Media & Events - The Latest from Maranello Motorsport

A Message from Mark
Welcome to the 1st edition of our Quarterly E-Newsletter. We understand the ever growing need to keep you, our new and existing clients, more informed about our Track and Race activities and to keep you up to date with our ever changing inventory offerings in Race Cars, Sports Cars and Daily Drivers.

It's been a remarkable decade. Since Maranello Motorsport started trading we have witnessed changing markets and volatile currencies in our local and offshore dealings. There are amazing prospects in various foreign markets that we have experienced with our changing dollar, which continue to offer some attractive trading opportunities. There have also been some terrific purchases from Europe, Asia and America over the past 12 months.

It has also been a great ride in our Motorsport activities. Starting, many years ago, with the Ferrari 360 Challenge and 360 GT to the current 430 Challenge and the highly developed Ferrari 430 GT3 Kessel car. It has been a busy, yet exciting, development programme. We have reaped the rewards with professional pilots like David Brabham, Ryan Briscoe, Allan Simonsen and our resident driver instructor John Bowe. We have had multiple Championship wins in both the Sprint and Endurance Racing and numerous lap records under our belt.

Our Private Track Days continue to strengthen, with approximately 8 events per year, with an average of 6 cars per event, at tracks ranging from our local Sandown and Philip Island to Bathurst and Symmons Plains in Tassie. Our Private in house amateur drivers (for lack of a better word) are quickly finding real professional race pace under our driver training programme with John Bowe plus the additional use of our telemetry systems and support.

Joe Sasso our Workshop Manager/Team Crew Chief and his team in the shop have certainly proved their skills also over the years. They have proven results, to date, in both the Racing and Road Car arenas and they will continue to provide valuable, experienced service and support in the future. So please don't hesitate to contact us for all your specialist vehicle servicing, repair or restoration needs.

I hope you take the time to read our E-Newsletter and keep up to date with our inventory, servicing and events. Stay in touch with us for your motoring requirements and please feel free to drop past for a coffee any time.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our exciting and valued clients, for your continued support over the years in this unique passion we share.

Bowe's Tech Talk

Over the past 30 years of my motor racing life i have seen hundreds of technical innovations and break throughs, but none as great as the evolution of braking systems. Lets go back 30 years to 1980, the Aussie muscle car was a newly released Brock Commodore had 4 wheel disc brakes, a big plus, but they were tiny rotors made of sub-grade cast iron squeezed by sliding single piston calipers. No one really noticed, it was about performance in a straight line that mattered. Likewise the exotic cars of the time, Ferrari 308 GTB, a car most would have killed for, admittedly had nicer multi-piston calipers but still tiny pads (and rotors) all housed within little 14 inch wheels with virtually no air flow. Bottom line is they didn't stop or more so they didn't stop for long. One or two hard hi-speed stops and the brakes were reduced to a smouldering mess.

In the past couple of years the brake engineers have done themselves proud. The evolution of brake hardware moved with increasing wheel sizes, bigger and stiffer calipers made out of billet machined monoblock super alloys and despite asbestos becoming a dirty word, the pad materials available now are capable of withstanding over 800 degrees celsius without giving up the ghost! Pretty impressive! When I look at a 308 GTB or a Brock Commodore or any other 80's mega cars I just laugh. What were they thinking?

The latest innovation to arrive in the brake world, direct from motor racing experience, is carbon-ceramic rotors. These have been developed by the more innovative brake suppliers to combine the incredible retardation properties and heat resistance of pure carbon fibre with the outstanding wear properties of ceramic materials. It's where Formula 1 meets space travel. The rotors are lighter, last years longer than most cast iron rotors and stop better. The brakes are so good now on the upper echelon of road cars, equiped with carbon ceramic brakes, that the only thing that limits the incredible decelleration is the tyres, you see, slick tyres are not allowed on the road. In motor racing however, carbon brakes have become very common, designers loving the unsprung weight advantage and the mega high heat threshold. Is there a down side of carbon brakes? Yes. Cost .


