The Design Museum in London has just opened the doors to a new exhibition celebrating the meticulous and glamorous world of Ferrari. Featuring over £140m worth of historical road and racing Ferraris alongside memorabilia like original engineering drawings, styling bucks and even Enzo Ferrari’s driving licence, the show is a must-see for fans of the brand and its heritage.
Celebrating the Italian marque's 70 years of creative development, the exhibition begins at the company’s origins in Northern Italy amongst a backdrop of post-war austerity. Meandering through the initial parts of the exhibition, visitors are presented with technical drawings and engineering mock ups of Enzo Ferrari's early racing cars. One particular favourite is a section drawing of the famous Colombo V12 engine, a core engine utilised in Ferrari road cars right up to the 412i of the late 1980s.
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> Click here for more on Ferrari's 70th birthday
Continue through the exhibition and a full-sized clay model of the Ferrari J50 commission sits at the centre of the room, but look around and you can’t help but spot the delicate aluminium chassis of a 250 GTO straining to steal your attention. A full-sized wooden styling buck, made by coachbuilder Scaglietti for low production racing variants of the Dino, also features - as do two modern wind-tunnel scale models from Ferrari’s more recent past.
> Click here for our review of the Ferrari 488 GTB
Further in the exhibition you’ll be greeted by racing cars once driven by legends like Sir Stirling Moss and Michael Schumacher, along with the technology developed by Ferrari that went on to revolutionise motor racing. One example is the seven-speed paddleshift gearbox, which Ferrari was first to fit in a Formula 1 car back in 1989. This single piece of technology has since not only spread throughout motor racing, but across the automotive industry as a whole. It neatly puts into context the important part Ferrari has played in the development of road and racing cars.
The exhibition finishes with Ferrari’s latest hypercar, the LeFerrari Aperta situated next to a video installation discussing the future of the car industry and Ferrari’s role within it. With 70 years of passion, innovation and excitement behind it, Ferrari’s next 70 years will likely take the brand into brave new arenas.
Whether you are a fan of Ferrari, a general car enthusiast or even just interested in the role Ferrari has played in the advancement of design and engineering, Ferrari: Under the Skin is a brilliant snapshot of the illustrious Italian marque.
