By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Erik Nielsen and Michael Collins
In a ceremony presided over by Jean Todt, the Ferrari Maserati Group opened up its first official dealership on June 6, 2004, in China's New York, the rapidly growing city of Shanghai. The new dealership is located in the lobby of the J. W. Marriott Hotel in Tomorrow's Square only blocks away from the official center of town.
The festivities started with a police escorted parade of approximately seventy Ferraris and Maseratis that began at the official hotel for the event, drove along the Huangpu River through the famous "Bund" section and ended up in front of the new dealership. The oldest Ferraris present were an immaculate red Daytona and a yellow Dino 246 GTS. The parade was book ended by two Enzos, one red and one silver. The oldest Maserati was a Ghibli and it was accompanied by several Coupes and Spyders. The owners came from all over Asia including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, and even a few Ex-pats thrown in for local color.
The dealership will be managed by Italian Motors, which has had the official import responsibility for China since 1993, amounting in sales of approximately 150 cars to date. The company is also responsible for covering the Hong Kong market. The group is planning an aggressive expansion into China now that the market is becoming more transparent under WTO guidelines and wealthy Chinese are starting to favor Western luxury goods. The group plans to open twelve dealerships and service centers in the next eighteen months.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was performed with Jean Todt, Martin Leach (CEO of Maserati), Richard Lee (Chairman of Italian Motors) and Gabriele Menegatti (Italy's Ambassador to China). The mob of journalists then flooded the showroom to view the models on display. Housed on the showroom floor was the new Quatroporte coupe, an MC12, last year's F2003-GA Formula 1 monoposto (chassis 228 for those who pay attention to these things), and a 575M F1 coupe (ZFFBT55B000134313). The Ferrari and Maserati officials then attended a press conference while the owners enjoyed a European buffet lunch.
The festivities continued later in the afternoon at the Shanghai International Center, a building in a classical Russian style that was built to show unity for Sino-Soviet relations.
With the cars parked in rows in the courtyard, the owners and invited guests were presented with the new 612 Scaglietti and a fashion show, making it a grand event. The 612 is now being referred to as the Ferrari four seater.
Those that spoke Mandarin got a chuckle as one speaker's comments were mistranslated stating that the new car will do "0-100 km/hour in 4.2 minutes."
The fashion show included the latest designs from Blumarine, Laura Biagiotti, Mariella Burani, Gianfranco Ferrč, Valentino and Versace. The Portman Ritz-Carlton handled the catering with food and wine provided by the Buonitalia, an organization set up to promote and internationalize Italian foodstuffs supported by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