They are as dear as poison but I'm tipping, like most hi-tech things, the more knowledge that gets out and about and the more demand there is, the price will decrease. Within a few years most, lets call them performance cars will be equipped with carbon-ceramic brakes.

Lets face it, in 1980, who would have thought that a 2010 model V8 Falcon could be had with 6 piston brembo calipers. Progress indeed! Racing certainly improves the breed!

TRACK DATES

Join us on the track for one or all of our Private Track Days.

Your chance to learn how to drive your car on the track from the best driving instructors in Australia, including our very own John Bowe!

PRIVATE MARANELLO TRACK DAYS
July 26th (Monday): Phillip Island
August 17th (Tuesday): Sandown
September 1st (Wednesday): Symmons Plains
October: TBA
November 11th-14th: Sprint Bathurst
December 2nd (Thursday): Eastern Creek

AUSTRALIAN GT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Round 5 October 7th-10th - Bathurst
Round 6 December 2nd - Sandown Enduro

STAR CAR...IN STOCK NOW

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona

The 365 Daytona is generally regarded as one of Ferrari's greatest ever GT's. A combination of its enormous performance, stunning Pininfarina bodywork and a place in history as the last front-engined Ferrari GT, that Fiat had no hand in, means it occupies a special place in Maranello history. The world famous Daytona name was unofficially conjured up by the press in recognition of the firms stunning 1-2-3 victory at 1967's Daytona 24 Hours. Rumours persist that Ferrari were actually intending to name their new model as such, but having been beaten to it, they never officially used this evocative title themselves.

Top Result for Simensen at 24hrs of Le Mans

A few weeks ago, Allan Simonsen could hardly believe that he, Dominik Farnbacher and Leh Keen had managed to topple some of the biggest players at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Porsche was pushed off the podium for the first time in four years. The Hankook Ferrari was wedged between the might of the BMW and Audi efforts. People were taking notice. And now, Allan and his team have had their best ever result at Le Mans - 2nd in GT2!

Having won the Asian Le Mans Series, last November in Okayama, the German-based Hankook Ferrari Team inherited an automatic entry to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There was no waiting, wondering or begging for an entry - it was locked down 100% before the season had even started. But this year they would combine three German VLN events at the Nordschclife along with their regular Le Mans Series program. Clearly, the South Korean tyre manufacturer had come forward and leaps and bounds since the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year, Team Farnbacher Hankook applied the same approach to Le Mans as they did at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring - keep off the kerbs, be gentle on the gear changes and not make silly mistakes.

Their reward? 2nd in GT2 and 12th outright, beating even the GT1 class winner! An amazing result.

Matt Rockman Challenges a 360...

My first experience with Maranello was at Winton for a private drive day in my brand new Porsche 997 GT3 RS. I was as proud as punch and very keen to get this well acclaimed car on the track. Out I went and had some great fun. But I noticed that the car didn't grip or stop particularly well.

With me was my good mate Sean Cussell in his newly acquired Ferrari 360 Challenge and offered me a drive. I jumped in the gleaming Faz, did up my harness and grabbed first gear on the F1 paddle shift. Well, I couldn't get the smile off my face. The car was amazing. Built for the track. It stopped, turned and accelerated like nothing I had ever driven. As I pulled into the pits Mark Coffey, who shares my passion of special cars, smiled at me as I took off my helmet and shouted "I want one!" The difference between a road car on the track and a race car on the track can not be explained, but experienced, as I did, back to back.

Suffice to say that I am on my second car with Maranello and I am an active participant of their private drive days. To me the "Maranello" advantages are obvious, but most importantly you can enjoy real motor sport in a safe and professional environment. Lets face it, the joy of driving exotic cars fast on our roads had long gone and the track is the only environment to develop your skills and engage with your car in the appropriate environment.

Both Joe and Mark are true experts of their field and good blokes to boot. There is a small group of drivers who enjoy the Ferrari race product on Australia's best circuits and it's the most fun one can have with your pants on!

Best thing I ever did was that one drive in the challenge car…