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Monday 1 August 2016

Ferrari collector "not qualified" to buy a LaFerrari Spider

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is in my experience an oddly unsettling place. The display of ostentatious wealth and conspicuous consumption can be very uncomfortable. For the avoidance of doubt I refer neither to the Pillars Hotel nor to its owner. Perhaps when the International Boat Show is in town it is particularly pronounced. It's an odd place to find the largest flea market in the world, which doubles as a 14-screen drive in "theater" or, as we might say, cinema. A combined flea market and flea-pit? I don't suppose the latter description fits very well.

Oh, and it also houses a car collection. The founder of the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop is Preston Henn, a sometime Ferrari racing driver and an avid collector of the marque. When Ferrari announced the launch of the LaFerrari Spider, he wanted one to go with the fixed-head example he already owned. He asked his dealer to order one, and when the dealer couldn't because the importer denied the request Mr Henn sent a cheque direct to Sergio Marchionne (which was returned to him). So he sued.

Mr Henn's claim (which can be found at http://autoweek.com/sites/default/files/Complaint%20-%20Ferrari%207.29.16.pdf) is for defamation. The refusal to supply him has harmed his reputation in "the universe of Ferrari aficionados" (there, I told you Fort Lauderdale could feel unsettling - it's in a different universe!). Why Ferrari considered that he lacked some qualification to own a LaFerrari Spider does not seem to have been made public (perhaps because he already had a LaFerrari?).

A better demonstration of the Streisand Effect is hard to imagine.

'via Blog this'

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