Prancing Horses in the New Forest

Take a stroll in the New Forest on a sunny bank holiday, and your surprise is no different from any other day of the week.
Look upon the town of Lyndhurst as the hub of the National Park and you’ll find ponies on the outskirts . . . and bang in the centre the most famous of all prancing horses — the real live Ferrari.
Lyndhurst is the home of Maserati Meridien Modena, and visitors to the town get the chance to see some of the world’s most desirable cars up close. Maserati and Ferrari are from the same stable originating in the Italian city of Modena just north of Bologna.
It’s a motor city — you will also find the Lamborghini factory there —  and sports car makers from the past like De Tomasa and Pagani — and back in the New Forest the Meridien Modena business this year claimed the honour of  being named the Showroom of the Year at Ferrari’s annual dealer conference held at the Finali Mondiali at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.
In recognition of this outstanding achievement in a competition amongst all official Ferrari dealers worldwide, Meridien Modena was presented with an engine from a 458 Italia which won the International Engine of the Year Award in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
The Lyndhurst showroom was renovated in 2012 to showcase the Prancing Horse’s latest Corporate Identity which was first introduced in 2010 and has now been rolled out across the dealer network in all markets worldwide. The Lyndhurst business also has a fully-equipped official Ferrari service centre and is one of the UK’s leading outlets for Ferrari Approved, fully-inspected Ferrari cars.

Today, on a sunny bank holiday, the motor business, though closed, was a tourist attraction in itself with ample examples of the famous Maserati brand on display . . and oh yes, I did catch sight of a Ferrari or two.