Ferrari's facelifters

Ferrari Classice restores, services and certifies vintage models. Photo / Supplied

Found A Ferrari in grandpa's shed? You'll want it certified and restored. New Zealand has a specially authorised satellite that can certify your car, but the experts live and work in Maranello, inside the factory walls.

Opened in 2006, Ferrari Classice - pronounced Classiche - restores, services and certifies all GT cars over 20 years old and any Ferrari racing car, and sitting on its pristine tile floors is a group of vehicles that'd make any car nut's mouth water. Some are the owner's first; one belongs to a man with 35 of them.

Before the workshop produces an estimate, it writes down every piece it will have to produce. Every part is made using original methods and materials where possible, and then stamped with the Classice logo to ensure it's instantly identifiable as a modern replacement.

For one low-slung torpedo built especially to race at Indianapolis in 1954, that means using the original paint procedure, with 13 layers including three or four base coats.

The attention to detail here is extraordinary. A 1954 Monza sent from Mexico was found to include pop rivets. They didn't exist in the 50s and have all been replaced.

Most cars that come to Classice are sufficiently original to merit the full treatment; of 1700 certification requests, only 400 have been turned away.

You'd expect this to be a workshop full of old codgers, but Ferrari's reverence for its history is underlined by the fact it sits beside head office; that today's designers come to look at the older cars when seeking solutions to modern problems.

As for me, I'm ushered to the record stacks to peruse the original bill sheets for every car produced from 1947 to 1980, including blueprints signed off by Enzo Ferrari. Few outsiders wander these shelves, and no wonder - just one set of sticky fingers could spell resto disaster.