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Allan Dick , 1 Apr 2011
Think Italian cars and you think Ferrari. Think Formula One and you think Ferrari. We pay homage to this legendary name.
The hills behind Maranello wouldn’t be the same without the regular bellow from the exhaust of yet another Ferrari on test. The restaurants in the town would be just like those in any other Italian village without the animated conversation of Ferrari engineers.
There would not be another carmaker on earth that evokes the same passions and emotions as Ferrari. It’s not just the mechanical and visual appeal of virtually any Ferrari you care to name, it’s not the fact that the V12 engine configuration has been the hallmark of the marque since the very first Ferrari saw the light of day. No, it’s got more to do with the fact that Ferrari is a unique institution in the motoring world — an object of profound reverence in its homeland if not the whole world, and a company that only got into the car manufacturing business to provide the cashflow to fund a commitment to motorsport that’s been unbroken since the beginning of the modern Formula 1 era in 1947.
Founder Enzo Ferrari made no secret of his dislike of customers — to him, they were a necessary evil — racing was the reason for being and the road car customers were there to pay the bills.
Ferrari the carmaker has come a very long way since the original 125 racer prototype of 1947. Named for the capacity of each individual cylinder, the 125 prototype had a jewel-like 1.5 litre 60 degree V12 producing just 65bhp (48kW). The production version of the 125 substantially improved on this to reach 118bhp (87kW) and won the 1947 Rome Grand Prix. Ferrari were on their way to an illustrious future in motorsport.
Enzo Ferrari was 49 years of age by the time the first car bearing his name rolled out of the factory. A man with limited formal education, he had previously been a journeyman racing driver and later race team manager for Alfa Romeo, where he masterminded the development of the Alfa Romeo factory race cars, latterly under the name of Scuderia Ferrari. After parting from Alfa Romeo in 1937, Ferrari was restricted from racing or designing cars for four years. The war then intervened, but Ferrari S.p.A. was subsequently founded in 1945, and the first car with a Ferrari nameplate arrived in 1947.
Ferrari’s history as a company has been a succession of highs and lows, but the commitment to Formula 1 has been unflinching through both good and bad times.
Racing highs included the domination of sports car racing in the early sixties which prompted the attempt by Henry Ford II to buy Ferrari.
Even though the company was in difficult financial circumstances, Enzo rebuffed the Ford offer, so Ford went after Ferrari on the race-track, creating the Ford GT40 which won Le Mans in 1966 and then entered Formula One by funding the famous Cosworth DFV V8 engine.
Ferrari sold 50% of the road car company to Fiat, retained 100% ownership of SEFAC — the racing arm.
Racing lows included the dark days towards the latter stages of Enzo’s lifetime after the death of Gilles Villeneuve in May 1982, followed by the career-ending injuries suffered by Didier Pironi later the same year. A Ferrari driver wouldn’t win another F1 World Championship until Michael Schumacher in 2000, and Schumacher would add five titles to Ferrari’s collection in addition to the two he won for Benetton.
There was also the famous walkout of 1961, when a number of key staff became so disenchanted with Enzo’s dictatorial management style they left in unison to form a rival company. This walkout occurred in the midst of one of Ferrari’s most successful seasons in Formula One.
In 1960, while British teams tried to convince the FIA that changing F1 from 2.5 litres to 1.5 litres for 1961 was a bad idea, Ferrari just got on with the job of designing and building new cars. The result were the shark-nosed, rear-engined cars that, in the hands of Phil Hill, Ritchie Ginther, Wolfgang von Trips and Giancarlo Baghetti, swept all before them with the exception of the Monaco and German Grands Prix where only the superb mastery of Stirling Moss intervened. Phil Hill won the World Championship and Ferrari the Manufacturer’s title.
But it wasn’t a year without its bleak side — von Trips crashed at Monza killing himself and 15 spectators.
The key personnel who walked out in 1961 stripped Ferrari of the ability to defend his titles in 1962 and the result was humiliating failure with the red cars hopelessly outclassed. The turn around was complete and dramatic.
But, life for the defectors was no better. They formed ATS to build both racing cars and road cars but there was no success and the venture lasted just two years before collapsing.
Then there were the highs and lows of Ferrari’s road car business. In the early days there was not a strong focus on customer relations, and one of the more notable outcomes of this was when wealthy tractor manufacturer Ferrucio Lamborghini became incensed at Enzo Ferrari’s refusal to take complaints about his personal Ferrari road car seriously. To get back at Enzo he decided to start production of his own supercars, and after a few initial wobbles and a number of changes of ownership, the Lamborghini brand is now Ferrari’s closest rival.
Since the fifties there have been few occasions when the greatest roadgoing sports cars of their respective era have not borne the Ferrari nameplate, and today is no exception.
