“A nice milestone for Additive Manufacturing powders and a family memory revolve around Ferrari super-sports cars.
In early March 1984, at the Geneva International Motor Show, Ferrari presented the limited edition 288 GTO. Instant cult.
I remember the conversation with my uncle Eugenio Alzati, back then Ferrari’s General Manager. See him on the far left in the Motor Show picture.
One key focus for him and the team was increasing manufacturing capacity, adding improvements in quality: Ferrari was seeing a booming demand in the early ’80s. Yet, he was convinced that few-off cars were essential to sustain the Brand Equity.
The Collectors’ market was growing along with the Drivers’ market, one could say.
In September that year, he drove with a collaborator the 288 GTO around the paddock at the Monza Grand Prix and was energetically stopped by fans who wouldn’t let the car slip away.
They touched it, they kissed it and posed for pictures.
After a few minutes of unrequested love-bombing he was ‘released’ and a loud applause accompanied the V8 as it was restarted.
Forty years after, the Press lists the newly launched Ferrari F80 as the latest heir of the 288 GTO. Three times the horse powers, if you include the electric motors’ contribute: this is how cool Progress can be.
Interestingly enough, Additive Manufacturing parts are used in the F80, VoxelMatters reports. Over the years, Motorsports and even Automotive Boutique Manufacturing have become an established application field for AM.
No illusions: Aerospace & Biomedicals are the AM arena. That’s where the equation works tremendously well. Motorsports has the potential to become relevant in volumes, no doubts.
Boutique cars typically hit the headlines and can drive attention to AM, although they are only a limited business, for now. Being part of a Ferrari super-sports car is probably the most prestigious milestone, in that sense and we should celebrate it as a success.
(Said that, if you want to stretch it into a conversation on ‘AM in Automotive mass production’, please, count me out)”.
Luigi Alzati
VP Sales and Marketing
P.S.
The case for AM, both LPBF and Binder Jet technologies, was proved by several other applications over the past few years, which we covered in previous posts of our blog:
- Czinger C21;
- Divergent parts for an Aston Martin’s special car;
- Cadillac Celestiq (at least some parts if not all are made by Azoth 3D),
#additivemanufacturing Ferrari #Aerospace #biomedical #motorsports #F80