They Love Their Ferraris, but Can Do Without the Stares
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/automobiles/autospecial/26smith.html
By JACK SMITH
Published: October 26, 2005
SCOTT HILL of Reading, Pa., had stopped for gas when a young lady approached
to ask if she could look at his car. He said sure, and allowed her to sit in
the passenger seat, a pleasant interlude. A few days later, though, a truck
pulled up next to him at a light. As the light changed and the two vehicles
moved, the driver stuck his hand out the window and gestured to Mr. Hill with
an upraised middle finger.
His friends at the Uptown Espresso Bar in Kutztown, Pa., nod sympathetically.
The story is all too familiar to Ferrari owners like Pietro Castiglioni,
director of the Penn-Jersey region of the Ferrari Club of America, who
organizes a group that meets every three months at the cafe. Among peers,
they find camaraderie and understanding.
"You're always worried about getting your car keyed," said Dennis Hedlund, a
film distributor from West Long Branch, N.J., who drives a 1999 Ferrari F355
Fiorano F1 Spyder convertible.
Mitzi Brettler, from Newton, N.J., was entertaining neighbors when her
husband's 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS was delivered. "It was so embarrassing," she
said. "I could just imagine what they were thinking."
Mr. Hill, a social worker who owns a 1978 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4, concurred.
"People always get the wrong idea," he said.
In the world outside, a Ferrari driver gets little respect. "Sometimes I'll
go to a party in one of my Ferraris and people will say, 'Oh, you had to
bring that?' or 'Who are you trying to impress?' " said Craig Rosenfeld, the
owner of Vision Auto Group, a Porsche-Audi-Volkswagen dealership in Reading.
Undaunted, Mr. Rosenfeld owns 11 Ferraris, most of which he keeps in garages
at his dealership, including a bright red racer built for Paul Newman in
1990; a black 2002 360 Modena Berlinetta; and a sky blue 1966 275 GT Spyder
convertible. For this afternoon's ride he chose the Spyder. "I especially
like the older cars," he said, accelerating onto the highway. "You get the
gold chain and Rolex crowd more with the newer cars." To illustrate, Mr.
Rosenfeld displayed his own watch. "It's a Ulysse Nardin," he said. "It's far
more understated than a Rolex, even though it cost $15,000."
Actually, said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at
Syracuse University, it doesn't matter if a Ferrari driver wears a gold chain
or not. "A Ferrari itself is a gold chain," he said. "There's nothing subtle
about it."
Not that there's anything wrong with that. "Cadillac is currently running
commercials that say people will look at you if you buy a Cadillac,"
Professor Thompson said. "Nobody has to tell you that about a Ferrari. But
there's a kind of pathos to wanting attention so much that you're willing to
carry around all that cultural baggage."
Even some sports car fans wonder about Ferrari drivers. "There's something
almost illicit about Ferraris," said Joseph P. Johnston of Troy, Mich., who
shows Porsches and Corvettes. "It's like, a Porsche or Corvette is a
girlfriend. A Ferrari is a mistress."
James Hartman of Wayne, Pa., a Porsche racer, admitted that Ferraris have a
mystique lacking in Porsches. Even so, he said, "If you ask a Porsche owner,
'What's your favorite Porsche from the 1980's?' he'll know the marque's whole
tradition and history. New Ferrari owners, if you ask them about their
favorite Ferrari from the 1980's, they can't give you an answer."
It wasn't always this way, said Ralph Palcho, also of Wayne and a Ferrari
buff. "In the 1960's and 1970's, Ferrari owners were car enthusiasts like me.
You'd buy a Ferrari, drive it a couple years, then take your lumps when you
traded it in for a new one."
It changed in the 80's. "Magnum, P.I." was on television in a Ferrari 308
GTS. In 1985, Ralph Lauren paid $650,000 for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. The
Reagan era was on, and everybody wanted a Ferrari. By the late 80's, the cars
were appreciating so much it was possible to lease a new one, keep it two or
three years, then turn it back in and earn a profit - as long as the mileage
was low. "So you got a new kind of owner," Mr. Palcho said, "the guy who
owned a Ferrari, but hardly ever drove it."
He recently attended a Ferrari event where he met an owner who had bought his
car a few months earlier. "I asked him, did he ever drive his Ferrari? He
said, 'Once to the Shore.' I thought: 'To the Shore?' That's 50 miles away.' "
David E. Davis Jr., the founder of Automobile magazine and a former Ferrari
owner, actually has a kind word for Ferrari owners. "There are people who are
not superficial, who aren't phony, who don't wear gold chains, who drive
Ferraris," he said. "They just want to find out what owning a Ferrari is all
about."
The people to worry about, Mr. Davis said, are Lamborghini owners. "You don't
know where those people are coming from."
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