Where can I get information on my 612's history (marketing car) | FerrariChat

Where can I get information on my 612's history (marketing car)

Discussion in '612/599' started by Titobandito, Nov 25, 2019.

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  1. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    Hi all,

    I posted this on the general forum, but thought I would post it here too.

    Can anyone tell me where I can find the history of my 2008-9 Ferrari 612 One to One? She is a bit confusing in provenance.

    The car was imported new into Switzerland (were I live) with the dealer listed as simply **marketing** in place of a normal dealer name. My other Ferraris have always list the dealer as the importer. The official owner and first registrant in Switzerland is Ferrari Spa. All the documents and the Swiss registration list Ferrari as the owner. So this car was owned and registered by Ferrari. The car was delivered and registered in Geneva. Records show the car was driven for about 10,000 km over a couple of years, then transferred to a Geneva dealer and sold on from Ferrari Spa ownership. The guy I bought the car from third hand told me he heard from the dealer that it was a car used by Luca di Montezemolo while he was president of the formula one team association in Geneva. I didn’t pay any extra for the story, obviously, but the story fits the timeline and locale. I’d love to know if this was really true or not.

    The car was ordered with some options my dealer tells me were not normally available, suggesting this was not a normal vehicle. Even things that were not available as One to One options, but the dealer tells me it all is factory installed stuff. The car is a bit of a mystery in that regard. It has the mufflers from a 599 (and sounds mean), and a leather lined trunk like a Sessanta 612, among other things. None of this is particularly exotic, but the service manager at my official dealer tells me this stuff is weird, and definitely factory original. It is on the build documents as "special equipment".

    Anyway, she is a lovely car and my family and I have had lots of fun with her, so our stories mean more to me than the car’s past, but we’d love to know why she was made and what she spent her early years doing in Geneva

    Is there someone at Ferrari I can contact to find out what was the original purpose of the car?

    I put some of the owner's manual documents below. I didn't put the original Swiss registration, but it is similarly showing Ferrari Spa as the registration holder rather than a specific individual.

    -Tito
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  2. Continental AutoSports

    Sponsor

    Aug 22, 2006
    4,393
    Hinsdale, IL
    Full Name:
    Bobby Williams / Parts Manager
    I skimmed the surface with your vin number on my end in Ferrari's system and couldn't find a definitive answer regarding "dealer"; everywhere the dealer name should be, it just says MARKETING. That said, as crazy as it sounds, I would contact Ferrari directly. Going off the options list, this 612 is one of a kind BUT I can't speak on value, originality, owners, etc.

    Good luck!
     
  3. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Jul 19, 2008
    37,984
    Clarksville, Tennessee
    Full Name:
    Terry H Phillips
    You might also try Ferrari Northern Europe and see if they have anything. Ferrari had a big meeting in Modena in February 2008 to introduce the OTO. The list of new options included alcantara carpets for the trunk/boot, but leather was available later, and yours could have been a trial balloon to see if it was a worthwhile option. OTOs were fitted with essentially the Sessanta exhaust, so that could be what your dealer was seeing. Interesting if it really is a 599 set of rear mufflers/silencers. Let us know what you discover.

    Attached is an itinerary for the Modena meeting and a Jan 2008 factory description of the OTO. Yours sounds like a factory demonstrator for the new model. Ferrari's practice on prototypes was to sell them through favored Italian dealers after bringing them up to factory specifications for production models. Sounds like for demonstrators, they were sold through the local distributorship or favored dealer in the country where they were used as demonstrators.
     
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  4. Cobraownr

    Cobraownr Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 6, 2008
    929
    Edgewater, MD
    Full Name:
    Donald Silawsky
    Marcel Massini is an expert on Ferrari histories and owners. He has been in the business of assembling information on individual cars for many years, so may want to charge you for information on your car, but it could be worth it. His email address is <[email protected]>.
     
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  5. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    Can’t wait to see Marcel’s answer!


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  6. jef

    jef Rookie

    Sep 1, 2004
    45
    I have a very similar situation with an OTO owned by FNA with very similar unusual options.
     
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  7. 360Marnix

    360Marnix Formula Junior

    Jan 4, 2017
    490
    Holland
    According to your information I think your car was a factory press car.
     
