Horsepower Heaven
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HORSEPOWER HEAVEN Known as the Land of Motors, northern Italy is home to some of the world’s premier motor manufacturers. From Turin, the home of Fiat, through Milan, Modena, Bologna and Rimini, John Carey explores the quirky museums celebrating these exciting vehicles – from scooters to supercars. 1955 Maserati A6G/54 2000 Spider Zagato (left) and 1961 Stanguellini Formula Junior at Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, Modena photography: getty images OCTOBEr 2012 QANTAS 53 Turin 1954 Fiat Turbina at Museo dell’Automobile di Torino, Turin it has wheels and an engine, wears a Made in Italy badge and makes your pulse quicken, it was most likely crafted in the topmost part of the bel paese. Italy’s north is home to some of the most Turin spirited and creative car and motorcycle makers in the world. Over decades, brands such as pete golding/4 corners © IfFerrari and Ducati have won respect on the track and the passionate loyalty of owners and fans. Museo dell’ The term Terra di Motori is usually applied to the area where these racy red brands are built, Automobile centred on Bologna and Modena. In truth, the Land of Motors covers a much broader area than di Torino these two near-neighbours in the Emilia Romagna region. 40 Corso Unità d’Italia, Torino. Turin, where the Alps dividing Italy from France are visible on a clear day, is a good place Open: Mon 10am-2pm; Tue 2pm-7pm; Wed, Thu & Sun 10am-7pm; Fri-Sat to start. And Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, is a fine place to finish. On the 500km arc from 10am-9pm. €8. www.museoauto.it one to the other, via Milan, Modena and Bologna, are a string of motor museums and factories, great and small. turin is Fiat’s birthplace and remains Some of them are guaranteed to entertain even those whose interest in engines and the its home base, but the city’s museo vehicles they propel is negligible. And not every stop is to worship machinery that’s red, costly dell’automobile doesn’t focus too and fast. Cheap and practical doesn’t have to mean ugly in Italy, as the first Vespa that almost tightly on italy’s biggest car maker. turin photography: getty images; museum: runs over your toes will surely remind you. Now get behind the wheel and hit the road. Andiamo! this airily spacious and well-organised OCTOBEr 2012 QANTAS 55 Tremezzo, Lake Como Museo Scooter & Lambretta, Rodano TESSERA’S LAmbrEttAS AND VESPAS PROVE NO-ONE MANAGED TO DO it AS ELEGANtlY AS THE itAliANS museum (a major renovation and half of the 1950s to be the next big collection was assembled by From spain to russia, in the USA expansion was completed in 2011, thing in automotive propulsion. vittorio tessera and its scope and japan, these now mostly for the 150th anniversary of italy’s on the ground floor is an area illustrates italy’s pivotal role in forgotten brands tried to cash unification) tells, in broad strokes, devoted to temporary displays, the evolution of this cheap yet in on the post-WWII demand for of the technical development, such as this summer’s exhibition stylish form of transport. cheap, practical, two-wheeled social effects and cultural (ends october 14) to celebrate the tessera’s particular passion transport. tessera’s lambrettas impact of the car. From an centenary of renowned italian is lambretta. the innocenti- and vespas prove no-one italian perspective, naturally. auto design house, Bertone. owned factory that turned out managed to do it as elegantly While many of the museum’s these famed scooters until 1971 as the italians. nearby racing 200 cars are grouped according once stood nearby, and some of circuit: monza, approx 30km to era, there are specific areas Milan tessera’s most precious exhibits north (www.monzanet.it/en). devoted to celebrating italy’s were rescued from destruction racing heritage and its leading role Museo Scooter during its demolition. however, Museo Moto Guzzi in automotive design. there are & Lambretta with in excess of 100 scooters 57 Via Parodi, Mandello del the expected significant models 38 Via Kennedy, Rodano. on display, there’s more to this Lario. Open: Mon-Fri 3pm-4pm (closed August holidays). Free. from alfa romeo, lancia and Open: Mon-Fri 9am-12pm museum than just lambretta. & 2.30pm-6pm. Weekend www.motoguzzi.it maserati – these days, all part of there are many vespas, groups on request. Free. the Fiat group – as well as cars www.museoscooter.it naturally, but tessera has it’s not on the movie-star side from long-gone, but once glorious collected an amazingly of lake como, but moto guzzi’s names such as isotta Fraschini. milan’s deserved reputation for diverse array of exhibits. period location is still spectacular. not prettiest exhibit of all is the fashion and food, art and culture advertisements and photographs far from its front gate laps the Fiat