Cover story: Affairs to remember -- Local Ferrari owners talk about their cars Cover story: Affairs to remember -- Local Ferrari owners talk about their cars (May 18, 2005)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Imagine going out to your driveway in the morning, seating yourself in your means of transport, turning the ignition key and having growl into life a vehicle with between 400 and 500 horsepower, brakes that can stop on a dime, and a suspension that radically transforms your ability to go around corners.

Add a richly appointed interior redolent of a deep racing heritage and a ground-hugging, lovely-to-behold exterior with air scoops in the right places, all the result of years of refinement in an Italian design studio.

Would you go to work? Wouldn't it be slightly more interesting to just take the day off and go looking for an open road?

When Matt Ahangi of Menlo Park, David Wilson of Woodside and Art Zafiropoulo of Atherton head to the office, they tend to drive more ordinary vehicles and leave their Ferraris in the garage. Driving such a car is an experience to be savored, they say, not spent mixing it up with commuters or inviting a fender bender in a grocery store parking lot.

"I use the Ferrari for enjoyment," says Ahangi, who is 45 and a marketing consultant. "It's passion. It's what the marque stands for. ... Ferrari is probably one of the only cars you can drive from the showroom floor right to the track."

He owns an orange 2001 395-horsepower 189-mph 360 Modena that cost him $158,000 plus taxes. "I don't drive it from point A to point B," he says, when asked about everyday use. His commuting vehicles are a Porsche and a Chevy Suburban.

Wilson, 60, is president of a Belmont-based precision machine shop. Sometimes he commutes in his red 2000 480-horsepower, 200-mph 550 Maranello -- when he's got business in Los Angeles, for example. Otherwise, he drives a 740 BMW. He also owns a green 1995 Ferrari convertible.

"It's a fabulous piece of equipment," he says of the $200,000 Maranello. "You can take it to the track and drive it hard and the next morning, it's just as fresh as it was the day before. ... The Ferrari just goes beyond any normal car. A car that's engineered for hard braking and acceleration is such a pleasure to drive. Needless to say, it's also safer because of its inherent maneuverability."

Zafiropoulo, co-owner of Ferrari of Silicon Valley -- a new dealership in Redwood City -- and the CEO of San Jose-based Ultratech, says he owns maybe 20 Ferraris. He doesn't drive any of them to work in San Jose.

"With (business) cycles, if you have reductions in force and you drive to work in a Ferrari, it gives the impression you care more about your car than you do about your work force," he says. "I care a great deal about my people."

Serious fun

"Sir, Ferraris are meant to be driven." That remark has been made at least a hundred times by Ed Gilbertson, a judge in a Concours d'Elegance -- a beauty contest for elegant vehicles -- in response to owners of fine cars who worry about stone-induced paint chips.

"(Car owners) get so afraid of chips that they're afraid to drive them," said Mr. Gilbertson in a telephone interview. "I think that's bizarre. ... If you don't drive them, they don't like it."

With an Almanac reporter along for the ride, David Wilson recalled Mr. Gilbertson's now famous comment as he turned the Maranello around on Skyline Boulevard for another run past a photographer waiting at a curve. "If you're not driving your car, you're not getting your money's worth," says Wilson.

Easy to say. Like most cars with a manual gearbox, a Ferrari has three pedals -- gas, brake and clutch -- but harmonizing them to generate forward motion at the necessary speed takes practice, says Wilson. Indeed.

For starters, you need to know how to double clutch -- clutching once to get the car out of gear and again to upshift or downshift while using your other foot to ensure the correct engine speed. The speed of the vehicle is another concern. That's where the racing enthusiast employs the heel-and-toe method to control both the brake and gas pedals with the right foot.

"It's a technique that takes a long time to develop," Wilson says with a veteran's understatement. He instructs Ferrari owners on fast driving techniques and has raced since high school.

Racing also requires presence of mind and track smarts -- knowing where to brake and where to put your foot down, finding the preferred line through each turn with competing cars nearby and at speeds reaching 135 mph. Sometimes, the car is airborne in the middle of a gear shift, says Wilson.

"It helps if you're a person who likes to focus," he says. "You're not thinking about anything else. There's no daydreaming."

Zafiropoulo says he takes a break from his high-tech CEO duties about three times a year to go to the track and exercise his cars with other Ferrari owners in what he calls gentlemen's races.

"It's not a game of winning," he says. "It's a game of enjoying each others' property. It's a form of golf for me. I do have a strong passion for the vehicle."

Braking and accelerating on the track is a rhythm, says Ahangi, who has attended racing school and races regularly at Infineon, Laguna Seca and Thunderhill tracks in Northern California. Things happen very fast out there, he says, but because air passing over the car pushes it down rather than lifting it, it can feel safe even at high speeds, he says.

"Doing 145 mph in a 360 Modena is very easy," Ahangi says.

Prices of ownership

You can take a 2005 540-horsepower 612 Scaglietti Ferrari off the showroom floor for about $250,000, says Zafiropoulo. Used Ferraris are less, sometimes much less, but classics can be expensive, and there are other niggling but routine debits to one's bank account.

A typical 5,000-mile service on a new Modena is $1,400, with an $8,000 service recommended every three years or 30,000 miles, according to a price list at the Beverly Hills Ferrari dealership.

An oil change is $750, says Matt Ahangi. He races his Modena, which means changing the oil before and after a race. Brake fluid, too, ages quickly under racing stresses, and a separate set of tires for the track is a good idea.

"It's a small investment to make in your own well being and the safety and well being of others," says Wilson.

At Ferrari of Silicon Valley, Art Zafiropoulo queried his staff and was told that an oil change is about $400. "If you have to be concerned about costs or maintenance, you shouldn't own the car," he says.

Gas mileage is variable. At nearly $3 a gallon for high-octane fuel and with a 25-gallon tank and an eight-cylinder engine, Ahangi says a round trip from Menlo Park to Monterey -- 170 miles -- will empty his tank. That's less than seven miles per gallon.

Wilson, with 90 more horsepower in his 12-cylinder power plant, gets 18 mpg on the highway, he says. This from a car that tops out at 200 mph.

Ahangi says he likes to push his car when he gets a chance, whereas Wilson and Zafiropoulo say they wait until they get to the track.

Filling up the tank these days can be depressing, but for a Ferrari owner, it's usually a social occasion. "When you park it anywhere, it draws a crowd," says Wilson. "It's kind of fun that way.

He willingly takes photos of strangers who request to sit in his driver's seat.

Attention from the California Highway Patrol is of a different kind and Matt Ahangi, by his account, is no stranger to it, but he says he gets an occasional thumbs up when passing a CHP officer parked on the side of the freeway.

Zafiropoulo says he's never received a speeding ticket. When getting gas or showing his cars, he says he enjoys fielding questions, particularly from children. "I really share a lot more time with them," he says. "I know, growing up, how I loved cars and no one spent any time with me."

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