Luca di Montezemolo leans back in his chair, waits for the banshee scream to subside from Ferrari's latest Formula One car testing on the adjacent Fiorano track, then smiles with the patrician air that is the forte of aristocratic Italian executives. "You've got to have your little surprises." John Griffiths reports.
The "little surprises", about a dozen of them, are parked a few yards away. Most are in the traditional Ferrari colours of brilliant red or yellow. Both are best viewed through sunglasses.
Oddly, however, they also sport white bonnet stripes, of a type more often seen on Minis and hotted-up Ford Fiestas.
They are 360 Modenas, Ferrari's mainstream €145,000 sports two-seater - but special Challenge Stradale versions cost €40,000 extra.
Mr di Montezemolo regards them as an additional string to Ferrari's commercial bow, by reaching into the company's past to boost future revenues.
"This is a very good option for our clients," he says. "If you want a car for racing, or extreme performance, you can have this car. The Stradale is something I've had in mind since 1993, when I started the Ferrari 348 Challenge race series."
The Stradale embodies a concept that was once second nature to Ferrari but that over the past several decades has withered. That is the building of special lightweight, even higher-performance versions of its "standard" cars for those who want to race them, or indulge in "track day" driving, safe from the perils of speed cameras.
Mr di Montezemolo hopes Ferrari will find 900 customers a year for the Stradale, lifting total output of 360s to about 3,000, or almost 75 per cent of Ferrari's typical annual output.
The extra €40m revenues they would generate compared with the same number of "standard" cars would be greatly welcomed by what is possibly Italy's most famous company.
The Prancing Horse is struggling to remain profitable as it contends with the costs of re-establishing another proud old Italian luxury sporting car maker, Maserati. Ferrari was given control of Maserati several years ago, following its purchase by Fiat - at the time Ferrari's majority shareholder - to save it from almost certain collapse.
Partly as a result - but also because of bonus payments totalling €21m to Mr di Montezemolo and Formula One team boss Jean Todt - Ferrari's group pre-tax profit last year slumped to €41.7m from €72.3m, despite a 14 per cent rise in turnover.
The business of making and selling Ferraris - mostly to the mega-rich, who are relatively indifferent to economic cycles - remains fairly resistant to the current new car market downturns in North America and Europe. The Maranello factory near Bologna will produce close to 4,000 cars this year, as usual.
But, with economic uncertainties still widespread, the company is having a tougher time with Maserati, whose €90,000-€100,000 price range puts it head-on against stiff competition from brands such as Porsche and Jaguar.
In one sense, Ferrari itself has been adjusting to 21st-century realities. Its cars' reputation for frailty and impracticality is being buried - reflected in the average Ferrari now covering 9,000 kilometres a year, double the distance of a decade ago. "I don't like Ferraris just sitting in a garage or being driven only on Sunday mornings," says Mr di Montezemolo. "Now we have greater practicality, but without undermining the Ferrari passion."
The car, which can be ordered with weight-saving sliding plastic windows, is 110 kilogrammes lighter than the standard version and makes extensive use of titanium and carbon fibre. Its 425 brake horsepower is 25 hp more than standard. With Formula One-style paddle gear change, it reaches 100 kph in 4 seconds and tops out at nearly 190mph.
But so does the much more practical 911 Turbo, a car which Porsche boasts is perfectly at home doing the daily shopping.
Much of the difference, Ferrari's engineers acknowledge, lies in the emotive notes from the engine - "Pavarotti on four wheels", observed one motoring journalist, as a convoy of Stradales threaded through the hills above Modena.
- Financial Times