President's Corner

This is it. This is the year of the Cavallino and the 50th Anniversary of the Ferrari motor car. You had better get your mind, body, spirit and Ferrari prepared for a wide variety of events. You will note in our calendar that we have an extravagant assortment of events planned for the year. We hope that among them all you will find a choice that best suits you. Rodeo Drive - April 19th - is going to be the show-of-the-year and an application appears elsewhere in this newsletter. You will also get a personalized invitation from Mr. Gian Luigi Butoni, President and CEO of Ferrari North America.

Plans are to have five new 550 Maranellos introduced at a private dinner presentation at the Petersen Museum on Friday night, the 18th of April. Sempre Ferrari will advise you of the details as we get closer.

In the mean time, things Ferrari are really looking great. You know we always talk about ?the club? but now I mean all things Ferrari. The F355 product is truly successful, with the California stores being first in the country in terms of sales. There is the promise of a follow-up success with the 550, a car that already has a waiting list.

The bottom line is that even those of us older vintage people get affected by the Ferrari hype that permeates our arena. But, even with all of this new stuff, there is still the ever-loving, caring and proud owner of the vintage Ferrari, the cars that truly have history. Some boast of documented ownership and others are just so rare that you feel honored to be in their presence. Would they ever present a new model without showing the past and progressive history? Never.

I know that may sound foolish, but when you really like the cars and what they represent in history and what they are today, it?s pretty hard not to get excited.

And that?s my cause for now. Get excited with me. We are observing history in the making. The year of the Cavallino, 1997. Truly the year of the 550.

Thanks for your membership,

Tom Brockmiller

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