Ratan Tata flagged off the Ferrari [Images] Magic India Discovery Tour near the Gateway of India in Mumbai on Monday.

Ferrari announced the start of the new Prancing Horse adventure, which got underway in Mumbai and returns to the city on May 8th having covered a route stretching more than 11,000 kilometres.

The car featured in this tour is the 612 Scaglietti, Ferrari's flagship GT model.

Two of these gorgeous Prancing Horse berlinettas will embark on the voyage which comes in the wake of the China 15,000 Red Miles tour completed in 2005 and the Panamerican 20,000 tour of 2006, both of which were hugely successful.

The Magic India Discovery is divided into 12 stages and runs over 72 days. The two 612 Scagliettis will immediately head south from Mumbai along the stunning eight-lane motorway that is the jewel in the crown of Indian's infrastructure.

The first stage ends in Goa [Images].

The tour continues further south to Mysore and then Trivandrum, the southernmost point of the Indian peninsula, before turning north towards Bangalore, the capital of India's information technology industry.

Hyderabad provides the backdrop to a stage that ends in Vizag on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The 612 Scagliettis will then drive along the east coast to the city of Kolkata (Calcutta), once the headquarters of the legendary British East India Company.

The cars' journey along the river Ganges [Images] begins from Kolkata and runs via Varanasi, a sacred city to Hindus, and Khajuraho, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its Hindu and Jain temples.

From here, the tour makes its way to Lucknow also known as the Golden City of the East. The next stage takes the Ferraris through the Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve named in honour of the former man-eater hunter Jim Corbett.

The tour then heads to New Delhi, following a northerly route to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama [Images], and Amritsar [Images]. The next stage runs from the Indian capital to the city of Jaipur, taking in Agra [Images], famous for the Taj Mahal [Images].

The final two legs of the tour take the cars through all of the most famous areas of Rajasthan which is home to endless palaces built by the Maharajas and also calls to Jodhpur, the final stop-off before the cars make a triumphant return to the India's financial capital.

Photograph: Arun Patil