By Ronan Glon
Thursday, May 10th, 2012 @ 3:59 am
 
Ferrari's Chinese arm recently launched a special edition of the 458 Italia to celebrate its 20th year on the local market. The launch took place on the 600-year old walls that surround Nanjing, a historic city that was formerly the capital of China.

The 458 was hoisted onto the city walls in order to be displayed but at one point during the ceremony, a Ferrari employee got behind the wheel and started doing donuts. This left skid marks on the ancient wall's brick surface.

Numerous videos of the event were published on the internet, causing a big uproar in China. To add fuel to the fire, sources in China indicate that it is impossible to completely remove the skid marks.

To make matters even worse, some experts claim that the 458 might have damaged the fragile inner structure of the wall.

"The damage may be invisible at the moment, but very detrimental," said Yang Guoqing, an expert on ancient city wall protection, in an interview with China's Xinhua.

Ferrari has issued a statement saying that it "deeply regrets" the incident. The company added that it has "always held great respect toward Chinese traditional culture and regards the protection of historical relics as of great importance."

Ferrari added that it is not responsible for the incident. The company places the blame on the employees of Kuaiyi Automobile, its official importer in Nanjing.

The limited-edition 458 Italia features Chinese-inspired styling cues and is finished in a model-specific shade called Marco Polo Red. Only 20 examples will be built and all of them will be sold in China. Each one will cost approximately 6 million yuan ($954,000).

  

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