How Ferrari Gives Wrecked F40s and Other Supercar Icons a Second Life

Yahoo

21-02-2025

Accidents happen. No matter how careful the driver or valuable the car, there's a risk for serious damage every time a vehicle leaves the garage. And while any number of collision shops can handle a Toyota Camry bumper swap, the world looks a lot different when you wreck a rare, vintage Ferrari.
Luckily for those unfortunate owners, Ferrari's Classiche department is ready to assist with repairs and restoration should, say, a random technician bin your F40.
Ferrari Classiche was launched in 2006 by then-president Luca di Montezemolo. Housed in the company's old foundry building on the Maranello campus, the team ensures the long-term viability of the brand's icons. While they provide support for older racing machines, the department's primary focus is the brand's road cars of more than 20 years of age; maintenance work, repairs, and even literal factory-fresh restorations are at the core of what they do. And the work isn't limited to the home base in Italy; 48 Classiche Certified dealers are strung across the globe, with 11 in the United States.
In Maranello, Ferrari Classiche maintains an extensive archive of original technical drawings and diagrams. This collection of specifications, documentation, and imagery all combine to give the department a fundamental edge over even the most experienced restoration shops. According to head of Ferrari Classiche Andrea Modena, while the division is rich with incredible, highly skilled workers, the archive is the very center of the workshop's entire operation.
'It is a daily asset that we access,' Modena told Road & Track. 'Often I'm asked, 'Is the workshop you have, in front of your office, the best workshop in the world?' I would like to say yes — but the reason why I'm saying yes is because we have the archive."
Not only does the archive allow the factory's technicians to ensure repairs and restoration work matches the original intent down to the nut, but that access extends to the dealers, too. Classiche's portal system allows for direct communication between Italy and any of its remote service centers, with step-by-step instructions for how to document each car. It also features images of prior factory restorations, providing technicians with a detailed view of every angle of whichever model they're working on.
Should any particular job require additional attention, the Classiche specialists in Maranello will travel to any of the brand's certified centers to put hands on the car. Modena and his team want the processes for these cars to be as pain-free as possible, and recognize shipping cars in Italy is a large task. That said, owners are often more than happy to invest in sending the car back to HQ. Around half of the department's workload is focused on that maintenance-related area, while the remaining resources focus on the larger restoration projects.
With the archive and portal as a guide, Ferrari Classiche centers are well-equipped for restoration and repair work. That said, in many instances, it's easier to rebuild or renew aging components than it is to outright replace them. Parts availability is a real challenge faced by dealers and mom-and-pop shops alike, despite the factory backing.
Travis Chavez, director of operations at Ferrari Beverly Hills, Ferrari Westlake, and Ferrari Los Angeles, said the availability of components for older models presents a big challenge. While his team prefers to go through Maranello for such matters, they're sometimes forced to rebuild pieces themselves or find another company to remake them. However, the automaker has been working with Classiche centers like his to develop parts lists for customers based on real needs.
"They do work with us — they like to gather lists of common parts we need and stuff like that," he said. 'It's always a work in progress."
Modena acknowledges that parts availability is an active challenge, but maintains the brand is always willing to make an effort. The archive allows the automaker to reproduce certain components that have become unobtainable, and existing supplier relationships can be leveraged; the company is currently working alongside companies like ZF and Bosch to bolster availability of classic parts via the new Ferrari Forever program.
'We fight [to] the last," Modena said. "Before saying, 'No, this part is no longer available, it's not produced anymore, we will not be able to find any longer' — no, we fight.'
Another challenge is the workforce in the States. As the folks who originally worked on these cars have aged out of dealers, younger generations haven't been as quick to absorb the knowledge. Ferrari offers training for its technicians who want to learn the tricks of the trade, but interest seems to be stronger in newer sheet metal. Chavez said maintaining the older cars is a dying art, but he's thankful for the factory backing, which continues to grow: dealers and Ferrari are working together to bolster repair education among newer techs.
'You have to relate to the car like these older technicians,' Chavez added. 'Like I said, it's an art. You assemble these cars and you want everything to look like it left the factory."
"That's where the passion comes from, you know? You want to take pride in making that car exactly the way it looked from the factory."
These factors combine to make serious collision repair daunting, but not impossible. Ferrari Beverly Hills has a well-equipped body shop prepared to work on anything a customer brings in, but staying stateside isn't always the best solution; shipping a needy or damaged car across the ocean is a pain, but keeping valuable machines like the F40 on the road often outweighs the annoyance. (Modena also noted that some customers take great pride in being able to see a history of service done at the factory.)
Classiche is also by the phone, ready to heed the call of third-party shops that might need its particular set of skills. After two F40s recently made headlines for rather spectacular accidents, the owner of one brought it to an independent repair facility, but the shop then called Modena's team for help. As a result, Modena said, 'both cars will be repaired, both cars will be back on the road in a reasonable amount of time, allowing their lucky collectors to enjoy the car in the future.'
While Ferrari is willing to go to extremes to help repair its cars, the factory has some hard lines. Any car that is legitimately unfixable is deemed destroyed, and Ferrari will not recreate replicas of existing machines for their owners, regardless of the car's value. Modena maintains that this is an incredibly important part of respecting the brand's heritage.
'We will not do a replica,' said Modena. 'Despite the fact that, thanks to the archive, thanks to the competencies, thanks to the new technology, we could [replicate] whatever car we have produced in our history. We choose not to."
"The car has its history... we keep it alive," he said. "But if, at a certain moment, the car is gone, the car is gone.'
So the next time you see video of an F40 taking a shunt, remember that the Classiche team is quite capable; the internet need not hold a wake every time one of these machines is damaged, as more often than not, they return to the street. Modena is quite proud that over 90% of all Ferraris ever built are still on the road — an impressive feat for any nearly-80-year-old automaker, let alone one whose cars have such potential to get away from inattentive drivers. Classiche will be there working to keep that percentage high well into the future.
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