CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ferraris are elite vehicles that most of us can only marvel at. We know well that the closest we’ll get to one of these sporty foreign jobs is by visiting a showroom. Even then, we won’t qualify for a test drive.
Thankfully, the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland is offering an up-close view of this fantasy automobile during its “Ferrari: The Essence of Italian Design” exhibit, which runs through March 30.
So if you want to brush up next to one, you’d better hurry.
The exhibit features approximately 15 Ferraris on the museum’s floor. They borrowed the cars from owners throughout the state, including Greater Cleveland.
“We contacted a group of Ferrari Club of America owners from Greater Cleveland to Columbus,” said John Lutsch, program and marketing manager at the museum.
“And they’ve graciously agreed to loan us their cars for roughly six months. And so, what we have on the floor now is an introduction to Ferrari, to people who are just getting their feet wet, you know, that don’t know much about them.
“I haven’t seen them on the road. And we have a broad spectrum of cars from about 1967 to 2008.”
Creator Enzo Ferrari, a race car driver, needed to drum up interest in designing vehicles for personal use. When he built cars for the road, he only did so to garner profits he could roll back into his racing endeavors.
Luigi Chinetti, an Italian racer in the 1930s and a good friend of Ferrari, moved to the United States before World War II and, through networking, met a few influential people.
“After arriving in the U.S., Chinetti became acquainted with many wealthy people interested in car racing,” Lutsch said.
“So, on a visit back to Italy, he met up with Ferrari and suggested that if he would produce a certain number of Ferraris every year, he could sell them in the United States. And that’s how the car made its way to this country.
“The first Ferrari was produced in 1948.”
The exhibit, which opened last November, has drawn curiosity seekers throughout the area. It’s no surprise: How else would someone in this area see one up close? Unless you’re visiting Los Angeles, Miami or Italy, you won’t likely see someone tooling around in one.
And the closest Ferrari dealership is in Detroit.
Still, in this region, the Ferrari Club boasts about 150 members, 50 of whom are in Northeast Ohio, Lutsch said.
Among those 50 is Tim Franklin of Bath Township, who admits that calling him a Ferrari enthusiast is an understatement.
“I started as a Porsche enthusiast,” he said. “Fortunately, I still own some Porsches. However, I have always been intrigued by the Ferrari brand.
“I was very intrigued by the Gated Manual Berlinetta. It’s a rare find. It’s silver and on loan to the museum for the exhibition. I was lucky to find it in California and have it transported here.”
Franklin says class envy tends to raise its ugly head on the rare occasion that he takes his car out on the open road. About half the onlookers will give a thumbs up. But the other half sees Ferrari owners as snobs.
The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum is located at 10825 East Blvd. in Cleveland. For more information, visit www.wrhs.org/explore/.
And if you still haven’t gotten your fill of Ferraris, the annual “Molto Bella” car show will be at Hale Farm and Village Sept. 22. In addition to various Ferraris, visitors can marvel at other classic cars, including Bentleys and Rolls Royces.
