(by Alessandro Logroscino).
Speed and beauty are being
feted in 'Ferrari: Under the Skin', an exhibition that opened
this week marking the 70th anniversary of the car brand.
The show is being held in London's Design Museum near Holland
Park, along upper-class Kensington High Street, and aims to show
the technology, history and aesthetic content that lies beneath
the cars made before and after the death of Enzo Anselmo
Ferrari, also known as 'Drake'.
Ferrari, an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur who
founded both Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team and
subsequently the Ferrari carmaker, died in 1988.
The guests of honor at the inauguration were Italian Economy
Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, after he spend a day meeting with
investors in The City, and Lord Peter Mandelson, influential in
Tony Blair's governments, a Labour Party member at ease among
billionaires and now head of the museum.
With them were collectors and fans of the brand as well as
many members of the 'jet set', crowding round the centerpiece:
about a dozen historic vehicles, masterpieces of Ferrari history
worth more than their economic value, which reportedly stands at
a few hundred million euros.
A replica of an absolute first from the carmaker, the Ferrari
125S from 1947, is one of those on display, as is a black GT
Spider Pinin Farina from 1957 belonging to Peter Collins, one of
the most famous and rowdiest of Ferrari's racecar drivers from
the Roaring '50s; an iconic 250 GTO from 1962; and a 275 GTB4
from 1967, which many claim is the most beautiful car of all
time.
These and other pieces of 'mechanical art' have passed
through the hands of such celebrities as Steve McQueen,
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Paul Newman and Herbert Von Karajan, whose
typewritten contracts - often through the legendary importer
from America Luigi Chinetti - tell of dreams that came true.
There are also cars that gained glory on racetracks, such as
the original 500 F2 that made history with Alberto Ascari in
1952-53 as the F1-2000, with which Michael Schumacher 17 years
ago gained a world championship for the team that Ferrari had
not seen since 1979.
Accessories, engines, helmets and old wooden models used to
forge the very first cars are included in the exhibition, as are
images of Enzo Ferrari, the father of the iconic brand.
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