Villeneuve. Also within the grounds, and very apt as it is the model's 20th anniversary this year, was an F40.