Motor Valley Fest in Modena: the heart of Emilia Romagna’s supercar culture

Modena is widely and rightly seen as the world capital of Italy’s peerless motor industry. It is the birthplace of the brilliant, legendary Enzo Ferrari and a standout gem within the broader Emilia Romagna region-an area that doesn’t just host Ferrari, but also Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati, Dallara and Pagani. That is heritage in the purest sense. It also explains why Motor Valley Fest returns each year, gathering everything that makes this part of Italy exceptional into a yearly, motoring-led festival. The result is a striking salute to the region’s unmistakable obsession with design, performance, luxury and speed.

For any true petrolhead, Motor Valley Fest belongs on the bucket list-and it’s an event every car lover should experience at least once. Here’s the reason…

Something in the water

Massimo Bottura-the passionate Italian chef behind Osteria Francescana, Modena’s culinary temple-famously observed: “… there must be something special in the water that makes Modena so fearlessly creative and daringly industrious. Everyone is interested in what we are doing and the entire world is looking with renewed interest at our iconic cars, our cultural renaissance and our culinary creativity.”

There are few places on the planet where two uniquely Italian, hard-to-define pleasures-supercars and gastronomy-come together so naturally. Add in famous roads that have featured in countless films and photoshoots, outstanding race circuits, dramatic mountain vistas, sunlit beaches and lunches that feel impossible to beat, and it becomes clear why Emilia Romagna is the dream road trip for any self-respecting car fan.

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Cultural Identity

The Strada Statale 9 traces its origins back to the Roman Empire. Locals tend to call it simply “The Via Emilia”: a historic route of around 274 km that, in both a physical and symbolic sense, links some of northern Italy’s most beautiful renaissance cities-Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Forli, Cesena-and, further south-east, the Adriatic coastline and beaches of the “Riviera Romagnola”.

This same Via Emilia forms the spine of Italy’s supercar story. Across Emilia Romagna you’ll find the headquarters, plants, circuits and automotive museums of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati, Dallara and Pagani. It’s also a shared cultural identity with the food that has travelled to every corner of the globe: Parmigiano Reggiano, Mortadella Bo, Prosciutto di Parma and Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Fast cars and slow food-there’s nothing better…

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Motoring melting pot

Motor Valley Fest isn’t one single show so much as a broad, varied programme: exhibitions, pop-up happenings, conferences, car and motorcycle races, meet-ups and test drives. While the festivities are anchored in Modena, Motor Valley Fest stretches across all the provinces of Emilia Romagna. With four international race tracks as a backdrop, six iconic motoring brands, 18 evocative private car collections and 13 automotive museums, the entire region effectively becomes the venue.

This year, as the area moved beyond the COVID emergency, it welcomed crowds of devoted enthusiasts from 1 July for a four-day celebration that was impossible to ignore (with Italy’s European Championships victory over England providing an extra lift to close out the weekend). The atmosphere was… special.

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Motor Valley Fest supercar show

At the heart of Motor Valley Fest sits Modena’s historic town centre-an astonishing setting for the traditional supercar display. In Piazza Roma, framed by the baroque façade of the historic Military Academy, sat a selection of the city’s finest: Ferrari’s Roma, Portofino M and SF90 Spider; Lamborghini’s Aventador SVJ, Urus and Huracán Evo; and Maserati’s MC20, Ghibli and Quattroporte Trofeo.

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A short stroll through Modena’s characterful, cobbled and quietly drowsy streets brings you to the monumental Piazza Grande. Here, Dallara race cars and Ducati superbikes took their place-and, perhaps most importantly for the sea of mobile phone cameras clicking in every direction, Pagani’s Huayra, Huayra BC, Huayra Roadster BC, Huayra Tricolore and the forthcoming Zonda C12.

Beyond the displays, Motor Valley Fest also hosts an extensive run of conferences and workshops. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony-carried out by Manlio Di Stefano, Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, together with Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region; Carlo Ferro, President of the ITA (Italian Trade Agency); Gian Carlo Muzzarelli, Mayor of Modena; and Claudio Domenicali, President of the Motor Valley Association and CEO of Ducati-the Military Academy’s historic rooms became the stage for a packed programme of live-streamed sessions, workshops and round tables. Topics ranged across automotive sustainability, digitalisation, racing, technological innovation and consumer trends, supported by industry-leading keynote speakers.

Hundreds of petrolheads packed the Motor Valley “top table” for a rare chance to hear from-and put questions directly to-supercar royalty: Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati; Enrico Galliera, Sales and Marketing Director of Ferrari; Horacio Pagani, founder of Pagani Automobili; Andrea Pontremoli, CEO of Dallara; Francesco Tonon, Production Manager of Maserati; and Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of Lamborghini.

