Spyder rigidity
Was on the phone today to a guy I met at the Ferrari dealer in Paris, he works for Ferrari Maserati France, I learned quite a lot of stuff.
Next Modena is rumored to be roughly 450hp, ok, that's no big news to us Rennteamers, but still, it indicates RC was right (again!).
I told him the Gallardo was 500hp to which he replied, 100bhp/ton is easy, the new Modena will be more or less 4.2L.
He is in close relation with the UK as he did an internship at Maranello sales before coming to France.
So I asked him why the british press keeps on slating the new Maseratis 4200 as really [oops] cars.
He said there were some issues between the press and Maserati in the UK. A couple of things pissed him of, like for example, with Autocar, every Ford product is systematically the best in the category! That's true actually, and other examples. Don't always trust the press. Trust Rennteam;)
Or Autocar and Sport Auto (french mag) just wrote official complaints because only 5 Stradale will be available to the whole press in May and only 5 Fiorano laps and 50 km on the open roads. That isn't much he admitted but people have to remember that Ferrari is still a small manufacturer.
Also asked him about LDM bonus. It was the Agnelli's family decision not LDM, but apparently, workers at the factory were a bit disgusted they didn't get anything. Whatever...
Back to the Maserati, it made my day! We were talking about the fact that the 2003 models had significant improvements, spyder owners liked the rear glass window (finally!). But talking about rigidity, these were his words: The new spyder is a lot more rigid than the 2002 models but we're still way back behind Porsche! He was in Modena last week and asked the Maser engineers about it and they basically had no answer. They do have a 996 cab though!
Ah la la, those Germans!!! So so so stiff
About sales, Ferrari is not touched by the crisis, it's too upmarket, but unfortunately, Maser is struggling a bit.
I'll have lunch with him in a couple of weeks and try to get more info.
Fanch
Next Modena is rumored to be roughly 450hp, ok, that's no big news to us Rennteamers, but still, it indicates RC was right (again!).
I told him the Gallardo was 500hp to which he replied, 100bhp/ton is easy, the new Modena will be more or less 4.2L.
He is in close relation with the UK as he did an internship at Maranello sales before coming to France.
So I asked him why the british press keeps on slating the new Maseratis 4200 as really [oops] cars.
He said there were some issues between the press and Maserati in the UK. A couple of things pissed him of, like for example, with Autocar, every Ford product is systematically the best in the category! That's true actually, and other examples. Don't always trust the press. Trust Rennteam;)
Or Autocar and Sport Auto (french mag) just wrote official complaints because only 5 Stradale will be available to the whole press in May and only 5 Fiorano laps and 50 km on the open roads. That isn't much he admitted but people have to remember that Ferrari is still a small manufacturer.
Also asked him about LDM bonus. It was the Agnelli's family decision not LDM, but apparently, workers at the factory were a bit disgusted they didn't get anything. Whatever...
Back to the Maserati, it made my day! We were talking about the fact that the 2003 models had significant improvements, spyder owners liked the rear glass window (finally!). But talking about rigidity, these were his words: The new spyder is a lot more rigid than the 2002 models but we're still way back behind Porsche! He was in Modena last week and asked the Maser engineers about it and they basically had no answer. They do have a 996 cab though!
Ah la la, those Germans!!! So so so stiff
About sales, Ferrari is not touched by the crisis, it's too upmarket, but unfortunately, Maser is struggling a bit.
I'll have lunch with him in a couple of weeks and try to get more info.
Fanch
