Ferrari's New Sales Pitch

Ferrari's new 458 Italia sports car. From PatrickMcMullan.com.

On Wednesday night at New York’s Ferrari showroom on Park Avenue, the centerpiece of the party celebrating the newly revamped corporate space was not the boldface guest list, but instead a white model of Ferrari’s new 458 Italia sports car, with a starting price north of $225,000. Scrubs star Zach Braff, The City star Olivia Palermo and boyfriend Johannes Huebl (who made their appearance particularly short and sweet, doing a once-around-and-out in about 10 minutes), model Kiera Chaplin, and actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux, were among those milling about the venue, paying homage to the luxury-car purveyor.

Many of the guests, who looked particularly dressy for an early-evening affair, were current Ferrari owners. While they perused the memorabilia and collector’s items that lined the walls, and, most important, checked out other attendees’ recently released 4G iPhones, they also swapped joyride stories. One guest even discussed his recent 149-mile-per-hour dash down New York’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in his Ferrari convertible.

The Park Avenue showroom is the first location in Ferrari's history to combine an apparel line with the cars. One executive explained that the aim is to feature the “Ferrari lifestyle” for those who cannot afford the luxury vehicles, pointing to a back room filled with Ferrari shirts, ties, hats, and other items priced just slightly less than the cars themselves.