02.11.2004 A dramatic fire at the Ferrari-Maserati dealership Munsterhuis in Holland, saw nearly fifty rare and valuable exotic sportscars literally going up on smoke

A dramatic fire at the Ferrari-Maserati dealership Munsterhuis in Holland, saw nearly fifty rare and valuable exotic sportscars literally going up on smoke.

Sunday afternoon saw the prestige dealership, which also includes Jeep and Konigsegg franchises, suffer a fire which quickly took grip.

Fifty six cars out of the total stock of sixty were burnt to a cinder. The majority of them, forty seven in all, were exotic sportscars. Twenty seven Ferraris were destroyed.

Current models destroyed include the 360 Modena and Spider F1, Challenge Stradale, 575 M Maranello F1 and 612 Scaglietti. Famous past models include a 1971 365 GTB 'Daytona', a 1984 512BB, a 1990 and a 1991 F40, and a 1987 Testarossa. 308 GTB, 308 GTS, F355 GTS, F355 GTB, 348 GTS, 348 Spider, the list rolls on.

Ten Maseratis were also fried. Other prestige sportscars to be destroyed include two Lamborghini's, a rare Konigsegg, as well as several historic racing cars.

A Dutch Fire Brigade spokesman confirmed that security precautions in place to satisfy the insurance regulations, which saw all the cars locked up, prevented the firemen from moving them, and with it the possibility of saving any. The insurance claim is expected to run into several tens of millions of euros.

Joint owner of the business, Frans Munsterhuis Jr was at Monza for the Ferrari-Maserati 'World Finals' at the time of the incident, as the dealership's racing team were taking part in the Ferrari 360 Challenge races.

"I have not seen the mess yet," Munsterhuis commented. "My father and brother, with whom I built up the company, warned me not to come along. Mechanics and secretaries were crying at the flames.

"Our life work has gone up in flames. All of our cars, and the customers cars were insured, but we have to start from scratch. We lost all of our collectables, unique photos, rare documents, signed books, the list goes on. Those are irreplaceable."

This is the second major fire to hit Ferrari this year. Back in March a blaze at the Maranello factory destroyed several new prototypes, putting back new model development.

additional material: Jamie Yates