The superb 599 GTB Fiorano can trace its lineage directly back to the 212 Inter of 1951, and it is arguably one of the greatest traditional front engined Ferraris of all time. It was the 250GT (250cc per cylinder V12, three litres) series of the late fifties and early sixties that really got Ferrari established as a maker of high performance road cars and the last of the line, the 250GT Lusso of 1962 was one of the best looking Ferraris of all time.
The racing version of the 250, the gorgeous looking 250 GTO (which later had its name unashamedly copied by Pontiac), helped itself to three constructors’ championships, but what wasn’t well known at the time was that Enzo took liberties with the chassis numbering sequence in order to create the impression that 100 cars (the minimum for race homologation) had been built, when in fact only 39 were ever completed.
Despite Ferrari’s front-engine V12 heritage, there was a time in the eighties when such a configuration was absent from the Ferrari catalogue. Between the demise of the 365GT in the early eighties and the launch of the 456GT in 1992 (after Fiat took their stakeholding to 90%), Ferrari buyers looking for twelve cylinders had to be satisfied with the flat-12 mid-engined Testarossa (successor to the 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer), but by this time the smaller mid-engined models derived from the original Dino 206GT of 1967 had become well established, and would ultimately become the marque’s most important models from a sales volume perspective.
The Dino was named after Enzo Ferrari’s legitimate son, who died in 1956 of muscular dystrophy. Although it had a V6 engine of a mere 2.4 litres and many Fiat components, the model was a turning point for Ferrari — the first roadgoing Ferrari that had less than twelve cylinders.
There is a direct lineage from the Dino all the way to the current 430, with branch lines all the way to the F40, F50 and even the Enzo. Interestingly, the original Dino did not have a Ferrari badge — Dino was supposed to become a brand in its own right.
In earlier times, Ferrari had a “take it or leave it” attitude to those who purchased its road cars, the inference being that if one could afford the car, one could afford the maintenance, or at least the cost of another car to use as a daily driver while the Ferrari was reserved for special occasions (or in the workshop). In short, Ferraris tended to be fast and loaded with character, but challenging to drive and too brittle to be relied upon as daily transport.
That changed after Enzo’s death and with the increased involvement of Fiat, as a purveyor of machinery that had to be consumer-friendly. There was also the small lesson provided by cars like the Porsche 911 and Honda NSX, which proved that the driving thrills of the contemporary Ferrari 348 were not incompatible with bulletproof reliability and fuss-free city driving. The Fiat takeover also brought a new emphasis on commercial priorities rather than emotion to the product planning process, and coincided with mounting legislative constraints to the engineers’ creativity.
Today, Ferrari is stronger than ever, with a decreased reliance on Fiat, a mouth-watering selection of models and a more independent financial structure.
Enzo remained a director until just prior to his death in 1988 at the age of 90, and Ferrari owners in Italy are looked upon with reverence rather than the jealousy which applies in most countries towards the owners of expensive machinery.
Ferrari is to Italy what the royal family is to England.
Enzo Ferrari
The man behind the name
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari was born on February 18th 1898 and died on August 14th 1988 — he was 90 years of age. Enzo’s formal education was minimal and he was barely into his teens before he declared he wanted to race cars. But before he could do that he was drafted into the Italian Army where he was only a lowly mule skinner. That may need some explanation — mules were the work-horse of any army in those days and the mortality rate was high, so processing the skins from deceased animals was a major side-industry and someone had to skin the corpses!
His father Alfredo, was also in the army, but a vicious flu’ epidemic was about to sweep the world, killing millions of people and Alfredo was one of the first victims. Enzo also caught the bug, but survived, although he was discharged from the army early.
After the army, Enzo was determined to go motor racing and joined a small company called CMN, rebuilding WW1 trucks into small passenger cars. He persuaded company management what they needed for publicity purposes was a racing team, but there was little success.
In 1920 he started working for Alfa Romeo and took up racing as a hobby. He had some success and in 1924 was approached by Alfa to become a team driver. For some reason he turned this offer down. It may have been that he realised the limits of his ability as a driver and that his real potential was in running a team, rather than driving.
In 1929 he founded Scuderia Ferrari, operating as a quasi works Alfa Romeo team in selected events.
His association with Alfa became very close and he built up a team of 40 drivers including Tazio Nuvolari. Ferrari himself drove occasionally.
By 1932 he was married, had a son Alfredo (known as Dino) and retired from racing entirely to focus on team management.
By now, the Nazi backed Silver Arrows — the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams — were dominating Grand Prix racing and Alfa was among the teams left in the dust. There are always exceptions to any rule and Nuvolari’s win in an Alfa P3 at the Nurburgring in 1935 against the might of Germany was legendary.
For 1935 Alfa Romeo commissioned Scuderia Ferrari to build a car that could compete on equal terms with the Germans and the result was the Bimotore — the first car to be designed and built by Ferrari. And the first car to bear the prancing horse logo.
