The shiny grey painted floor is so clean you could eat off it. Except why would you, when nearby there is a five-star staff canteen -- designed to look like a space ship?
Welcome to the real Ferrari World: Not the theme park on the fringe of the Abu Dhabi desert but the factory nestled in the light industrial area of Maranello, and unlike any other car factory in the world.
From the outside, looking through the original gates of the company where Enzo Ferrari started his road car business in 1947, you could be forgiven for thinking that cars were still made here the old-fashioned way.
But what the shrub-lined security fences hide is a state-of-the-art facility of Germanic proportions that not only makes cars, but designs and engineers them all from the same site.
It also houses a Formula One team -- and a wind tunnel so secret you're not even allowed to photograph the outside of it. Even if there are three photos on the media website, including an aerial view...
To be truly accurate, Ferrari does still make some cars here the old-fashioned way, but only in a workshop designed specifically to restore classics to 100 per cent accuracy -- backed up by and checked against the original, yellowed paperwork for every car made since Ferrari opened for business.
Ferrari doesn't usually do factory tours unless you're an owner. Or, in our case, the media.
Ferrari also doesn't usually allow cameras on site, but it has granted an exception this visit. The last time I was here the 458 Spider was going down the production line. That was 18 months ago, when it was still a secret... The guides are less twitchy today. The 458 Spider is again going down the production line, except it is now there for the world to see.
There are two levels in the main assembly building (air-conditioned for worker and VIP comfort). The ground floor is for V8 cars -- the mid-engined 458 and the front-engined California. The top floor is reserved for the V12s -- the 599 and FF.
All are carried elegantly in giant yellow cradles between each station. It takes at least two days to get from start to finish. This year Ferrari will make just 7000 cars.
Just like a Japanese factory, each lot of parts arrives just in time, and has been parcelled for each particular vehicle. For cars that have so much character, it's all very orderly.
The atmosphere is not punctuated by the loud mayhem you might expect from an enthusiastic Italian workforce. Rather, the assembly area has an unusual serenity. It is eerily quiet but for the occasional zing of power tools used to fit components -- or the electronic beeps of the remote controlled sleds that move parts from station to station.
The engine machine shop is in another building altogether: on the north-east side of the complex. It too has a floor you might want to eat off but for the aforementioned staff canteen.
Unlike the car assembly line, the engine milling area is dotted with massive indoor trees. Clear panels in the roof let the daylight in -- to reduce electricity costs but also to make the environment feel more natural.
Here robots assemble key components with phenomenal precision -- and a level of accuracy and patience that humans could never match.
The air has a whiff of molten aluminium, which should be hardly surprising given that's what's being machined here.
What's most fascinating is that you never know what's likely to appear around the next corner. Everywhere throughout the Ferrari site there are collectible cars stashed in any spare spaces.
The engine machine shop has its own makeshift museum at the back of the building. The official line is that it reminds the crew making the engines -- the heart and soul of every Ferrari -- exactly where their handiwork ends up.
The unofficial line is that it is a safe storage area for the overflow of highly collectible and extremely rare cars that are taking a break from being on display in the museum, which is off-site, across the road and less than 1 kilometre away.
Wandering through Maranello's inner workings is a surreal experience. All buildings have been designed by world famous architects and the grounds are immaculate; it looks like you're walking through a film set of a science fiction movie.
The design studio building has a water feature on its rooftop and looks so perfect it's as if staring into a brochure.
The other element that challenges your grasp of reality is that literally everywhere you turn there are rows of Ferraris -- either waiting to be shipped or waiting to be built.
Then there is the convoy of brand new Ferraris that go out covered in white protective wrap on a 50km road test before being delivered to customers.
As a result, the air is always filled with the sound of Ferrari V8s and V12s, not revving wildly, just buzzing around at commuter pace. No wonder Ferrari makes its cars sound so good even at low revs -- they've got to listen to them all day.
It's just a shame the rest of the world doesn't get to enjoy the aural delights. This is a Disneyland for grown-ups that money can't buy. Unless, of course, you buy a Ferrari.
Ferrari 458 Spider
For the lucky few, one to live with every day
We know what you’re thinking. This is ‘just’ a Ferrari 458 Italia with a removable lid. That’s how I dismissed it as at first, but it’s so much more than that.
For starters, the 458 Spider has completely new metal from the door handles back – on and under the skin. It’s testament to the cleverness of the design that it looks so much like the coupe.
The easy way to pick it (when the roof is up) is the discreet split across the two-piece roof that enables it to tuck away so neatly (and in just 14 seconds).
The lack of air ducts just behind the side glass is the other giveaway, as is the small rear window. The ducts are now at the rear of the engine cover, hidden below mesh under the wide ‘plank’ that links the tail-lights.
The roof itself is a work of art, both in design and engineering terms. It took seven years to perfect with help from Webasto, a German company that specialises in supplying folding roof expertise to the biggest names in the automotive world.
The windscreen is the same as that fitted to the coupe, but it has been tilted back ever so slightly to give the Spider a lower roofline.
Then there are the changes to the chassis and its electronically controlled systems that give the 458 Spider faster reflexes than the four Spider models that preceded it... And then there’s the sound, which you can now hear more clearly even with the roof up because the back window goes down.
Ferrari won’t say so openly, but it has wisely redesigned the 458 Spider intake and exhaust systems to create a deeper, more purposeful sound than the 458 Italia, which was considered by some as sounding too nasally.
Unlike the 458 Italia coupe – 70 per cent of which are driven only on weekends, and 20 per cent of those on track days – the 458 Spider is a daily driver. More than half will be driven during the week, the company says... Which is why the suspension is slightly more supple, yet gives nothing away in agility and handling.
As with previous Spider models, the 458 drop top comes about 18 months after the 458 coupe. It’s worth the wait but, if you want one, you may have to wait another 18 months.
For the moment the 458 Spider is the car money can’t buy. It is sold out globally for 12 months. In Australia, although the first cars will arrive next June, if you order one today you’ll see it at the start of 2013.
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