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Monday, March 24, 2008
An Ode To Two Ladies
As I mentioned last week, if you want to rent a Ferrari or rent a Maserati in Las Vegas, and particularly if you’re interested in a unique and exclusive shade of green, Eminence Luxury Services is the place to go. Except at the moment it’s not, because currently we don’t actually have either of those selections available for rent. That’s a shame, because they’re both phenomenal vehicles with an whole lot in common.
For many years, beginning in the 1930s and reaching a peak in the 1950s, Ferrari and Maserati were bitter rivals. Both based in the same area of Italy, and both fanatical about performance, the two companies--and their forceful founding namesakes--battled each other for racing supremacy. In 1969 Enzo Ferrari sold the company’s car division to Fiat, and nearly 25 years later Fiat also acquired control of Maserati.
Five years later, in a transaction that surely makes sense to my sister and other MBAs but which completely eludes me, Fiat sold 50% of Maserati to Ferrari (although the latter was already owned by Fiat). Two years after that, in 1999, Ferrari took full control of Maserati and began work on building it into the Ferrari “luxury” division. I personally have a hard time picturing this--my mind creates images of Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, and Nissan/Infinity, into which Ferrari doesn’t fit well as the “down market” nameplate--but that is probably why I’m at best qualified to own a fleet of Ferraris and not Ferrari itself.
The transfer of control over Maserati to Ferrari turned out to be extremely advantageous to both the company and to those of us who like cars, as Maserati soon experienced something of a development renaissance. The two companies shared engineering and manufacturing resources, and Maserati made excellent use of the technology they borrowed from Ferrari.
In addition to several Ferraris, we currently have two Maseratis in our fleet, the Quattroporte and the Spyder. Both are fantastic cars, but I think the Maserati Spyder may be the most underrated vehicle we own. It has a modified version of the 400hp V8 developed for the Ferrari 360, and a F1-style (sequential manual) transmission also derived from Ferrari. Because of these similarities I think of the two cars as “sisters”, and it saddens me that the Maserati doesn’t get much respect.
I think perhaps the photographs on the website don’t do the Maserati justice; they make her look a bit bland and boring, although when driving around town she gets almost as many stares and compliments as some of our more exotic offerings. She’s a lot of fun to drive--definitely less intimidating than her “big sister” the 360--and you really can’t beat the value: 90% of the performance and attitude of a Ferrari for 25% of the daily rental rate!
Unfortunately not everyone appreciates what a phenomenal value the Maserati Spyder is, so we recently considered selling her in order to buy something more popular. Last week she was sitting on the auction block in California, but was further insulted by not selling. As I write this she’s headed back home to Las Vegas, and I’ve decided that rather than abandon her I’m going to make sure everyone knows what a special, beautiful lady she is.
Ironically her big sister--the Ferrari 360 Spider--is also not with us at the moment. Her more demanding engine was apparently not happy with the dry Las Vegas climate, and decided to express its displeasure by shredding various important hoses. This lead to all sorts of complications (which in this case can be read as “expensive repairs”). Our good buddy Rich over at Penske-Wynn Ferrari has done an incredible job nursing her back to health, and he tells me she’ll be returning home shortly.
To celebrate the impending return of these two beautiful, energetic, wonderful ladies, I’ve decided that they--along with their cousin, the Maserati Quattroporte--will be our featured specials for April. Amazingly the Eminence family has two other beautiful, energetic, wonderful ladies who are also sisters. Moreover, they actually run most of our day-to-day operations around here, and there’s a good chance that if you call to rent a Maserati, a Ferrari, or any of our other fantastic vehicles one of them will be taking your reservation. Please do me a favor and don’t ask which Kensinger sister is the Maserati and which is the Ferrari…!
Posted by EminenceLuxury at 10:11 PM
