With the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing fast approaching, the Italian Olympic Committee is looking to Ferrari for a little help. The Italian automaker will put its extensive motorsports knowledge to work in athletic equipment like canoes, sailboats and potentially bicycles. Looking forward to the 2010 Winter Olympics, bobsleds, luges, skeleton sleds and Paralympic skiis will get the prancing horse touch, as well. Particular attention will be paid towards aerodynamic improvements as the Italian teams will be granted access to Ferrari's wind tunnel for testing. No word on whether they'll be allowed in the paint shop to spray down the equipment in Ferrari's iconic red color. More extensive use of exotic materials will also be incorporated into the designs, presumably lots and lots of carbon fiber. Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said of the deal, "If there is even one-thousandth of Ferrari in Italian victories, we'll be honored."[Source: Edmunds.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NYChic @ Feb 27th 2008 3:24PM
I'd like to see Ford, or Chrysler, try to do the same thing. Imagine, bobsleds, skis, canoes, and sailboats, made with the same cheap, flimsy, plastics, fake carbon fiibre laminates, and build quality, as their cars. Yes, while Ford, and Chrysler, came out the the GT, and Viper (repsectively), those two cars are indicative of their overall product line.
Let's see how many boys I've pissed off this time!!
NYChic @ Feb 27th 2008 3:27PM
CORRECTION!
The Ford GT, and Dodge Viper, ARE NOT representative of the entire Ford, or Chrysler product lines.
I should read my comments before I post...apparently you boys aren't the only ones guilty of doing that!
Andrew @ Feb 27th 2008 3:53PM
Whoa, someone more anti-American-pro-Euro-car than me.
.josh. @ Feb 27th 2008 4:02PM
Oddly enough our Bobsled teams do use American race car knowledge, Geoff Bodine (yep of the Nascar Bodien's) designs and builds bobsleds for the US team and they are very competitive.
In my eyes, the best thing to come out of Nascar.
mikomi @ Feb 27th 2008 3:31PM
So Ferrari is not happy strong-arming the F1 in their favour, now they want to get the IOC to be their lapdogs?
Seriously though, that's good marketing if/when Italians get on the podium, it helps promote their brand. This could open up new markets for Ferrari to tap, they could be the new Nike of sports or something.. or not. There are Ferrari branded laptops and coffee machines, I don't see why they couldn't tap into branded sports equipment/clothing.
NYChic @ Feb 27th 2008 3:38PM
They already lend their name to high end mountain bikes (made by Colnago), so it wouldn't be that far of a stretch.
Flea @ Feb 27th 2008 3:36PM
now THIS is a kind of marketing I can accept and like from Ferrari.
Ferrari flip-flops sure as hell don't have an ounce of F1 technology.
Aerodynamically tuned bobsleds and boats make a LOT more sense.
Steven @ Feb 27th 2008 4:25PM
All part of Ferrari's Master Plan:
1. FIA limits wind tunnel time for F1 cars
2. Ferrari invites Italian companies to use their tunnel for Olympics
3. It's an alibi: When they submit their reports to FIA on wind tunnel usage, they simply fudge the timestamps around to have more wind tunnel time.
Flea @ Feb 27th 2008 5:26PM
which would imply that all the Italian olympic teams collaborating with Ferrari would have to cover that up.
As an Italian, I should be rather offended, unless you are just trolling.
DonatoM3 @ Feb 27th 2008 5:54PM
Steven,
We're talking Ferrari here not McClaren.
As an Italian myself I'm glad to see this kind of collaboration.
Patrik K @ Feb 27th 2008 6:15PM
Ferrari is trying to learn about other sports so in order to improve both, user experience, and performance of their future cars.
Merritt Johnson @ Feb 27th 2008 7:43PM
The front runner of the Italian gymnastics team is named Vanessa Ferrari. She is also a former World Champion. I would love to see Ferrari use the marketing opportunity and have their engineers take on equipment development in that arena.