Waking to cloudy skies on a Sunday morning isn’t exactly a mood booster if it wasn’t for the 35th Ferrari Tour.
At least the weather forecast for the day looked promising - on the phone - relying on the information displayed on your device was however not such good idea. More on this later...
After a warm welcome and delicious breakfast at Francorchamps Motors, a Ferrari dealership in Luxembourg, the arrival of the participants was attended.
Ferrari, one by one started to roll up filling the parking lots and streets around the dealership. Noticeable that predominantly cars of the late 2000s up until the current Ferrari Portofino took part in this year’s tour. 599, 360, 458, 488 you name them. There was however a small section of classics among the ‘more modern metal’ given that the manufacturer recently celebrated its 70 year existence. With my personal highlight beeing the marvelous grand tourer 412 and the two boxy Testarossas.
After the briefing everyone set off to roam the streets according to the road-book. From Luxembourg’s ‘Valley of the 7 Castles’ the routing continued in direction of the Luxembourgish Ardennes and later into Germany. In total 5 castles were to be admired along the way until the lunch stop.
The start went off dry. As the cars reached the Ardennes the rainfall started to set in. Little later we were soaked yet worthwhile as the pictures turned out spectacular. Fortunately the sky cleared up shortly after and the tour went by dry for the rest of the day.
After an extended lunch break at castle Niederweis due to a sport event happening in Echternach the convoy continued their drive to the Mullerthal and later the Moselle region.
From the Moselle the cars headed direction Luxembourg City to eventually end the rallye in Leudelange.
Car after car turned up to the carpark where everyone was greeted once more with tasty food and drinks. Later prizes were handed out to the winners of the rallye.
Nothing summs up the spirit of tours and rallies like these better than the words of Mr. Enzo Ferrari himself:
Il fatto è che non guido solo per andare da A a B. Mi piace sentire le reazioni della macchina, farne parte - Enzo Ferrari
"The fact is I don't drive just to get from A to B. I enjoy feeling the car's reactions, becoming part of it"
Photography by Charel Barnich | Tom Barnich
Written by Tom Barnich
