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Best of 2015

Look inside Ferrari’s top secret shed

Can there be a better lair of unseen supercars than this? See Ferrari's secret HQ

  • There are degrees to Ferrari ownership. Anyone can go in on the ground floor and come out with an official branded baseball cap. Go up to tier one, and anyone, cashflow permitting, is eligible to buy a 458 Italia or an F12 Berlinetta. It's only then that exclusivity kicks in. You had to be invited to buy a LaFerrari, but there were 499 of them. Common as muck.

    Welcome, then, to the realm beyond: Corse Clienti. Your very own Ferrari F1 car. Complete with all the associated heritage, provenance and sonic shock value, perhaps even with a world championship to its name. So far, Ferrari has allowed its most valued customers to take ownership of more than 50 of its cars, all post-1970, and allowed them to live out their Villeneuve/Berger/Schumacher (delete as appropriate) fantasies at racetracks all over the world.

    And it's not only F1 cars. Remember the Enzo-based 850bhp FXX and the later Evoluzione version? Ferrari built 32 of them (plus one more for a certain Michael Schumacher) and, a few years later, "around 35" of the 599XX. They're part of the Corse Clienti programme too, a programme that might best be viewed as the world's most exclusive, most revered racecar club.

    And this - assuming you don't want to take yours home with you, which Ferrari does permit - is where they're kept, an unassuming warehouse right next door to the Fiorano circuit at Maranello. The inner sanctum.

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  • FXX workshop is as spick and span as any F1 garage. Which, when you think about it, is hardly that surprising. Here, one is stripped for a routine overhaul.

  • It's often the unseen bits of an F1 car that have the most impact. Here, gold leaf covers the bulkhead behind the seat of an old car.

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  • Some of the cars are draped in heavy scarlet covers. They look so pristine that taking a peek underneath would be like lifting the Queen's robes.

  • Most of the original FXX were subsequently upgraded to Evoluzione spec. This included engine and aero tweaks, plus adjustments to the traction control and gearbox. The 0-62mph time was quoted at 2.5 seconds.

  • Spare front wings sit in a rack, telling their own story about the development of aerodynamics.

  • Two cars wearing the number one line up next to each other. They belong to Prost and Schumacher - but can you name the years?

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  • XX and FXX cars sit in an adjacent hall to the F1 cars. The 458 Challenge racing series now forms part of the Corse Clienti programme, too.

  • Schumacher was heavily involved in the FXX's development. Here's his signature on a door frame.

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  • Not Daleks, but the wheel, brake pack and suspension assembly from an F1 car.

  • Although the FXX is a track-only car, at least one has been converted to road use.

  • Number 27 was made famous at Ferrari by Gilles Villeneuve. Here it adorns Michele Alboreto's 1985 156/85 car.

  • Nowhere else can you see the design, progression and development of Formula One cars better than here.

  • To save you the hassle of counting, there are more ex-F1 cars in this shot than there were FXX built in total. So, which is the more exclusive?

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