Test Drive Farrari and factory tours of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Maserati, and Ducati

Although I did not test drive a Ferrari nor Lamborghini, I did tour the Ferrari factory museum at Maranello and the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena in October of 2018. One of the test drive locations is right beside the Ferrari factory at Maranello. Getting to Maranello is quite easy. We were staying in Bologna, so we took a regional train to Modena, which is the nearest station to Maranello. From there, Ferrari runs a bus from the train station to the factory. It is a 30 minute ride through beautiful countryside. I would allot at least two hours to tour the factory museum. I would highly recommend saving time to tour the Enzo Ferrari museum when you get back to the train station in Modena. It is a 5 or 10 minute walk from the station but, I believe the bus dropped us off on our way back through town. Of the two museums, the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena was the favorite, so don't pass it up.

In case it helps, we started from Venice, then traveled to Bologna by regional train. This was our first experience with trains in Italy and although it took a few minutes to figure out the train schedule and how to buy tickets from a kiosk, it was really quite easy. From Bologna, we proceeded on to Florence by regional train and a few days later to Rome by high speed train. I highly recommend using the train system in Italy. I provided the links to the museums below.

https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/museums/factory-tour

https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/museums/enzo-ferrari-modena

I have toured the Ferrari and Lamborghini factories and have owned cars by those manufacturer's. But I have never driven one at the factories and was late into my 30’s before ever driving and buying one (cheap gently used Ferrari 308 for $25,000- later sold for a nice profit—308s were cheap in the 90’s, the Magnum PI cars).

At 20ish that would be a fantastic experience. You can always go to Las Vegas, Miami or any large city that has exotic rentals...but to drive one in relation to a factory tour would be fantastic.

Now you know your sons- we don’t. So ignoring any personal differences between them I’ll answer in a general fashion. This has not the potential of an 8 yr old upset that his big brother at 16 gets to stay up later.....this will be 2 brothers now men, over 18, and one gets the experience and one doesn’t. Maybe the younger one is very mature for his age....but I’d be hell no. Both or neither.

This could become one of those Thanksgiving family things when they are 50 and one jabs the other “hey remember the Italy trip with dad and I got to drive the Ferrari and you couldn’t”.....there will be some laughs but down deep some hurt will exist. I just wouldn’t go there. Wait a year and give both the experience. OR just tour the factories-fantastic gift by you alone and say “boys, wanna drive one? Then earn it. Build your family, build your career, build your life, and earn it.” Then let them loose on life....

Check youtube videos for the experiences.
I saw it once on a blog video, but she only went as passenger. Even me in my later 50s thought that was a lost opportunity.
There are some tours allowing 18 year olds.....though pricey, https://www.livitaly.com/tour/ferrari-vip-full-day-experience-test-drive/
I agree. Both or none.

can both boys drive a standard transmission?

I work as a guide in Modena and I am specialized in Motor tours, so often I have leaded groups and individuals to test drive on Ferrari or Lamborghini. The true is that nobody has been disappointed of the experience. Everybody is joyful after do it. In Maranello there are 5 car rentals, but the experience and professionality is very similar and all the co-pilots very skillful (and even the costs are very very close each other). I usually work with Motorsport Maranello.
For test drive on normal roads the cost depends by the length: longer is the route, higher the cost. The co-pilot is mandatory during the driving and sit on the right seat. On cars with 4 seats (like California, Portofino, FF...) are allowed 2 passengers on the rear seats (for taller men the seats are small... but is a short sacrifice). For insurance reason the rental can be done if you are adult (more than 18 years old in Italy) and with driving license since 12 months at least (so the driver must be at least 19 years old). Some rentals have insurances whom require older age. For the law the international driving license is required, but in general UK or USA licenses are accepted during controls: remember that in Maranello there are several police controls on this kind of test drive, so any rental allow you to do the test without a valid driving license (and complying all other requests), even if only 10 minutes.
A way to do a little more funny route is rent a 4 seats Ferrari for a longer route (like the 30Km, or the 60Km) and swap driver and passenger middle way. Usually you go a little farer than the industrial suburbs of Maranello, on more scenic landscapes (to Castelvetro or to Serramazzoni...). Drive in the hillside is much more funny! But always remember that drive on normal roads mean follow all the laws!
A way to do a more exciting experience is drive on a racetrack. The Autodromo di Modena is managed even for this kind of experience. Everyday (except some days when they have the track booked for some special events) they have some time slots to do private test drive. They rent Ferrari F458, F488 in Challenge version or Lamborghini Huracan and Gallardo in SuperTrofeo version. So both designed for races. They have even the Dallara X-Bow available! The minimum age is 18 years old, without any other limit. You do a short training about how to drive on track, than with the co-pilot you start your experience. No speed limits of course and often you are alone on track, so is a very safe experience. The point is that the cost is much higher.

