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Written by Jason Barlow
Life would have been a whole lot trickier for the curators of the London Design Museum exhibition, Ferrari: Under the Skin, without a certain Ronald Stern. Stern owns three Ferraris, a 599 SA Aperta, a one-off 1986 Ferrari Testarossa Spyder originally created for Fiat and Ferrari capo di tutti and legend Gianni Agnelli, and a 275 GTB/4, recently restored by world-leading specialists DK Engineering. He also owned an ex-Fangio Ferrari 290 MM, which sold two years ago at an RM Sotheby"s auction for, gulp, $28m. A famous 250 GTO also graced his garage some years ago, but that"s another story. Like so many notable Ferrari collectors, though, the astronomical value the (mostly) red cars now attract is genuinely secondary. Spend any time with Stern, and it"s clear his fascination with the world"s most famous car company runs deep. Like, really deep. So deep, in fact, that he has dedicated himself to curating a frankly staggering collection of Ferrari artifacts and memorabilia, much of which forms the backbone to the new Design Museum exhibition. We"re talking paperwork, menus, watches, documentation, illustrations, the crash helmets worn by every driver to win the F1 world title for the Scuderia, even the steering wheel of the car Niki Lauda crashed while racing at the N rburgring in the 1976 German GP. He also acquired the letters Enzo Ferrari wrote to Fiamma Breschi, Ferrari F1 driver Luigi Musso"s lover, whom Ferrari installed in a florists business in Florence following Musso"s death in the 1958 French GP. Ferrari began a lengthy, impassioned courtship of Breschi, heaping further emotional turbulence on a life that was already highly complicated. During a private tour of the collection, the scale and scope of Ronald"s archive is genuinely jaw-dropping. But it also means that the man"s insight into Enzo Ferrari"s life and world is second-to-none. He has also written a series of books, co-authored with his archivist Nathan Beehl. The first reproduces Ferrari"s sales and marketing literature from 1940 to 1964 (all of it); the second reprints the postcards Enzo Ferrari sent to friends and colleagues. The third and most recent is the definitive history of Ferrari"s first car, the 125S. We caught up with the great man at the preview evening of the new Design Museum exhibition. Where did it all start? "I wanted to do the Ferrari pilgrimage, so back in 1974 I drove to Italy, in my beloved AC Cobra 289, and visited Maranello. I heard the blam-blam-blam" of a Formula One car, and then out of the factory gates walked Enzo Ferrari, along with Clay Regazzoni. They disappeared into the Cavallino restaurant. It was momentous. I followed a little later, thinking I might eat with them. But, of course, they disappeared into a private dining room."When did you begin collecting the memorabilia, if we can call it that?"I was offered this small collection by a chap called Vittorio Roveda. He sold me a set of Ferrari Yearbooks and some brochures, back in the late 1980s. I think I paid around 11,000 for them. Then there they sat, rather unloved actually, and I"d flick through them occasionally. I was at Goodwood and I met Ben Horton, of Hortons Books. I mentioned the collection to him, and he decided he ought to look at it. He said, you"ve got some rare items here." Ben was the inspiration to start collecting properly. And that"s also when the madness began. The opportunity arose to buy individual pieces or complete collections. Ascari"s widow had some things, for example. Eventually I bought a huge collection in Italy. I bought all the important pieces from the Jacques Swaters collection [Swaters was Ferrari"s Belgian importer, and ran the Ecurie Francorchamps team]. So it"s the refining of the best of the best."You have a complete set of the famous Yearbooks [they"re on display in the Design Museum]. But isn"t it impossible to be a completist with the brochures?
Date written: 16 Nov 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9997
Life would have been a whole lot trickier for the curators of the London Design Museum exhibition, Ferrari: Under the Skin, without a certain Ronald Stern. Stern owns three Ferraris, a 599 SA Aperta, a one-off 1986 Ferrari Testarossa Spyder originally created for Fiat and Ferrari capo di tutti and legend Gianni Agnelli, and a 275 GTB/4, recently restored by world-leading specialists DK Engineering. He also owned an ex-Fangio Ferrari 290 MM, which sold two years ago at an RM Sotheby"s auction for, gulp, $28m. A famous 250 GTO also graced his garage some years ago, but that"s another story. Like so many notable Ferrari collectors, though, the astronomical value the (mostly) red cars now attract is genuinely secondary. Spend any time with Stern, and it"s clear his fascination with the world"s most famous car company runs deep. Like, really deep. So deep, in fact, that he has dedicated himself to curating a frankly staggering collection of Ferrari artifacts and memorabilia, much of which forms the backbone to the new Design Museum exhibition. We"re talking paperwork, menus, watches, documentation, illustrations, the crash helmets worn by every driver to win the F1 world title for the Scuderia, even the steering wheel of the car Niki Lauda crashed while racing at the N rburgring in the 1976 German GP. He also acquired the letters Enzo Ferrari wrote to Fiamma Breschi, Ferrari F1 driver Luigi Musso"s lover, whom Ferrari installed in a florists business in Florence following Musso"s death in the 1958 French GP. Ferrari began a lengthy, impassioned courtship of Breschi, heaping further emotional turbulence on a life that was already highly complicated. During a private tour of the collection, the scale and scope of Ronald"s archive is genuinely jaw-dropping. But it also means that the man"s insight into Enzo Ferrari"s life and world is second-to-none. He has also written a series of books, co-authored with his archivist Nathan Beehl. The first reproduces Ferrari"s sales and marketing literature from 1940 to 1964 (all of it); the second reprints the postcards Enzo Ferrari sent to friends and colleagues. The third and most recent is the definitive history of Ferrari"s first car, the 125S. We caught up with the great man at the preview evening of the new Design Museum exhibition. Where did it all start? "I wanted to do the Ferrari pilgrimage, so back in 1974 I drove to Italy, in my beloved AC Cobra 289, and visited Maranello. I heard the blam-blam-blam" of a Formula One car, and then out of the factory gates walked Enzo Ferrari, along with Clay Regazzoni. They disappeared into the Cavallino restaurant. It was momentous. I followed a little later, thinking I might eat with them. But, of course, they disappeared into a private dining room."When did you begin collecting the memorabilia, if we can call it that?"I was offered this small collection by a chap called Vittorio Roveda. He sold me a set of Ferrari Yearbooks and some brochures, back in the late 1980s. I think I paid around 11,000 for them. Then there they sat, rather unloved actually, and I"d flick through them occasionally. I was at Goodwood and I met Ben Horton, of Hortons Books. I mentioned the collection to him, and he decided he ought to look at it. He said, you"ve got some rare items here." Ben was the inspiration to start collecting properly. And that"s also when the madness began. The opportunity arose to buy individual pieces or complete collections. Ascari"s widow had some things, for example. Eventually I bought a huge collection in Italy. I bought all the important pieces from the Jacques Swaters collection [Swaters was Ferrari"s Belgian importer, and ran the Ecurie Francorchamps team]. So it"s the refining of the best of the best."You have a complete set of the famous Yearbooks [they"re on display in the Design Museum]. But isn"t it impossible to be a completist with the brochures?
Date written: 16 Nov 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9997
