‘New Concepts of the Myth’ Exhibition Opens at Ferrari Corporate Showroom

The 20 best nominees for the “Ferrari of the future,” created by automotive design students from four of the most prestigious design schools worldwide (College for Creative Studies of Detroit, Coventry University – School of Art & Design, Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin and Tokyo Communication Arts), will be displayed at the Ferrari Corporate Showroom (55th and Park Avenue in Manhattan), in an exhibition open to the public April 5th -22nd, 2006.

The four prize winning models from the contest, organized in partnership with legendary Italian design house Pininfarina S.p.A. and with the support of world leading aluminum producer, ALCOA, (the company that produces aluminum spaceframes for Ferrari), will be featured at a special reception at the Ferrari Showroom on April 4th to kick-off the NY based exhibition. Maurizio Parlato, President and CEO of Ferrari North America, Inc. as well as Roberto Fedeli, Ferrari GT Technical Director will host the reception.

In 2005 Ferrari invited the four prominent car design schools from Britain, the U.S., Italy and Japan to submit entries, which led to participation of 20 finalist projects – shaped by 49 students from 13 different countries – all vying to win an internship for all team members at either Ferrari or Pininfarina. “As both an icon and innovator, Ferrari has become the pinnacle of all design, engineering and technology within the automotive industry,” said Parlato. “We are proud to continue to play an inspirational role in the future of outstanding design, as well as to remain the motivation for prospective cutting edge designers-to-be.”

The “New Concepts of the Myth” exhibition at the Ferrari Corporate Showroom will be the second U.S. stop in a series of worldwide exhibitions, from Europe to Asia, following the original prize-giving ceremony which was held last November 18th in Maranello (Italy) at the Galleria Ferrari. The 20 models chosen for display were voted on by a technical board of jurors, each of whom currently have responsibility to decide the style of Ferrari production vehicles, including Ferrari President, Luca di Montezemolo; Ferrari Vice President, Piero Ferrari; General Manager, Jean Todt; Vice General Manager, Amedeo Felisa; new Concept Design Chief, Donato Coco and the Head of Product Portfolio Development, Massimo Fumarola. In addition, juror representatives from Pininfarina S.p.A. included Life Senator, Sergio Pininfarina and Chief Designer, Ken Okuyama.

Each of the 1:4 scale models to be displayed propose stimulating alternatives to the internationally acclaimed shapes of current and previous mid-engined eight cylinder and front-engined twelve cylinder Ferrari vehicles. In addition to the models, all teams provided a series of sketches and concepts supporting innovation, styling and functionality from both an internal and external perspective. While students were granted creative freedom throughout the competition, each design needed to retain the recognizable features and values of the Ferrari Marque.

The 4 winning models included:

* “Millechili” by Luis Agullo Spottorno (Spain) and Felix Hiller (Germany); Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin

* “Fiorano” by Rob Battams (UK), Tom Hardman (UK) and David Imai (USA); Coventry University – School of Art and Design

* “Tre Diviso” by Daisuke Nagasato (Japan), Kim Teakyung (Korea) and Hiroaki Yakubo (Japan); Tokyo Communications Arts

* “Ascari” by Manuele Amprimo (Italy), Werner Gruber (Italy) and Yu Jae-Cheul (Korea); Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin

Lastly, “612 Lafayette” by Shigenori Maeda (Japan), from the College for Creative Studies of Detroit, snatched the “Alcoa Award,” a special design prize for Excellence Design for Aluminum. Maeda will receive an aluminum reproduction of its winning quarter scale model from the ALCOA Corporation.

A selection of top level international publications ran an additional contest for readers to express their personal choice on each model, collectively reaching over 120,000 votes and appointing “Ferrari F Zero,” a project by Jean-Michel Raad (France), Shen Jiang (China) and Leon Dang (China) of Coventry University – School of Art & Design, as the most voted one, with over 10% of preferences. Next bests have been “Ascari” and “Due Masse.” Additionally, to date, more than 37,000 users visited http://www.ferrariworld.com/ website to view the program and select their favorite choices as well.

For more information on the “New Concepts of the Myth” exhibition, as well as other Ferrari background, visit http://www.ferrariworld.com/. The exhibition will be held at the Ferrari Corporate Showroom at 410 Park Avenue, NYC (55th and Park Avenue), 212-593-2080, and will be open April 5th-22nd, M-F 10 am -7 pm and Saturday 11 am – 5pm, (closed on April 14th -15th for Easter).

Ferrari North America, Inc. is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and is the exclusive North American distributor of Ferrari vehicles including the F430 Berlinetta, F430 Spider convertible sports car, 575M Maranello sports coupe, 612 Scaglietti (luxury performance 2+2), and Superamerica (12-cylinder Berlinetta). http://www.ferrariusa.com/ .