As investors race to buy Ferrari stock on Wall Street, we spoke to one U.S.-based organization that specializes in the cross-country transport of luxury cars from mansion to mansion. Personal possessions, after all, are often the casualties of house moves when they are damaged or get lost in transit and it would be heartbreaking to find a dent in a Ferrari. Owners use specialist movers to help transport their precious vehicles to their new homes and ensure that they arrive in pristine condition. “For some owners, these cars are like their babies and they want to make sure that absolutely nothing goes wrong,” said Joe Parks, general manager of the specialist auto hauling company Pilot Transport, headquartered in Michigan. More:The Value of Stowing Valuables at Home Especially if long distances are involved, wealthy car owners entrust their Ferraris or Bentleys or Rolls Royces to a handful of specialist movers who know all about the risks of moving these high-end investments on four wheels. “Someone moving house from one end of the country to another doesn’t want to put 3,000 miles on the clock, especially when a Ferrari needs a tune-up every 8,000 miles,” Parks said.
Most new or vintage luxury cars are transported in enclosed trailers and the most delicate part of the operation is uploading the car into the back of the trailer. A Ferrari, for example, is wider than most cars and has low ground clearance, adds Parks, so it needs more space than normal. “You see cars on open-sided trailers and they move around a lot but you don’t want that to happen with a high-end car,” he added. Ferraris and other models are held in place by rubber boots on the tires that keep them secure on even the bumpiest roads. Most companies have GPS locators that allow anxious owners to track the progress of the cars as they are driven in trailers to their new homes. If being sent abroad, the cars are loaded on shipping containers. “There’s a trust element involved,” Parks said. “People are handing over something to us that costs a whole lot of money, that they care about, so it’s always gratifying when we hand the car back and see the satisfaction on somebody’s face.” More:The Privileges of a Private Port Many of their customers are regulars, he adds. “We have one guy who has about 200 different cars so he is always buying and selling and moving them around,” he said. Parks declined to provide the company's cost to move a car because every quote depends on the vehicle and the length of the journey. His company also organizes transport for Ferrari North America and delivers new cars to their owners. With coupes costing upwards of a quarter of a million dollars and the special edition hybrid LaFerrari supercar costing $1.13 million, it is quite a moment when a car owner sees his prized possession safely delivered, agreed Parks. He sees Ferraris and other luxury cars daily but Parks has a more prosaic form of transport. “My current ride is a 2015 Ford Mustang GT,” he laughs.