Seeing Red: 70 Years of Ferrari Opening Night at the Petersen Museum
Viewing classic Italian sports car art in a proper museum setting.
One of the perks of being in the motoring press is getting invited to events like the opening night party for Seeing Red: 70 Years of Ferrari at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. Unlike a Corvette, or a Porsche, or a GT-R, Ferraris are not just expensive, they are truly exotic. Even the most popular sports cars from the prancing horse are rare and hard to come by compared to most makes and models. The 16 assembled cars in the exhibit probably pencil out to more than $100m worth. Your average dentist isn’t going to be driving one of these any time soon.
Most modern cars are products of the world, with Chinese parts, manufacturing plants in America, designers in Europe, and a corporate parent in Korea, or some variation. These Ferraris, even the more modern examples, are steeped in Italian culture and are very much a product of it. They are designed to look good to the eye, yes, but also to look good to the wind. The classic cars just look right, as if they were born and grew to these shapes, and weren’t hand hammered by master craftsmen over wooden bucks.
The cars at the exhibit span the entirety of Ferrari’s 70 year existence, starting with the (one of only two ever built) 1947 125S sports racing car. Enzo had to sell all of his personal belongings in order to rebuild his workshop after WWII and create this car, including its bespoke 1.5 liter V12 engine. Luckily, he went on to drive it to victory at Terme di Caracalla in Rome, and he was able to sell it for enough money to finance his next car. This is not a business model that any financial adviser would recommend; that and the beauty of the early cars show that Enzo was more artist and engineer, and not much of a business man. As I snapped this picture of it I didn’t even notice the man who had become hypnotized by its lines.
The most modern race car present is Michael Schumacher’s 2006 Ferrari 248 F1, which he used to win his final championship in. Yes, a modern F1 car lacks the classical curves of the old hand-hammered, hard made, metal Ferraris of old, but there is no denying how well it did its job. If you are into Formula One, make it a point to get to the Petersen; You can honestly get close enough to the car to touch it (though that is not recommended). Next to the Schumacher car is Niki Lauda’s 1976 F1 Ferrari 312 T2, so you can see how the rules and understanding of aerodynamics have changed in just 30 years of racing.
The most modern street car there is, fittingly, the 2014 Ferrari La Ferrari, the culmination of everything the company had learned in racing and street car production up to that point. This car, like the 21st century Formula One racer, is not beautiful in the same way the old style Ferrari sports cars are, but it is nonetheless stunning; just like Scarlet Johansson and Gina Lolobrigida are sexy in different ways. The modern Ferrari still has a certain cachet that similar performance exotics just can’t match.
If you want to see this exhibit, plan your trip to Los Angeles sometime before spring of 2018, when this exhibit ends. Even in Italy, you are not going to find a better tribute to 70 years of amazing cars, because this show is the official anniversary exhibit. California most likely had more Ferraris on its roads and in its garages than Italy, even before these cars were put in the museum. The new look of the Petersen Museum building is worth a visit, no matter what is inside, but there is also a world class exhibit on Bugatti currently running.
Here’s a huge gallery of images for you to enjoy, but you really ought to see these cars in person.
