Sammy Hagar’s Still Waiting For His LaFerrari to Fly

We’re following rock ‘n’ roll legend Sammy Hagar as he becomes one of 499 people in the world to own a LaFerrari. Here’s the next leg of the journey — Ed.  

Sammy Hagar looks cool, calm and collected as he chills with a beer on the patio of his Mill Valley, Calif., restaurant, El Paseo. But don’t be fooled. Inside, he’s as jumpy as he was in his days as Van Halen’s effervescent frontman.

“Last October, I went to Italy to visit Ferrari with my wife, Kari, and the folks there said, ‘Don’t worry about a thing, you’ll have your car soon,” Hagar says of the $1.4 million Ferrari LaFerrari that he custom-ordered in white with black and beige accents while touring the Maranello factory for the first time in his Ferrari-loving life.

“They said, ‘Sammy, a few months, maybe Christmas,’” he sighs. “Man, now I’m thinking they meant Christmas 2015.”

Rock stars are used to getting their wishes. But this one knows full well that despite his ownership of a half-dozen new and vintage Prancing Horses, he’ll have to be patient.

For one, as collectors go Hagar is a big-named small fry, considering Ferrari has deep lists of so-dubbed “friends” who get priority when new and special models come out. That would include folks like collector, investor and former movie director James Glickenhaus, who routinely orders one-off custom-built models with don’t-ask seven-figure price tags, and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who owns dozens of marauding red classics.

And for another, Ferrari is building only 499 La Ferraris, which boast an interplanetary scissor-door design along with a V-12-gas-plus-electric-motor 950-hp powerplant that yields sub-three-second zero to 60 sprints. According to Ferrari of San Francisco, Hagar’s Bay Area dealership, only two LaFerraris have made their way to customers here. And while they can’t say for certain if Hagar will be the third, they’re busy pressing his case.

“Sammy is on our mind,” says Emmanuel Turin, Ferrari of San Francisco’s marketing director. “We can honestly say we don’t know when his car will be ready. But we are trying to work on something special for him.”

[Sammy Hagar rehearsing at his studios/garage in Northern California with The Circle. From left: Michael Anthony on bass, Jason Bonham on drums, Vic Johnson on guitar, and Sammy on vocals. Photo: Marco della Cava]