In 1937 Alfa Romeo took control of all of its racing efforts again and ended Ferrari's contract. Ferrari set up a company called Auto-Avio Construzioni and built two cars for the 1940 Mille Miglia which he called AAC. But a clause in his "escape" contract from Alfa Romeo forbade him from using his own name on cars for at least four years.
Not that it mattered too much as the Italian leader, Mussolini, had joined his mate Hitler in the madness of war. So Ferrari switched from cars to the Italian war effort and after his factory in Modena was damaged by bombs, he moved to nearby Maranello.
With the Italian capitulation Ferrari sought to distance himself from the Italian fascists with whom he had been close in the prewar years.
Even though Italy capitulated and Mussolini was hanged, the war continued to rage through Italy as the Germans struggled to hold back the Allies including many New Zealanders. And from that association has come one of the great mysteries — did Christchurch soldier and motor racing enthusiast Pat Hoare make friends with Enzo Ferrari which gave him the ability to buy single seater racing cars from the factory in the late 1960s — an era when Enzo was at his most difficult?
Enzo founded today’s Ferrari S.p.A with the arrival of peace in 1945, but it wasn’t until two years later that he built the first car to bear his name.
He made no secret of the fact his goal was to design, build and race cars — road cars were simply to make a profit and pay the bills.
For the first five years after WW2 there was no real structure to racing and many of the major races were run under Formula Libre rules that saw cars of varying engine size as well as single seaters competing against sports cars.
Alfa were back with their pre-war Type 158/159 and they were unbeatable. For 1950 a world order was created with the introduction of organised Formula One and Formula Two races and a structured Formula One World Championship. Alfa Romeo blitzed everything in 1950 with Giuseppe Farina winning the drivers title. Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1951 title again for Alfa Romeo, but Ferrari ended the Alfa dominance with the famous Froilan Gonzales’ win in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Throughout the history of Formula One, only one team has competed every year, season in and season out. That team is Ferrari.
Fiat, or more correctly, the Agnelli family, bought 50% of Ferrari in 1968 when the company was in some difficulty, with the understanding it would take another 40% on the death of Enzo Ferrari.
Enzo remained as Managing Director until 1971 and although he stood aside, his influence on the company remained powerful until his death.
The death of Enzo’s legitimate son, Dino, in 1956 was a savage blow and Enzo wore dark glasses virtually every day after that as a mark of respect. But, Dino wasn’t the only fruit of Enzo’s loins — there was also another son, Piero, born out of wedlock and who stood in dark corners until after the death of Enzo. Today Piero is a 10% shareholder in Ferrari and he has become more and more involved in the day-to-day running of the company under the charismatic Luca di Montezemolo.
Piero owns 10%, a consortium of banks owns 3% and the Mubdala Development Company of Abu Dabai bought 5% for 114 million Euro. Fiat owns the balance.
The involvement of Abu Dabai explains why a Ferrari theme park has been established there and is also regarded as a “wise move” by observers as it makes Ferrari a part of one of the world’s most wealthy markets for exotic cars.
Enzo Ferrari was a man who was shrouded in mystique and regarded as being ruthless in the pursuit of his main objective in life — to win motor races.
Today motor racing is a far safer profession than it used to be and Ferrari was often accused of being callous with the lives of his drivers — many of whom died in cars bearing his name. The truth of this claim is difficult to justify as Ferrari distanced himself from the media and his drivers. Getting to see Enzo Ferrari was almost as rare and as difficult as getting an audience with the Pope. Indeed, parallels were often drawn between Enzo Ferrari and the Pope.
Enzo Ferrari was given the honours of Cavaliere and Commendatore in the 1920s and also made a Cavaliere de Lavoro in 1952. He also received a number of honorary degrees from outside Italy.
Just as his dark glasses became a trademark, so too did his use of purple ink in his fountain pens. The reason for the dark glasses is known, the reason for the use of purple ink is not. Maybe it was just a question of style.
Ferrari road cars have come a long way from those that originally bore the name. Those first Ferraris were fast but fragile — a bit unsophisticated, a lot expensive and a lot unreliable.
Changes came with the death of Enzo Ferrari — an event that coincided with a dramatic global increase in the demand for and prices of exotic and classic cars.
Enzo Ferrari lived long enough to see the launch of the world’s first true supercar — the Ferrari F-40, a car that was at the forefront of a whole new genre.
The death of Enzo and the arrival of greater Fiat/Agnelli influence and the new style direction of di Montezelomo have moved Ferrari up through several gears until the company is screaming along an autoroute, the glittering Mediterranean on one side and expensive villas on the other, the rev counter needle nudging 8,000rpm and the speedo 300km/h.
The roles at Ferrari are reversed. Today, the road cars are the business and the racing is for the promotion.
Today’s road-going Ferraris are sophisticated in every aspect. The engineering and electronics are advanced, the quality control is as good as at Rolls Royce and they have become the most revered fashion statements in the world.
But this is not all smoke and mirrors — these cars are the genuine goods.
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