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The history of
Ferrari
by William Berg
When Enzo Ferrari created his company
Scuderia Ferrari in Italy in 1929 his
intentions was to sponsor amateur race car
drivers and invent racing cars, and it would
take more than 15 years before Ferrari began
to create their own road cars in 1946.
Ferrari is still devoted to the creation of
racing cars and high performance sports cars
and do not create other types of cars.
Scuderia Ferrari is still the widespread
name for Gestione Sportiva, the part of the
Ferrari company that works with racing.
Scuderia is an Italian word and means
"stable", but Scuderia Ferrari is sometime
also translated as Team Ferrari.
During the early years, Scuderia Ferrari
sponsored race car drivers that were driving
Alfa Romeo cars. Scuderia Ferrari would
prepare Alfa Romeo cars before the race, and
in 1938 Enzo Ferrari became officially
employed by Alfa Romeo's racing department.
Two years later Enzo Ferrari found out that
Alfa Romeo was planning to absorb Scuderia
Ferrari, a plan which Enzo Ferrari strongly
opposed. He instantly left his job at Alfa
Romeo, but his contract restricted him from
being involved with racing for several
years. He changed Scuderia Ferrari into
"Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari" and
officially manufactured aircraft accessories
for a few years. Enzo Ferrari did however
create a race car during this restricted
period. The Tipo 815 debuted at the Mille
Miglia race in 1940, but the race was
hampered due to World War II and Tipo 815
encountered no real competition. In 1943
Enzo Ferrari moved his factory to Maranello
in Italy and one year later the factory was
bombed. After the end of World War II, Enzo
Ferrari rebuilt his factory and now the
Ferrari factory was capable of construction
road cars as well.
Ferrari constructed its first road car in
1947. The 1947 125 S Ferrari had a 1.5 L V12
engine and the whole car was considered very
beautiful and well designed. Enzo Ferrari
was still more interested in race cars and
the Ferrari road cars was merely a way for
him to fund his work with the Scuderia
Ferrari. His distaste for the road car
customers became famous and he even accused
them of buying Ferrari cars only as status
symbols. It is true that the Ferrari road
cars grow to fame not only due to excellent
performance but also thanks to their stylish
elegance. Pininfarina, Bertone, Ghia,
Scagliette, Touring and Vignale are all
examples of design houses that have worked
with Ferrari.
In November 1961 a dispute between Enzo
Ferrari and his sales manager, Girolamo
Gardini, turned into a crisis. Girolamo
Gardini threatened to leave the company.
Enzo Ferrari responded to the threat by
throwing out Girolamo Gardini, and several
employees who agreed with Girolamo Gardini
were also ousted. Among them were Romolo
Tavoni, manager for Scuderia Ferrari, Giotto
Bizzarrini, the chief of the experimental
sports car development, and Carlo Chiti, the
chief engineer. This was naturally a huge
loss for the Ferrari company and the crisis
deepened when those who had been thrown out
formed their own company - Automobili
Turismo e Sport (ATS). ATS even managed to
take over Scuderia Serenissima, a very
successful racing team, from Ferrari.
A younger engineer, Mauro Forghieri, and
an experienced racing bodyman, Sergio
Scaglietti, assumed responsibility and tried
to finish the projects that the leaving
employees had left behind. One of the most
important tasks was to finish the
development of 250 GTO; a new 250-based
model that could compete with the Jaguar
E-type. The 250 GTO was finished in time to
participate in the Sebring race and place
itself first in class, driven by Phil Hill.
Throughout 1962, the 250 GTO continued to
win the races and it is still one of the
most well known race cars in history. The
crisis turned out to be something good for
Ferrari and the 1960s became a very good
decade for the company.
Until the 1980s when Ferrari began to use
fuel injection in the road cars, the
Ferraris were known as rather temperamental
cars. They could be very unreliable, but
would still attract a large group of
dedicated fans that viewed this
unpredictability as "character" rather than
a problem. Today, FIAT controls 56 percent
of the Ferrari stocks. The rest of stocks
owned by Enzo's con Piero Ferrari and by
Commerzbank, Mediobanca and the Lehman
Brothers. Maranello is still the home town
for Ferrari.
About the Author
Another dream car for many is the Hummer.
The History of the Hummer is much shorter
than the history of Ferrari and GM is just
releasing their third Hummer model, the
Hummer 3.
A new more family friendly Hummer that will
be very customizable just like the other
hummer models with the help of a
Hummer accessory or two.
