Ferrari's board of directors met here on Tuesday and pronounced 2008 an 'exceptional' year with 17.6 percent sales growth, which it said beat all previous company records. The growth was due largely to strong sales of the 430 Scuderia, with the 612 Scaglietti and receiving honorable mention for sales growth.

The specialty carmaker credited strict cost-cutting and efficiency improvements, as well as growth in Ferrari-brand licensing, which was up by 28 percent overall and by 65 percent for e-commerce activities. Ferrari said its 'major commercial initiatives' including the new client assistance and One to One personalization programs also helped make 2008 a good year.

In an interesting twist on energy-efficiency initiatives, Ferrari also declared that its in-house photovoltaic and tri-generation plant projects launched this year will help the company 'meet all its own energy requirements' by 2010.

Chairman Luca di Montezemolo noted that the company sees its good results as 'the best endorsement we could have of our strategy of exclusivity, innovation and focus on people.' He cautioned that 'it is hard to say how the situation will develop from here' in view of the global economic climate.

Ferrari sold 6,587 cars in 2008, and of those, 1,700 were delivered to North American customers. Eastern European sales were up 23 percent in 2008, Ferrari said. Sales numbers did not include those for the Ferrari California, which did not start delivery until 2009.