The History of Ferrari

Ferrari… hhmmm… Well, I’m sure most of you guys get excited by just the mention of that name itself or your jaws would just drop when you see one of the road. Today, I’m going to be giving a brief history on this particular make which is always associated with speed or otherwise known as the prancing horse. The company’s story officially began in 1947 when the first Ferrari emerged from the historic factory entrance on Via Abetone Inferiore in Maranello. The 125 S, as it was known, embodied the passion and determination of the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari.

Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena on February 18th 1898 and died on August 14th 1988. He devoted his entire life to designing and building sports cars and, of course, to the track. Having been made an official Alfa Romeo driver in 1924, within five years he had gone on to found the Scuderia Ferrari on Viale Trento Trieste in Modena which assisted mostly gentlemen drivers in racing their cars.In 1938, Enzo Ferrari was appointed head of Alfa Corse but quit the position in 1939 to set up his own company, Auto Avio Costruzioni, which operated out of the old Scuderia buildings.This new company produced the 1,500 cm³ 8-cylinder 815 spider, two of which were built for the Mille Miglia in 1940.

Enzo Ferrari

All racing activities ground to a halt, however, with the outbreak of the Second World War and, in late 1943, Auto Avio Costruzioni moved from Modena to Maranello. The end of the war saw Ferrari design and build the 1,500 cm³ 12-cylinder 125 S, which made its competitive debut in the hands of Franco Cortese at the Piacenza Circuit on May 11th 1947. On the 25th of the same month, it won the Rome Grand Prix at the city’s Terme di Caracalla Circuit. Since that fateful day, Ferrari has garnered over 5,000 victories on the world’s tracks and roads, becoming a modern-day legend in the process. In order to meet growing market demand, Enzo Ferrari sold the Fiat Group a 50% stake in the company in 1969, a figure that rose to 90% in 1988.

Ferrari’s share capital is currently divided as follows: 90% Fiat Group, 10% Piero Ferrari. After the founder passed away in the late 1980s, the shareholders decided to relaunch the struggling company, appointing Luca di Montezemolo as Chairman in 1991. Under the latter’s guidance, Ferrari returned to predominance in Formula 1, launched a string of new models and opened up new markets whilst still retaining the core values from its past. Ferrari also embarked upon Formula Uomo, a major renovation programme that puts employees firmly at the centre of company life by creating a bright, safe, innovative and eco-friendly working environment. Up to now Ferrari’s list of racing plaudits read as follows: 15 F1 Drivers’ World titles, 16 F1 Constructors’ World titles, 14 Sports Car Manufacturers’ World titles, 9 victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours, 8 in the Mille Miglia, 7 in the Targa Florio, and 216 in F1 grands prix.

Ferrari F1 cars from 1950 - 2010

The legendary symbol used by Ferrari has heroic origins. It was first adopted as a personal emblem by a highly decorated Italian World War I pilot, Francesco Baracca, who had it painted on the fuselage of his aircraft. At the end of the war, Baracca’s parents offered to allow Enzo Ferrari use the Cavallino Rampante (Prancing Horse) symbol. He adopted it as the logo for his racing Scuderia, placing it on a yellow shield in honour of his hometown of Modena and topping it with the Italian tricolour. The classic Ferrari red, however, was simply the colour assigned by the International Automobile Federation to Italian grand prix cars in the early years of the last century.

I’ve also attached a pic with a few of the famous models manufactured by Ferrari from the 1950s to the mid 2000s. I’ve also done write-ups before on some of my favourite Ferraris such as the Ferrari 308 and the Ferrari 360.

Famous Ferrari models from 1950 - mid 2000

Article source: auto.ferrari.com

Ferrari 308

When I was growing up, I had few dream cars in the various categories. My dream luxury sedan was of course a Jaguar and my dream four-wheel drive was a Range Rover. Though the two cars are British brands, my dream sports-car as you guessed was Italian, and it was a Ferrari. Two of my favourite modern Ferraris are the 360 and the 430 but my favourite older Ferrari was a 308.

The Ferrari 308 was probably one of the most iconic Ferrari’s ever in the late 70s and early 80s due to it being the car used by Tom Selleck in the hit series ‘Magnum, P.I.’. There were two models of the Ferrari 308 produced, the 308 GTB and the 308 GTS which was a targa-topped model. The 308 was first introduced in 1975 and up to 1985 when production stopped, they were about 12,000 units built. The initial few years of the production, the car bodies were made out of fibreglass and then back to steel in the subsequent years.

The Ferrari 308 is not to be confused with the Dino 308 GT4 as they were two entirely different models with different engines and were even designed by different design houses. The Ferrari 308 was as expected designed by Pininfarina and just for some added knowledge here not related to Ferrari, Jaguar had also employed the services of Pininfarina to redesign the Jaguar XJ Series 2 and it became the Jaguar XJ Series 3. All models of the Ferrari 308 came with 3 litre V8 engines which were carburettor powered models and fuel-injected for the later models.

The first Ferrari 308 that I saw here was a 308 GTS targa top somewhere early last year and even though it was an old model about 30 years old, it still turned heads and also mainly because this particular car was a very well kept one. The pictures here are of that particular car and it’s definitely a stunner even in real life.