About museums and factory tours I daresay that visit all ones in one day is an ambitious idea. Are not very far each other, but moving in our area means waste time. Of course I assume do it with a car, because with public transport you waste much more time for movements.
For factory tours I suggest Ducati, Lamborghini and Pagani. The first two are industrial productions in chain, but with two completely different methods. Pagani instead is an atelier, where they work on one or two cars per month. Alternative to Lamborghini is very similar the Maserati production, but one year ago the visit was stopped because they need to rearrange the chain, so I don't know if they started again. The Ferrari factory tour is much less interesting in my opinion... One important thing: the factory tours can be done only with the official guides and in the official times, so you must check when can be done (could be only some days of the week, for example).
About museums the two Ferrari's (in Maranello and in Modena) are the most interesting in my opinion, followed by the two Lamborghini (the factory one, in Sant'Agata and the Ferruccio Lamborghini in Funo: this second one is the one of the family, where you can see the history of the factory and several old models and prototypes) and the Ducati museum. The Pagani is a very small museum (they have only two models... is normal!).
Maserati hasn't a museum, only a little show room in the front of the factory, near to the Enzo Ferrari museum. But could be visited the Panini's collection, the biggest about Maserati (but there are several cars, tractors, motorbikes...). Is located inside a Parmigiano-Reggiano dairy.
If you have a little more time (i.e. if you decide to stay in Emilia for a couple of days) you can add the Dallara museum near Parma. They are the producers of the Indycart cars (and F-E) cars, so if you watch that races the collection (even if small) is interesting.
And, if you are motorbike fans you can visit even Tavullia and the Valentino Rossi fan club. Near there, in Coriano) there is even the museum dedicated to Marco Simoncelli.

Nigel- manual transmission is not an issue. Both Ferrari and Lamborghini dropped manuals about a decade ago, give or take a few years and the used ones (with manual trannys) sell for insane amounts when they rarely come on the market (the last manual V12 -559s -selling easily for 3 times their original prices. About 25-30 were made during the entire 5 yr run of that car. Damn rare is an understatement).

Onefastbob is right: manual gear is pretty common in Italy for standard cars, but even the automatic is becoming quite popular. So for rented cars there are several ones automatic.
Ferrari (and Lamborghini, like several other top builder) now are using the paddle-shift and there is a knob on the wheel to decide if you want the manual or automatic control. All the ones I ever seen for rental have this system, so is the last of your problem.

From Bologna, we proceeded on to Florence by regional train

Did you have to change somewhere in mountains?

I agree with Dario.... at least when I was looking there wasn't a direct Regionale between Bologna and Firenze. I'm pretty sure the lowest was IC. If you do the Regionale it involves going well off the straight route and changing.

By my memory may be faulty.

Wow, thank you to everyone for quick and detailed responses!

Yes both boys know how to drive a standard transmission as that is the car they learn on and currently share (old Ford focus, bright yellow, no AC, standard, chosen on purpose by mom and dad for skill and character development :) )

I can picture Thanksgiving dinner as you mentioned it onefastbob! Will definitely keep that in mind. This trip originated with our youngest son who wanted to go with his 7th grade class to Europe. We decided he'd be frustrated on the planned tour and agreed to take him if he saved the plane ticket. He's well on his way, and it has evolved into a trip for our whole family, but being that he started the whole thing it might be doubly frustrating if his brother drove a car and he didn't!!

Thanks again, I will look into the various links and options shared.

I also appreciate the tips regarding the trains. I have been leaning that way and is helpful to hear that the train system is a good way to go.

hey hey lucas family
wow how impressive that ricky gave you lots of info for your family and your boys. something for them to look forward to, start saving money until the trip begins, mowing/ delivering newspapers, washing cars. get your IDP (international driving permits) for everyone driving at AAA. 2 passport size photos, $30 each and receive same day, usually good for a year.
it's still early to decide, don't know how many nights you are staying in italy and what other cities you plan to visit. look at multi-city flights, into one city out of another. know the italian names of train stations, we rented apartments in venice:
la levantina: 2 bedroom, 1 bath in canareggio, on a back canal with washer, wash evening and let dry overnight while out and about. pack light, ground floor, easy to walk and roam around.
cabadoer-veniceflat.it change to english and email them.
we stayed in both and loved them. spend at least 3 nights better 4 to see venice. stopped at local store to have drinks and snacks available and we cooked breakfast before our adventurous day out.
withlocals.com/experience/treviso charms
isoladiburano.it taking a vaporetto to the island of burano for a day trip
schezzini.it email him. he does a cicchetti bar crawl (destination360.com/venice/cicchetti-tour) learn the history wine and appetizers of venice
streaty.com a food/wine/market tour
tripsavvy.com/veneto region tourist map check out the cities to visit. maybe spend 2 night in vicenza to see family homeland
camacana.com making venetian mask class
getyourguide.com/lake garda: 2 hour guided trike tour or duetigarage.com (change to english)
take the train to lake garda, maybe spend couple nights. take ferries around lake, stop at villages. we attended wine festival in bardolino and just loved the lake, views, activities, shops, restaurants
just some ideas for you and family to ponder upon of what to see in northern italy. so much to see and do. it's your decision of what's important. have a folder with different towns to see, what to do and have a committee meeting with your family. after this trip they all want to plan another trip to a different area of italy. keep ricky's name handy and if questions just message him. ask all the questions and these posters here will give you good bad and ugly. can't see everything all at once.
have a good time researching, let boy's do their researching and involvement. it's fun, time consumming, but you'll love it when the time comes.
aloha

• From Bologna, we proceeded on to Florence by regional train
  • Did you have to change somewhere in mountains?

I don't remember changing trains but, if we did it must not have been very difficult or time consuming, because I don't remember. I was very impressed with the efficiency of the train system throughout Italy. The system seemed very uniform throughout our trip, so once you use the train once, you'll have no problems.

I would also try to determine if the "drive" that is offered is any good. While driving an exotic car in Italy sounds like fun at first blush, what if it's a slow boring drive in stop and go traffic in an industrial park with a mileage limit? As others have noted, major sunny cities in the US rent exotics so this isn't really a once in a lifetime opportunity. I've looked into it in LA several times but the mileage limit ruins it, if you can't go up PCH to Oxnard and have some fun, why bother?