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LaFerraris, Enzos and $414,000 Watches: Inside Ferrari’s California Stampede

Sonoma County is California cow country. When you see herds in mass movement, typically it’s your average bovines. But on a recent sunny day, the stampede was decidedly human, young and old, rich and poor, all making for the grandstands at Sonoma Raceway just north of San Francisco.

The occasion was trumpeted by the track announcer with “Let’s get ready to rumble” drama: “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re about to see Ferrari’s newest marvel, the LaFerrari, racing on a North American track for the very first time.”

Cue the galloping hordes.

And suddenly there they were, one black, two yellow and one ruby red, $6 million of Italian sheetmetal and F1 hybrid-engine tech snarling down the straightaway before disappearing into turn one, a hard left uphill off-camber dance before hard braking delivers turn two.

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Pulling up the rear were two Ferrari Enzos, predecessors in supercardom to the LaFerrari by about a decade, making more noise, delivering less horsepower but still undeniably commanding. The market agrees, with Enzo prices now hovering around $3 million.

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So let’s see, that’s six cars on the track with a total value of about $12 million. At these prices, there was no wheel to wheel action. But the crowd assembled for this annual rite of spring – otherwise known as the Ferrari Challenge racing series – didn’t mind. The weekend was all about basking in the reflected glory of Maranello’s finest, whether you were someone who hopped off a yacht to attend or were just a fan of Italy’s Rosso Corsa brigade.

“It’s just a great day to be out talking about Ferraris,” says Ben Sloss with extreme understatement.

Sloss, whose job at Google boils down to making sure the search giant never crashes, is a rabid Ferrarista, whose first Ferrari was a used F355 that he purchased for his father. That was years ago.

Today, Sloss and his equally fanatical racer wife Christine (pictured in the top image) own a half-dozen Ferraris, many of them special models and almost all of them painted in the same color scheme, yellow and blue – the colors of Modena, the city just outside of Maranello where Ferraris have always been made.

Sloss has driven to the raceway in a race-ready 458 Italia Speciale, while Christine has piloted her regular ride – a yellow with blue-carbon-fiber LaFerrari bearing the custom plate “RACE WFE.” She routinely drives the monster around the couple’s Silicon Valley hometown, but this is her first time on the track with Ferrari’s newest pin-up.

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One of the LaFerraris takes a breather on pit road

“It’s just so comfortable out there, where it belongs,” she says. “The only thing it was missing was (racing) slicks. Then you could really see what it could do. We can’t wait for the next one.”

Um, the next what?

LaFerrari is the company’s apex of engineering, boasting 950 hp from a combination of angry V-12 and Hybrid-KERS electric motors. So this is it.

But it isn’t.

The couple is waiting for their FXX K, a race-only version of the LaFerrari that, in keeping with past race-only iterations of fast production cars (such as the 599 FXX, which also hunkers down in the Sloss family garage), will be made available only to elite Ferrari clients. FXX Ks will be flown by the company from track to track where owners will enjoy full race support in exhibition drives around the world. This unholy machine will pump out more than 1,000 hp and please don’t bother asking the price.

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Ferrari has always been about exclusivity, dating back to the ‘50s when it began selling road cars to captains of industry and celebrities in order to finance founder Enzo Ferrari’s racing dreams. These days new winds are blowing through corporate headquarters, with the sudden departure last year of longtime boss Luca di Montezemolo and the elevation of Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of the Fiat Chrysler Group who recently netted $72 million for his business acumen in 2014.

Some worry that he’ll take Ferrari downmarket as the company prepares to spin off from Fiat with an initial public stock offering expected later this year. But that’s not likely. The brand still oozes exclusivity, if only judged from events like this one.

Huge heated tents sprawled across the raceway parking lot. Inside waiters served up restaurant-worthy fare while baristas fueled VIP visitors and drivers alike with espresso. Two vendors conveyed just what sort of financial success you typically have had before entering the world of Ferrari ownership. One was a small display by watchmaker Hublot that focused on an almost reptilian watch that sat in a glass case beside red driving gloves. Inspired by and named after the LaFerrari, this watch boasts a world first – a 50-day power reserve. If you want one, hurry, as there are only 20 of this gold version in existence. Oh, and bring along $414,000.

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“We have clients who collect both Ferraris and the watches we make,” says West Coast sales director Peggy Jagerman. “One gentleman wanted the same production number watch as his Ferrari, so we made it happen.”

A few feet away sat Mark Benson of Amalgam, British artisans that make exceedingly realistic model cars that can cost as much as a nice used large-scale automobile. “The idea is you have the real one in your garage, and the model at the office,” says Benson, noting that the company’s 250 GTO models can fetch as much as $10,000.

Benson reports that the key in his business is sealing deals at events like this on the spot. “If you don’t, people in this world are just on to the next thing, sometimes quite literally on the other side of the world days later,” he says. “So you have to pounce.”

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One memory still makes him laugh. A collector agreed to buy six models from Benson, but drove a hard bargain. “He got a discount, and was happy, and then when I asked where he’d like them shipped he just said he’d send his private jet to get them,” says Benson with an incredulous smile.

But outside this rare-air bubble, a small and more modest Ferrari world was in bloom, from a pop-up store selling jackets and hats to a kid-zone where future Ferraristi could thrash around remote control cars.

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Owners of Ferraris new and old had parked their cars in a corral, mid-‘70s 308 GTBs sitting next to 550 Maranellos, 348s rubbing shoulders with F430s. While many were for show, some bold owners had hastily applied clear tape to body parts just aft of wheels to protect against thrown rocks while circling Sonoma’s track during the obligatory parade.

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Overall, you got the sense that, for the most part, those who were fortunate enough to be able to afford a Ferrari enjoyed the camaraderie not only of peers but also of those who’ll never be able to afford one. After all, for any of these folks, it all started with an automotive dream. Some realized theirs, but they understand the look in the eyes of those still dreaming.

And frankly, in those metal grandstands everyone was a dreamer. Because it’s one thing to be able to afford an $85,000 2003 Ferrari 360 Modena, and it’s another still to be lapping Sonoma Raceway in a buck-four LaFerrari. Here, it’s not so much about owning the toy, it’s about the feeling, la passione. And so when those four prancing horsemen of the automotive apocalypse stormed down the straight in unison, everyone was a child once more.