Since my return of my last trip with the 400 to Italy via https://www.italyherewe.com/#Welkom
I had not much time to write up a little blog on how it went. By now everyone send their photo's to the organizers, so I expect soon they will come up with a nice Youtube compilation video. I see they have already updated the website with some new photo's.
In any case, one part of the trip was a visit to the Schedoni factory. Since it became such a great visit I want to dedicate a special blog about it. I will write up a small summary about the rest, more specifically about the 400, when the compilation video comes out.
I was already approached by the organizers beforehand so I knew this visit was organized as I provided them the contact details. This was already months ago. So by the time we got closer I was almost to late to reach out to the author of the book: "Ferrari by Schedoni". This would be a great opportunity to meet up with him and get a signed copy in person. I had been in contact with him in the past regarding the 400 and the suitcases.
So I left him a message via messenger just a few days beforehand. He informed me he was quite occupied that week and could not guarantuee his availability. Unfortunately my messenger somehow stopped working on my smartphone (despite removing/installling again). So I told him to reach me via whatsapp (somehow I made a typo in the telephone number, so he never could update me on the situation - sigh).
When we arrived later that week at Schedoni we were very enthusiastic welcomed by Simone Schedoni, the current owner and 4th generation. Unfortunately his father passed away last year. Fortunately all his fathers stories were captured in the book. The author of the book, Alberto Mantovani was however not present when we arrived. Bummer.
We could nicely park in front of the building, my 400 was next to the entrance. Hereby a photo in combination with Simone Schedoni himself.
He closely inspected the car and since the window was open I saw him touching the leather seats.
When everyone was present we got a tour in the factory:
When the tour was nearly finished to my great surprise Alberto showed up. Not did he brought the books with him, he also had a complete set of suitcases for the 400 with him. How's that!
What a pleasant surprise. He provided us with a small lecture about these suitcases. Someone told me afterwards it was incredible to hear a 20 min story about this specific set only. hehe.
And some supporting photo's:
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It's unknown how many of these suitcases for the 400i were build (yes, this set started in 1980, so these were not made for the 400 carburettor). It is estimated in the range of min 2 to max 15 sets. So they are quite rare to say the least, let alone if you can find one set complete. Schedoni is not allowed to reproduce them either as it's propriety of Ferrari.
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One more thing I learned in the book is about Nino Todaro who was a famous Sicilian race driver (ie Targa Florio) and he owned a 400i and had this specific luggage set.
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And of course I had to post this group photo in the Ferrari 400 Facebook group. And another surprise, it appeared Simone Schedoni was in this group too as he responded to it. I had no idea he was a member of our group.
As said, this book is available in English. I guess the best way to order one is via this website:
https://www.gilena.it/en/book/ferrari-by-schedoni-a-long-ride-on-the-prancing-horse
Or if you want to contact the author directly, you can do so via his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ferraribyschedoni/
Update 7-7-2022: Now available as Ebook (English) as well:
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