In northern Italy, spread out across the Po River plain between Piacenza and Rimini, lies an unrivaled trove for automotive aficionados. Here in Emilia-Romagna—amidst lambrusco vineyards, olive groves, and boutique producers of Parmigiano Reggiano and Aceto Balsamico—the country’s famed sports car heritage was formed.
Clustered around Bologna is a coterie of exotic vehicle manufacturers whose monikers are synonymous with the supercar. “If you name Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati, worldwide, everyone knows what you are talking about,” says Roberta Frisoni, the region’s minister for tourism, trade, and sport. “This is why they now call us The Motor Valley.”
Oddly enough, the area traces its vehicular dominance to its rural history. Italian industry, in the early 20th century, was clustered in the northwest, around Milan, Genoa, and Turin. But the farms of the Po Valley had their own manufacturing needs.
The main assembly line at the Ferrari factory in Maranello
“Emilia-Romagna has a deeply rooted mechanical culture that dates back to the early 1900s when it was still a predominantly agricultural region,” says Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Lamborghini. “The initial interest came from the need to improve and simplify agricultural work through machinery.”
A series of vocational schools was created by regional authorities to train local students in the emerging mechanical arts, so this talent could be applied to farming solutions. But some expertise trickled out, and was applied to the newfangled automobile, as it materialized. “The people here have a deep passion for speed, engines, and competition,” Winkelmann says.
At the same time, the region’s soil contributed to the development of the valley’s increasingly lithe and nimble cars. “Italy has no raw materials,” says Alessandro Silva, a noted historian and author, and president of the Italian Association of Automotive History. Metal had to be imported from Poland and Czechoslovakia, so it was used sparingly, contributing to a focus on lightweight applications. (Less mass travels faster, more easily.) Stretching these limited resources contributed to early experiments in aerodynamics, bringing about the taut sensuality of Italian cars. “This was the flair of the Italians for design,” Silva says; making more from less.
Because many of that generation’s talented engineers and designers were home grown, they also took the country’s geography into account. And this, once again, contributed to peak performance. “To go from one sea to the other, to go anywhere, you have to cross mountains,” Silva explains. “So you needed a lively engine, and a good gearbox, that could get you up and over.” Contrast this with the high-speed cruising engendered by Germany’s autobahns, or the compliant suspensions endemic to French cars, which often performed agricultural duties.
Cars on display at the Maserati Umberto Panini Collection
The Italian proclivity for performance vehicles had socio-cultural origins as well. “In those early days, Italy was a very poor country,” Silva says. “So the car market was very small, essentially an elite market for the wealthy. And they wanted good, high-performance cars. So, to market them, they had to have some characteristics that made them similar to racing cars.”
The Maserati brothers, Alfieri, Ettore, and Ernesto, were the earliest of the cohort to capitalize on this. They founded a speed shop in Bologna in 1914 to upgrade racecars, before releasing their first name-branded vehicle in 1926. Intriguingly, for a company based in a competitive sport, instead of focusing solely on winning, they concentrated on engineering advancements and creating a collegial atmosphere.
“The students from the local technical school would wait outside of the Maserati workshop, not because there was unemployment, but because they knew they would really learn,” says Silva. “The Maserati brothers were modest. They liked what they were doing. Every single driver who drove for them, even when they were the worst team, said that they were the best years of their profession.”
An aluminum steering wheel during the milling process at Pagani’s Modena design facility
Similarly, Enzo Ferrari launched his racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, in 1929, modifying racecars for Alfa Romeo. Hotheaded, but successful, Enzo had endless conflicts with the Alfa brass, and left in 1939 to form his own car company. His first eponymous road car wasn’t released until after WWII, in 1947. It featured a potent V12 engine, which became, and remains, a Ferrari staple. Enzo sold road cars mainly to fund his addiction to winning on the track. “Racing,” he famously said, “is a great mania to which one must sacrifice everything, without reticence, without hesitation.” Officious and arrogant, he prospered, but not without alienating people.
One of them was successful local tractor builder and industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini. Based on his success and passion for cars, Lamborghini purchased a Ferrari 250 GT in 1958. But he had consistent mechanical trouble with the car. Given his engineering and manufacturing expertise, he offered suggestions for improvements to Enzo. After being personally rebuffed by Ferrari, in 1963 he created a rival namesake company to battle Ferrari directly.
An inspector at the Ferrari factory checks the V8 and V12 engines
Continuing this chain, car-obsessed Argentinian Horacio Pagani dreamed from a young age of emigrating to the Motor Valley. “He said, ‘Why so much passion in such a small place? This is where I want to go,’” says his son Christopher, marketing chief of his father’s namesake supercar manufacturer. At 28, Pagani moved to Italy and was hired to work in Lamborghini’s experimental body shop, advancing eventually to head engineer. He had long felt the future of supercar design was in carbon fiber—a material far lighter, stronger, and stiffer than metal—and Lamborghini leadership refused to back his mission. So after eight years, he left and founded his own boutique, carbon fiber-intensive, namesake automaker in 1992, revealing his first car in 1999.
The region has since grown to include not just these flagship brands, but thousands of smaller companies that provide components, consulting, and testing. To provide highly trained workers for these labor-intensive industries, the automakers found, fund, and provide curriculum for the local vocational school, the Motor Valley University of Emilia-Romagna.
Brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini collectively produce around 25,000 cars per year, while Pagani makes anywhere from a dozen to a few units. But as pinnacle, aspirational objets, they have a mystique that belies their numbers, helping to brand their homeland in the minds of car fanatics worldwide. “For Lamborghini, the ‘Made In Italy,’ identity adds immense value on the international stage,” says Winkelmann. “And being located in the Motor Valley reinforces that identity.”
Ferrari’s wind tunnel in Maranello, designed by Renzo Piano
To enunciate that heritage, each brand hosts a museum near its headquarters— Maserati in Modena, Ferrari in Maranello, Lamborghini in Sant’Agata Bolognese, and Pagani in San Cesario sul Panaro. Each showcases the maker’s history, displaying exhibitions on winning racecars, recent collectibles, or limited edition models. Dozens of public and private transportation museums also dot the region. These include sites dedicated to brand founders, like Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini Museums, which tell the life story of these visionaries through their vehicles and ephemera. The Panini Collection hosts the world’s largest private Maserati horde, including more than 20 stunning vintage cars purchased from the brand’s corporate heritage collection during one of its financial crises.
A 1989 Lamborghini LM002
Maserati, Pagani, and Lamborghini also offer public factory tours, by appointment. The Ferrari factory is only accessible to clients and VIPs, but a visit is a near-requisite pilgrimage. “Maranello is a bit like the Vatican. People from all over the world who love the brand have the possibility to visit and deepen that connection,” says Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s chief marketing and commercial officer.
This is an excerpt from PALMER Vol. 11. To read the full story, click here to purchase the issue.
