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- Ferrari at the
aaa 1998
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Berlin, October
17-25
- Germany’s
second important motor show
- A special
display
- Some
"Ferrarities"
- Well done!
Aside of the
world's most important automobile exposition, the
IAA held at Frankfurt every two years, Germany
has another important biennial automotive
exhibition: the "Allgemeine
Automobil-Ausstellung" (or in short:
"aaa"), which is hosted at Germany's
capital Berlin. In 1998, the aaa was held at the
Berlin exposition area between October 17 and 25.
Michael
Schumacher's engagement with Ferrari in Formula
One has generated a widespread interest in
Ferrari in Germany; this and Enzo Ferrari’s
100th birthday were the reasons which lead the
Berlin exposition managers to the idea to reserve
one of the many halls (78.133 square meters in
total) for the marque of the prancing horse.
Ferrari Deutschland GmbH of Wiesbaden, the
factory subsidiary German importer, did present
not only the current model range, but also a
selection of famous classic examples and Formula
One cars.
 
The display was
arranged in hall 7.2 and covered more than 1.000
square meters – the entire hall, actually.
Ferrari Deutschland's huge transporter which is
normally used to carry equipment and staff to
F355 Challenge events had been parked in the hall
to serve as some sort of "barrier" to
separate a small corner from the accessible area
in which one could talk to the sales staff and
where refreshments were offered to customers,
future customers and special friends of the
marque. Information and advise could be obtained
firstly by the staff of "Mellin
Sportwagen", Berlin’s franchised
Ferrari dealer, but some of the other German
Ferrari dealers showed up at the stand as well.
In a much smaller adjacent hall Ferrari
Deutschland had established their memorabilia-
and accessories shop offering Ferrari items
affordable for everyone.
Since Ferrari's
takeover of Maserati, Ferrari Deutschland GmbH
has also become the German Maserati importer;
hence there was a small display of Maserati cars
as well. There one did celebrate the German debut
of the brand new 3200 GT, Maserati's new sports
coupe that has had its world premier at the
recent Paris Motor Show.
The
"Ferrari hall" was divided into four
displays (plus the separate Maserati stand). The
center stand did of course feature three cars of
the current model range: a yellow 355 F1 spider,
a black 550 Maranello and a 456 M GT in Titanium
grey metallic.
 
Another display
consisted of several classic models: The oldest
car was Peter Andersen’s small 195 Inter
Coupé Vignale (s/n 0097S), followed by Fritz
Grashei’s rare and much more impressive 860
Monza Spider Scaglietti, s/n 0602M.
Gerhard Schwing
had brought his immaculate 250 GT California
Spider SWB s/n 2891GT to Berlin, a silvergrey
example that is quite popular since it was color
pictured in Antoine Prunet’s famous book on
Ferrari road cars (then owned by Ado Vallaster
from Switzerland).
Matthias Ficht
from Munich had taken his 500 Superfast s/n
8253SF out of his garage – this is probably
one of the rarest Ferrari types to be shown at an
exposition in our days. The latest car on this
stand was Günter Kolb’s 1966 275 GTB/6C
Longnose s/n 08541.
A third display
was dedicated to Ferrari’s "super
models" of the 1980’s and 1990’s:
288 GTO, F40 and F50. All cars had come from
Bernhard Dransmann’s collection and of
course they proved as real crowd-stoppers since
the F40 and the F50 are probably Ferrari’s
most famous models from the normal exposition
visitor’s point of view.
 
The fourth and
last stand showed some pieces of Ferrari’s
long and successful motor racing history: Jo
Vonlanthen’s 1954 500 Formula 2 s/n 54/1,
Peter Gläsel’s 312 PB s/n 0882 and Fritz
Grashei’s F310 Formula 1 s/n 171; the latter
– Michael Schumacher’s 1996 car –
has an excellent pedigree, including two 1st
positions at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, 2nd
at Suzuka and 3rd at Estoril!
 
The
atmosphere in the darkened hall was fantastic,
particularly due to classic Italian music
surrounding the spectator and effectual settings
of spot lights. Hall 7.2 proved undoubtedly has
the highlight of the 1998 AAA – not only for
dyed-in-the-wool Ferrari enthusiasts.
-
Andreas Birner
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