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Ferrari's 1-off Emilia 599XX EVO
Hey guys! I wanted to share this story I found at a Mustang board that I constantly browse. There's a forum member by the name of "Treynor", he happens to be Benjamin Treynor, one of Google's VPs
The guy is a car fanatic and has all the money to satisfy his needs :)
Here is his actual post:
[QUOTE]Now that the unveiling has occurred, and pictures have hit the press, I am finally ready with the story of how we came to be the oh-so-proud-owners of Ferrari's 1-off Emilia 599XX EVO.
As many of you know, there was a terrible earthquake in Italy in May 12 in the Emilia region of Italy where Ferrari's factories and suppliers are located. In response, Ferrari created a charity auction for the victims in Emilia - and the centerpiece was a new 599XX EVO built specifically for the auction. At the time, I recall thinking that it looked like an amazing car, but that some billionaire or celebrity was probably going to end up winning the auction, and that was a shame because it was a car that enthusiasts (and particularly, Ferrari enthusiasts) like us would treasure.
Fast forward to June 19th. I get a phone call mid-day from James from Ferrari / San Francisco. James knew that Christine and I were thinking about buying an Enzo, and he spent about 30 minutes explaining what the XX auction meant to Ferrari, and also what the Corse Clienti program offered. I was... well, beyond excited. It was the sort of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to drive a Ferrari race car around some of the iconic tracks of the world, receive 1-on-1 instruction and telemetry analysis, and to help Ferrari provide relief to many of the same people who were part of the Ferrari ecosystem. I called Christine from work and laid it out for her, and her reaction was immediate: do it. I called James back, we assembled the paperwork, and submitted a bid on the auction's XX EVO.
We didn't sleep much that night. I seem to recall waking up several times and visiting the auction site, then watching XX track videos on YouTube until the sun rose and it was time to go to work again. I guesstimated our odds of winning at about 1:3 -- auction prices are very unpredictable and this was a truly special opportunity -- but I was beside myself with anticipation none the less.
The Ferrari auction site closed at 4pm local. At about 9:30am California I was starting to wonder who had won, since I hadn't heard anything, when I got an email from James. It was two sentences -- one congratulating us on winning, and one noting that he was so excited that it had taken him 10 minutes just to type the 30-word note. The rest of the day will forever be etched in my memory - the call with James and Greg at 10am, the conference call with Christine and Marco Mattiacci at noon, Mr. Mattiacci's delightful followup suggestion of a design theme for the XX, more details about the event... it would take pages to describe everything, and I remember it all like it was yesterday.
The presentation was scheduled for Sep 8th, at the F1 race at Monza. And today, here in Italy and nearly three months later, Montezemolo and Alonso and Massa presented us with our car. It was -- surreal, and amazing. The entire Ferrari family has been the most gracious hosts for our trip, and the car is everything we had hoped for - beautiful, aggressive, and set up so both Christine and I can drive it in the Corse Clienti series in 2013.
Enough talk. Pictures will tell the rest of this story![/QUOTE]