turbina. gorgeously curvy has been earned by the city’s decorate the walls, surrounding lake famous for its beauty and fabulously finned, this core, but the sprawl beyond spindly and awkward scooter long before george clooney jet-powered prototype was the old city centre is where the precursors from the 1920s and discovered it; behind it, the a test-bed for the turbine museo scooter & lambretta is earlier, plus a fabulously diverse majestic peaks of the grigna technology believed in the first to be found. this extraordinary array of non-italian scooters. mountains rise to 2409m. vespa logo & museum photography: john carey; tremezzo: getty images 56 QANTAS OCTOBER 2012 MOTORING itALY 1954 Maserati A6GCS Berlinetta Pininfarina at Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, Modena mandello del lario, 65km that same year, leaving the 500 north of milan, has been the v8 as one of motorcycle racing’s home of moto guzzi for more most magnificent “What ifs”. ONE WONDErfUL than 90 years. today, the brand MACHINE MAKES THE is struggling, but in the decades VISit WOrtHWHile – either side of WWII, this place Modena THE MOTO GUZZI 500 v8 produced some of the greatest racing motorcycles ever seen. Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari the small museum contains 85 Via Paolo Ferrari, Modena. racer. the cars inside – not of modena, is the absolute many fine examples of the Open: daily 9.30am-6pm only Ferraris – are displayed epicentre of the Ferrari Oct-April; 9.30am-7pm May-Sep. company’s racing and road bikes, like pristine pieces of art. phenomenon. But only Ferrari www.museocasaenzoferrari.it but one wonderful machine customers, suppliers and media makes the visit worthwhile. the opened in march 2012, the new Museo Ferrari are permitted inside the factory moto guzzi 500 v8 grand prix enzo Ferrari museum in modena 43 Via Dino Ferrari, where the cars are assembled; racer was an audacious response is, architecturally speaking, much Maranello. Open: daily california and 458 italia 9.30am-6pm Oct-April; to the mid-1950s dominance of more impressive than anything v8-engined models on the 9.30am-7pm May-Sept. €13 four-cylinder rivals gilera and in maranello. the site includes (€22 for combined Museo ground floor, aristocratic v12- MV agusta. the hastily-designed the founder’s 1898 birthplace Ferrari/Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari powered F12 Berlinetta and FF on otto cilindri engine could howl and his father alfredo’s adjoining in Modena; hourly transfers). the piano nobile, the first floor. to 12,000rpm; the bullet-nosed mechanical workshop. www.museo.ferrari.com the merchandise shop machine was speed-checked in contrasting with the old While the Ferrari legend is huge, across via abetone inferiore 1957 races at 280km/h. the v8’s buildings, their gutted interiors the brand’s hometown museum is a fine place to find gifts and velocity remained unmatched turned into exhibition spaces, is is surprisingly modest. still, it mementos. about town, Ferrari’s by other racers for decades, but the adjacent exhibition gallery. provides a reason to visit the renzo piano-designed F1 wind while it set lap records, it never its curving roof, in modena place where the hoofs of the tunnel is worth a drive-by, as won a grand prix. moto guzzi yellow, looks from the air like prancing horse strike hallowed is the wonderful cavallino withdrew from competition the louvred bonnet of a classic ground. maranello, 18km south rampante (prancing horse) photography: getty images 58 QANTAS OCTOBER 2012 IN SUmmER, THE ROADS NEAR THE FACTORY RESOUND TO THE RASP OF Museo Lamborghini, ACCELERAtiNG FErrAriS Bologna Largo Square, sculpture rearing inside a Modena roundabout on the via grizzaga. Bologna in summer, the roads near the factory resound to the rasp of Museo Lamborghini accelerating Ferraris. sometimes 12 Via Modena, Sant’Agata it’s something fresh off the Bolognese. Open: Mon-Fri (excluding Italian holidays), production line; more often, it’s 10am-12:30pm & 1:30-5pm. €13 an entrepreneurial type doing (unguided museum visit); €40 brisk business selling joyrides. (guided museum/factory tour). pietro canali/sime/4 corners the Ferrari museum bar www.lamborghini.com © does its bit to uphold italy’s Ferruccio lamborghini reputation for espresso famously decided to found excellence. through the adjacent his car company in 1963 because entrance, road cars and racers he thought Ferrari wasn’t are grouped in separate areas. doing it well enough. it was neither is a comprehensive no crackpot notion; the owner record of the company’s of a successful agricultural achievements. on the equipment manufacturing ground floor, a lifelike replica business, lamborghini was of enzo Ferrari gazes out from both wealthy and a car lover. a re-creation of his office in From 1958, he had bought colin dutton/sime/4 corners; museo panini: modena.