Test drives and rides

This event isn’t only about looking and listening. Visitors are also able to take the wheel of an irresistible line-up of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Dallara and Pagani supercars, alongside the Energica Motor Company, as well as Ducati superbikes. From that list, we ultimately chose laps in the still-breathtaking Ferrari 458 Challenge at one of Ferrari’s home circuits in Modena.

Unveiled at the Bologna Motor Show in 2010, the Ferrari 458 Challenge has since been refined through a relentless series of tweaks, set-ups and upgrades across the following 12 years, all aimed at extracting maximum performance for the Ferrari Challenge client racing championships.

Once strapped into a racing bucket seat-surrounded by roll bars and little else in the stripped-back cockpit-the 458 Challenge offers no compromises compared with its road-going relative. With the 4.5-litre V8 and a dry weight of the conventional sighting lap was more than welcome-working out precisely when and where to place the 458’s racing slicks-before finally burying the throttle… PAM, PAM, PAM!

For all its shocking pace, the 458 Challenge proves unexpectedly approachable once you’re moving. There’s no brake servo assistance and no torque-vectoring electronic trickery to lean on, which makes it hugely satisfying every time you chase down an apex. Ferrari’s clients are extraordinarily fortunate to experience that kind of ruthless acceleration routinely; for us, being able to drive one of these exceptional cars even once felt like a genuine privilege.

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Motorcycle adventure touring

It’s difficult to top an experience like that, yet swapping to two wheels on the rapid-and surprisingly comfortable-Ducati Multistrada V4 S Sport came close.

The Ducati Multistrada V4S, strange as it sounds, has more in common with vinegar than you might expect. Balsamic vinegar is Modena’s celebrated product, so heading to Acetaia Villa San Donino on the Ducati-run by the Lonardi family-felt like the perfect destination for our two-wheeled adventure.

Riding the Ducati Multistrada V4S on Motor Valley roads-where it was originally honed by the Ducati test team-is one of those simple pleasures. It’s among the most accomplished and refined machines going, blending outrageous performance with real-world practicality and comfort. It appears impressively tall when you swing a leg over, yet once rolling the Multistrada feels light and agile. There’s also plenty to adjust: three distinct riding modes that remap the glorious V4’s output for hot, sticky tarmac, wet cobblestoned streets or off-road gravel.

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Automotive heritage

If you make it to Motor Valley Fest, it’s worth remembering Emilia Romagna’s 13 automotive museums, spread across the region. The Museo Enzo Ferrari Modena-distinct from Museo Ferrari Maranello, which places more emphasis on Ferrari’s cars and racing-is devoted to Enzo Ferrari himself. Based in Modena, it includes Ferrari’s family home and his father’s workshop, plus a newer building that houses the full museum. Walking through the rooms of the Ferrari family house is something you really shouldn’t miss.

In the neighbouring museum building, Museo Enzo Ferrari presented “The Grand Tour”, subtitled “A Journey Through Beauty and Passion”: a celebration of Ferrari’s most luxurious GTs, alongside five multimedia arches representing five cities that have shaped Ferrari’s worldwide allure-Paris, London, New York, Shanghai and Abu Dhabi.

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Days at the races

Across Emilia Romagna, all four international race tracks delivered a varied and intoxicating spread of motorsport. Standouts included the GT World Challenge Europe at the Marco Simoncelli Misano Adriatico racetrack, and the Italian Motorcycle Speed Championship at the Enzo & Dino Ferrari Circuit of Imola.

In Modena itself, the city’s Novi Sad Park-fittingly reimagined as a Monaco-styled circuit-hosted incredible race-car pageants, old and new, featuring some of Motor Valley’s most prized supercars, race cars and superbikes. For a flavour of the action, just take a look at the gallery below…

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Plan to visit Motor Valley Fest 2022?

Enzo Ferrari once said: “You can’t describe the passion, you can only experience it”. If you want to experience the passion, craftsmanship, culture and intangibles that make supercars so compelling, Motor Valley Fest 2022 is already open for bookings. Fast cars and slow food-is there anything better in life?

Click here to find out more about next year’s Motor Valley Fest 2022 and book tickets

• Pictures: Andrea Casano / courtesy of the Emilia-Romagna region*

Motor Valley Fest sponsors 2021

The 2021 Motor Valley Fest was made possible thanks to the Made in Italy project (www.madeinitaly.gov.it). This initiative is designed to showcase the country’s best businesses, under an agreement between the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Trade Agency-the government body responsible for promoting and globalising Italian companies abroad-and the Emilia-Romagna Region.