Ferrari: Under the Skin

In a year filled with celebrations for Ferrari's 70th, one could easily be fooled into thinking the latest exhibition the Design Museum; Ferrari: Under the skin, would be just like any other. It does however, stand apart. From the moment you enter the cavernous quadruple height atrium in Kensington, the Fisons Daytona Competizione takes centre stage.

The exhibition starts off with a fascinating look into Enzo's personal items; everything from watches to Enzo's driving licence. A selection of rarely seen period photographs and original engineering drawings and line the walls too.

It serves up a much greater level of insight into Ferrari's heritage. Each of the 6 or so rooms offers up an incredible selection of cars, bucks and everything in between. A full size half-painted clay model of the recently released J50; a special with a run of just 10 cars celebrating 50 years of Ferrari in Japan sits in the first room. The J50 is flanked by a 250 LM shell suspended in the air, a wire-framed 250GTO below and surrounded by 1:8 scale wind tunnel models and full size engines.

Especially of interest on the front of the car are some lesser seen oddities. There are a couple of Gianni Agnelli's personal cars, the only real Testarossa Spyder and his two-tone, blue and green 166MM.

Sitting with these two is the first 250 PF cabriolet prototype. A very special car sporting an almost-black, dark green livery and featuring several distinct design changes to the later cars, most noticeably its dropped driver's side door and the windscreen supported only by pillars either side (0655GT). It sits opposite a debuting 275 4 cam fresh out of restoration by DK Engineering.

Towards the end of the exhibition, the cars step up again. A 250SWB sits behind a 250 GT Sperimentale, ahead of both, a green 250GTO. Continuing on the race theme, helmets from every era and a Schumacher race suit sit proudly opposite the cars. The exit scene is taken care of with a white Laferrari Aperta.