  8. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    #8 Titobandito, Nov 25, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2019
    One thing I can say for sure is that the car does not have Sessanta exhaust pipes that were carried over to the OTO cars. Those have double wall looking pipes. Here is a picture of the pipes on my car. The service manager pulled them up for me on his computer and showed me the mufflers from the 599 that were on my car. I can't say what model they are from the 599, but the car is way louder than any other 612 I've seen. I will ask him to clarify the exact mufflers and what else from the 599 is on the exhaust if anything. It isn't visible in the picture but the inside pipe has a butterfly looking valve inside it.

    Car is currently having the F1 pump replaced and getting some work done on a leaky brake caliper so I cannot take more pics as it is at the Ferrari dealer now.




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  9. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    The video above is a cold start up a few months back, just to give a little bit of sonic context.

    Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions about what the car might have been purposed to do, and how I might get more information. I will look into some of these options, plus try via my dealer to get to the bottom of some of the details. I'll update as I find things.
     
  10. randkin

    randkin Formula 3
    BANNED

    Aug 2, 2015
    1,497
    Somis, CA
    Full Name:
    Randy
    Looks and sounds very much like my car, mine has the HGT2 package which include the sports mufflers (double walled pipes). I assume you also have the same package as the "sporty" exhausts separate from the HGT2 package don't sound nearly as good.
     
  11. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Jan 5, 2002
    23,988
    Portland, Oregon
    Full Name:
    Don
    When they introduced the 612 OTO program, they built a series of demonstrators for different markets. I would bet yours is one of those.

    Given that, it is entirely possible, even likely, that Luca used it while in Switzerland, but I doubt it was "his" car.
     
  12. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    #13 Titobandito, Nov 28, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2019
    My car has the HGT2 package as well.

    My mechanic tells me the silencers and tailpipes on my car are from a 599 GTB. I talked to him yesterday and he told me the exhaust is from the standard 599 GTB.


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  13. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    #14 Titobandito, Nov 28, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2019
    I assume the president of Ferrari probably has access to lots of cars, and probably doesn’t have to own a car at all. I didn’t intend to suggest this was his own vehicle, or his only vehicle, or even that the story I heard was true at all. Even if there is an ounce of truth to the story I was told, the car spent its life in Geneva, which would make it, at best, a car used periodically.


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  14. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Jan 5, 2002
    23,988
    Portland, Oregon
    Full Name:
    Don
    You might search for photos of Luca in Geneva, and see if there are any of him getting in or out of a 612. He's photographed pretty often, it seems.
     
  15. TheCook

    TheCook Formula Junior

    Oct 16, 2015
    304
    Buckinghamshire
    Full Name:
    Ian
    Cold start with my 612 OTO


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  16. cgt000

    cgt000 Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    May 2, 2014
    732
    Northeast
    ^^^ scaring the hell out of them horses
     
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  17. Makuono

    Makuono Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 15, 2014
    998
    Full Name:
    Ricardo
    Ouch!

    I have the Ferrari sport exhausts on my 612, but yours sounds even louder and raspier. Love it!
     
  18. TheCook

    TheCook Formula Junior

    Oct 16, 2015
    304
    Buckinghamshire
    Full Name:
    Ian
    As far as I know it’s the standard sports exhaust that was an option with the OTO. It is nice and raspy though, listen to it here

    Oh, and no horses were scared during the making of that video ;)


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  19. mike051

    mike051 Karting

    Jan 21, 2019
    64
  20. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    That is not my car. Mine was never registered outside of Switzerland. The car in the link is blue, mine is Grigio Ferro. The interior color is the same, as is the extra leather trim bits.
     
  21. mike051

    mike051 Karting

    Jan 21, 2019
    64
    Not sure the registration is official ("FE 612 .."). By the way, calipers color seems to be different from your car: these one seem to be giallo, and yours grigio.
    So definitety, it cannot be yours.
     
  22. Titobandito

    Titobandito Karting

    May 26, 2019
    67
    Switzerland
    The dash on the pictured car also has a blank or metal inset above where the 612 logo is located on the dash, and mine is all leather. The color of the interior also seems too light to be iroko brown.

    In case anyone is looking out there for details, my car is also NOT the car from the 2008 Geneva motor show. That car was the same color exterior, but with a different interior color, wheels, calipers, and exhaust. The Geneva motor show car was sold recently by my local dealer to the current owner, so I know they are not the same car.
     

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