Dear F-Register Community!
The Factory summer shutdown is drawing to a close; school is slowly calling students back, and the *dolce far niente* is once again giving way to hectic activity.
For us, August plays out a little differently. While it is—alongside the final weeks of the year—the quietest month for us too, that calm is dramatically interrupted during the second week when everyone gathers in Monterey. It has become a race among auction houses—fought out through their events—to secure the most lots, the most spectacular cars, and the highest prices. We rely on experts to explain the prices afterward, as we are often left scratching our heads. The fact that the "Luce" fetched such a high price has to do with American tax law—which explains many proceeds from charity auctions—and one can assume this price explosion saved the marketing department in Maranello from yet another disaster. It is striking just how many "plain vanilla" cars from the early 2000s commanded surprisingly high prices. We had already noticed in our work that the number of Modenas coming onto the market has risen noticeably in recent weeks.
In any case, this week in America keeps us on our toes. Preparation and follow-up take a lot of time, but we are the brand’s curators—who else would do it? So, we have to gather everything that documents provenance.
And otherwise? There isn't much news—production lines and databases stand still in August. We use this time for "housecleaning," trying to bring a uniform structure to our terminology and datasets; over the course of a year, things tend to drift and take on odd variations. Nothing is actually wrong, but we often have those moments of realization: "I did that differently back then," or "I really should have done that differently." So, out comes the digital broom to tidy up the data, so 19,921 entries have “changed”.
Now, however, we look forward to things hopefully returning to "normal" and to being able to report on more than just the latest Special Project come September. The CZ26, based on the SF90 Stradale XX, is of course already in the database—complete with its number and all the trimmings.
Right then: parasols folded up, convertible top closed, and the virtual filing cabinet opened back up.
We hope you had a great summer!
Your
F-Register team