News August 24 2006

Ferraris set to drive 32,000 km across the Americas

It must be tour season – Ferrari are just about to set off on a mammoth hike through the Americas.

Ferrari will start its biggest ever challenge today (Thursday 24 August 2006) when two Ferrari 599 GTB Fioranos set off on a 32,000 km trek from the Amazonian jungles of Brazil, through the heights of Andes mountain range, across the deserts of Mexico, battle the traffic on the US interstate freeways and finish with a dash through the urban jungle that is New York.

Ferrari is also using the event to promote Italy, Italian food and culture, Italian business and the contribution that Italian communities make in each of the countries through which the event will pass - the cars will visit embassies in the 16 countries visited and meet members of the Italian community and the local media.

From Brazil, the convoy will travel through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico. The expedition will then move on to visit several US states until it reaches Canada, before concluding in New York on 17 November.

The Panamerican 20,000 will also play a role in highlighting ‘Made in Italy’ and Ferrari’s international partnerships. In Brazil it will be at the heart of Fiat Auto’s local activities, with Fiat Automòveis is celebrating a 30 year presence in the country and nine million cars produced, and the start line ceremony will be held at Fiat’s plant in Betim, close to Belo Horizonte, which will be attended by 4,000 staff.

An event dedicated to Iveco will follow, as Iveco is providing three back-up and spare parts vehicles, two Daily vehicles and a City Class minibus. Iveco is developing a big presence in Brazil with a range that is continually evolving.

Equally important is the role played by the other Italian partners: Pirelli which will provide three kinds of tyres suitable for all environmental conditions including a new tyre developed especially for Ferrari; Saima Avandero, co-ordinator of the expedition which will ensure the complex customs procedures on a voyage that will cross 17 borders; and, to conclude, Buonitalia which will promote Italian culinary excellence to the world.

Shell is also behind the 599 GTB Fioranos in a very visible demonstration of the close technical partnership between Shell and Ferrari. Shell is providing a suite of Shell V-Power performance fuel and Shell Helix and Q lubricant products for the Ferraris and a dedicated Shell technical support team will accompany the cars from the start in Brazil to the finish in New York.

The 32,000 km journey will include a number of events related to partnership activities. Two of these will take place during the United States section where visits will be paid to an Alcoa aluminium smelter in Texas and a forging plant in Ohio. Alcoa produces the spaceframes for the 599 GTB Fiorano. Additional visits will be made to the Iveco factory in Sete Lagoas; and to Case IH (which produces the Fiat Group’s agricultural machinery) factories in Curitiba (Brazil), in Racine and New Holland (USA).

The expedition will also have a tourism-commercial aspect thanks to t-shirts specially designed by Puma. Puma is a sponsor of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Ferrari licensee and will provide the team’s outfit for the Panamerican 20,000. This will be dedicated to each of the countries visited and through a symbol that will be echoed on the bodies of the two Ferraris as the tour progresses. The first symbol will be the Christ of Corcovado in Brasil finishing with the Statue of Liberty in the USA going through the pyramids, the Maya and the Inca icons and the Canadian Maple leaf.

While the tour is in South and Central America, the support vehicles will be Fiats produced in Brazil, but once the convoy reaches San Diego in the USA, they will be substituted by Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagons.

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The route

Main stages

The Panamerican 20,000 route is divided into 15 stages corresponding to the changeover points for the various teams of journalists taking part.

The Tour gets underway on 24 August from Belo Horizonte and six days later the cars will make their way into Foz do Iguazu 2,000 km away. From there they head west to Argentina and onto San Pedro de Atacama in Chile which they will reach after five days and 1,800 km of driving through pampas and the first of the salt plains. This is where the toughest part of the tour begins and will see the cars climb to altitudes of more than 4,000 metres in the Andes.

They will head north setting a course for La Paz in Bolivia which they reach on 7 September after four more days on the road and having added another 1,100 km to their mileage as they zoom down the dirt roads through the salt plains. After 1,700 km and 6 more days the cars will drive into Lima where they will encounter the vestiges of the ancient Inca civilisation. The next four stages to Mexico will take them through spectacular landscapes en route to Quito, Pasto, Cartagena, Panama, Managua on an 8,000 km, 18-day dash.

The two Mexican stages, which start from Palenque on 13 October, traverse the lands of the Aztecs and the Mayans as well as Baja California. It will take 10 days to cover this 4,500 km distance.

From Las Vegas, the Tour turns east, calling at Houston and also making its way through Monument Valley and Dallas, before arriving into Miami on 3 November. This 6,000 km stretch will take 9 days to complete.

At this point, the Tour will move north to Washington before arriving into New York on 17 November having first called at Chicago and Toronto. A 5,000 km dash that will take 11 days in all.