REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

UFO · 06-22-2016, 11:22 PM

Looking for someone real world help and feedback. Doing a trip to Italy later this year, and I think I can scrape up a day away from the family and kids to do some fun things. No plans to go back for at least the next 20+ years so I don't want to have any regrets, but also looking for good value both for the money and the time. We will be based in Venice, so a 2-2.5hr drive each way will need to be factored into our day.

I've done some researching into Ferrari, Lambo, Pagani. I'm leaning towards Lambo and Pagani because they offer actual factory tours, whereas Ferrari will only do it if you own a Ferrari. Feels kind of wrong to go all the way to Italy and snub Ferrari though. Possibly open to the idea of getting gouged and renting a Ferrari in and around Maranello for 30 minutes with a guide because YOLO.

Any body with prior experiences to share?

68style · 06-22-2016, 11:30 PM

I've been in your shoes last summer and decided to middle finger Ferrari for its snotty attitude and forego going to see anything related to them, as much as that hurt. You can only go to the *edit* meant to say factory tour unless you own one.

Lamborghini tour is awesome and the showroom in front of the museum is really good too. Pagani tour was good in the old factory and a preview of the new factory was given... I think the new factory might be fully open by now? It was expected to be finished in the fall I think, so it should be open by now. I like Pagani cars better, but the Lambo factory tour is definitely the more impressive one.

They are very close to one another driving wise, so I suggest doing it yourself, don't waste money on the guided tours. You can book dates through both Lambo and Pagani directly, but don't wait -- it books up months in advance.

StylinRed · 06-23-2016, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 68style

I've been in your shoes last summer and decided to middle finger Ferrari for its snotty attitude and forego going to see anything related to them, as much as that hurt. You can only go to the museum unless you own one.

are you sure? they sell passes on their website, good for a year, to both the Maranello and Modena museums for €26

Ferrari Museum Maranello - Official Site

Museo Modena

edit, oh u mean the factory i think

heleu · 06-23-2016, 06:22 AM

I went to the Ferrari Museum back in 2011 when I went to Italy.
You basically get off the train at Modena, then take a bus ride to Maranello.

I thought it was worthwhile - they have a lot of classic Ferraris F40, F50, etc. A whole bunch of F1 cars, and also F1 engines on display. They also have some latest Ferraris on display; at that time the FF had just came out and I had never seen one in person but there was one there.

I passed on renting a Ferrari. For 100 euros, you could drive one up and down the street at 50km/hr for 30 minutes. I had way more fun renting a manual turbo diesel Peugeot and driving between Florence and Rome for 3 days for about the same amount.

68style · 06-23-2016, 08:15 PM

Sorry, yes, I meant the factory tour... I didn't go to the museum partially out of protest of their snobby practices and partially because I would have needed 2 days to fit it all in the way the timeslots for the Lambo/Pagani tours worked out.

If you're interested, Ducati is also in the neighbourhood.

UFO · 06-24-2016, 08:06 AM

Thanks for the input so far. Thinking along your lines 68style, we only have 1 day to fit everything, really half a day factoring in travel time. I appreciate Ferrari, but not a huge history or F1 buff. Not overly interested in anything before the F40. If time allows would certainly do the Ferrari museum though.

We've also found an outfit thats leaving from Venice that does both Lambo and Pagani factory tours. They charge 185e for the whole day trip with lunch. If we go on ourbown, admission for the 2 tours will be 85e, and cheapest rental car from airport would be 100usd, and we'd also need to factor in getting to and from the airport. So that's also something we're considering but obviously being a part of a tour group we lose flexibility

boostfever · 06-24-2016, 10:27 AM

Ferrari has two museums in the area, one in Maranello, one in Modena (house of Enzo).
I've been to all the museums, Lambo museum is kind of a joke. They kick you out for "staff lunch time", so it's closed on weekdays from 1pm to 2:30pm or something like that and closes around 5pm. It's also quite small, like 1/3 what Ferrari offers in their Maranello museum.
The staff at Pagani showroom are NOT the friendliest bunch; also they won't let you take any pictures during the tour or even wander around the factory or around the cars being built in the assembly room. You need to book the factory tours online in advance and you're not always welcome in their showroom, they might ask you to leave and come back at a later time. At the factory tour they want you to stand in one place and listen to the woman talking non-stop for 1 hour.
Many people concern themselves with the "snobby" attitude from Ferrari. Ferrari is the greatest factory in Italy. Period. if you're not into their cars and racing I get it, but to skip the whole thing because of Ferrari's attitude probably only reflects your own attitude towards cars. Being in Italy and missing Maranello is a big mistake as a car person. You won't find the feeling in any other towns in Italy, not Modena, not Bologna and certainly not Sant'Agata Bolognese.
Ferrari museum and surroundings do take longer time to visit; Lambo museum probaby 3 hours is more than enough. Pagani probably 2 hours, if they don't ask you to come back at a later time in the day.

Harvey Specter · 06-24-2016, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UFO

Thanks for the input so far. Thinking along your lines 68style, we only have 1 day to fit everything, really half a day factoring in travel time. I appreciate Ferrari, but not a huge history or F1 buff. Not overly interested in anything before the F40. If time allows would certainly do the Ferrari museum though.

We've also found an outfit thats leaving from Venice that does both Lambo and Pagani factory tours. They charge 185e for the whole day trip with lunch. If we go on ourbown, admission for the 2 tours will be 85e, and cheapest rental car from airport would be 100usd, and we'd also need to factor in getting to and from the airport. So that's also something we're considering but obviously being a part of a tour group we lose flexibility

I'm doing the tours in August. I was hoping to see my new Huracan in production but I was told my car isn't going into production until Oct plus Lambo factory is closed in August so I'm doing the factory museum and the family owned Lamborghini museum instead. Also added the Ferrari museum.

I booked a tour with Rossella and my motor land, I believe it cost around 175euro per person which includes a private car, lunch, admission for 3 tours.

UFO · 06-24-2016, 01:48 PM

Maybe I'll go see your Huracan for you in October. Harvey, where is your tour leaving from?

I don't mind the snooty Ferrari attitude personally, I get I'm just Joe average and they want some exclusivity for their actual customers. If we had several days to spend in the area no doubt Ferrari would be on the list, as well as the surrounding area and just time to soak it all in. But as is, its a shotgun trip so I'm looking to maximize the few hours I HOPE to have free.

Thanks for the input boostfever. Your description of the factory tours sound more or less as I expected. Obviously no pictures inside the factory, and no surprise they won't let you walk around too much inside. If its about 5hrs for Lambo and Pagani, that sounds like my day full already. From what I've read the Ferrari tour won't even let you off their tour shuttle bus

Harvey Specter · 06-24-2016, 05:34 PM

Pick up and drop off at the Bologna train station. I'll be making the day trip via train from Rome.

Vancouver240sx · 06-29-2016, 01:41 PM

I went to the Pagani factory in 2007, it was an amazing experience. We were the only people in the showroom and the guy on staff was really nice. We chatted about the cars and he let me take pictures and pop my head into the back room.

We headed south after in a little deisel ford fiesta through some amazing mountain roads... that was a great day!

Hope you get to see some good stuff!

Rich

UFO · 10-22-2016, 10:34 PM

Just got back a couple days ago from our trip. Seeing Pagani and Lamborghini were both absolutely amazing.

We ended up going altogether with my whole family, so the trip's costs ran up as we had to rent a van for the day and bus out and back from Venice to the airport to grab the rental. Quite odd driving a Ford manual van too after not owning a manual car for the last 10 years, only stalled it about 5 times--getting out the rental parkade.

We saw Pagani first in their new factory and showroom. In hindsight we should have gone to Lamborghini first, as the fine craftsmanship and artisan work of Pagani was impeccable and made Lamborghini seem more ordinary. Its not a large production area, they show you the production floor where they build 2-4 cars at a time and then you go up to a viewing platform. We got to see Mr. Pagani himself for a bit of our tour too. Probably about 10 cars in the showroom, most are customers' cars so not that much info and history in the museum. But you definitely appreciate the details into each of these machines up close. We spent 2 hours here including the informative 45 minute tour. Apparently a Zonda R was out and about on the streets 'testing' earlier in the day.

Headed to nearby Lamborghini after a quick lunch. Parking was crap, we had to park about 15 minutes walk away. Their museum is head and shoulders better than Pagani from an info point of view, many more cars there too obviously. The tour groups were large ~15 people, not unexpected. The tour gets you right into the assembly line, really interesting if you're into that sort of thing. As mentioned earlier, seeing the way Pagani's were crafted earlier gave me the impression that the Lamborghini's were simply mass assembled on a traditional line, which they are in a sense, but that's the difference between 20 cars a yr vs 20 cars a day. Not to take anything away from the amazing machines they are. We were lucky enough to see a Huracan (Harvey's? semisrs) and an Adventador fire up outside and take off on its post assembly testdrive, but I guess you can hear Lambos rip it up almost daily nowadays in Vancouver/Richmond. We were at Lamborghini for about 2.5hrs including the 45min tour

Great little aside to our family vacation. We were tight on time through the day due to traffic, car rental place not opening til 8, and time needed for kid's lunch, obligatory potty breaks, and managing nap times. Would be much easier to plan and execute without having to account for an 8 month old and a 2.5 year old but what isn't

StanleyR · 10-26-2016, 08:22 PM

Thats a pretty cool rental. Was it diesel as well?

Last month when in Siena we rented a Fiat Panda with a massive 1.2 gas engine and 5 speed stick. It made me appreciate my 2.0 autotragic daily Focus back home in Vancouver. It also took FOREVER to hit 120kph on the highway. we were supposed to get a manual diesel, but they didnt' have any

heleu · 10-27-2016, 05:23 AM

That's pretty cool that you got to see the production floor for Lambo and Zonda. When I went to Italy, I only had time to check out Ferrari (in Modena) and the museum was cool, but you couldn't actually see the factory.

Can I ask how much it cost to rent the van? How many people did you have? I'm going to Spain next year and probably will need to do the same thing.

UFO · 10-28-2016, 11:08 AM

Our ford galaxy was indeed diesel; decently peppy and no issues cruising at 130-140km/h. Similar to our own Kia Rondo with the 2 extra pop up seats in the trunk for seating capacity of 7, only more spacious for the rear passengers due to slightly larger space. If you have any luggage though and 7 passengers, stick with an actual van. We were 5 adults and 2 small kids. The rental cost us around 350cdn for the day, but we had to add car seats which was an extra 35 each.

Reason we opted to skip Ferrari museum with our limited tine was because there was no option to see their production facility, unless you own a Ferrari. Pagani tour cost 35e and Lamborghini cost 50e though, so not cheap but definitely worthwhile for enthusiasts if you're going halfway across the world