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Ferrari's beginnings
Enzo Ferrari was its creator. Initially, he was not interested in producing cars for everyday use, so he founded Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, based in Modena, with which he bought, prepared and distributed racing cars. By that time, car racing was all the rage in Italy, so he quickly became an "outpost." -
Splendor
Ferrari became one of the best cars within the technical racing of the Alfa Romeo brand and ended up with its own official racing department in 1933. -
Enzo
During 1937 the first assembled in his workshop in Modena several examples of the Alfetta 158 under the supervision of Enzo Ferrari himself. -
Competitor
Due to his talent for this world, in 1938, Alfa Romeo hired him as manager of its new racing department and this action dissolved Scuderia Ferrari momentarily.
Enzo realized that what Alfa Romeo was looking for was to neutralize his potential by absorbing him and his Scuderia, as they considered him as a strong competitor. -
Abandonment to Alfa Romeo
On September 6, 1939, he left Alfa Romeo under the clause that he would not use the name "Ferrari" on partnerships or racing cars for at least four years.
Days after his resignation, he founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, based on the premises of the former Scuderia Ferrari in Modena. With this new company he ostensibly manufactured tools and parts for aircraft. -
Enzo Ferrari Dubitation
In 1940, he built two examples of a racing car: the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, based on the platform of a Fiat 508C. It was Enzo's first car to debut at the 1940 Mille Miglia, but due to World War II the racing market had slowed down and was no longer profitable for him. -
V12 Engine
In 1943, the Ferrari factory moved to the city of Maranello, where it has remained ever since. During the war, like all Italian companies and by obligation of Mussolini's fascist regime, the company focused mainly on manufacturing grinding machines that were copies of the original German machine tools. The building was bombed by the Allies in 1944, but was quickly rebuilt and, at the end of 1945, after the war ended, Ferrari commissioned Gioacchino Colombo to design a new V12 engine. -
The first car with Ferrari badge
The first Ferrari badged car was the 125 Sport, officially launched in 1947. Enzo Ferrari took the car for its first test-drive on open roads on March 12 of that same year and it responded according to expectations, and then took two examples of the model to the Piacenza race track on May 11; one of these examples was driven by Franco Cortese and the other by Nino Farina. -
Challenges to Ferrari
The great Shelby Cobra powered by a V8 engine challenged the Ferrari cars in the 60s, not to mention that, in the middle of the decade, Ford tried to buy the company, but the agreements did not materialize; even so, the great American automaker ended the dominance of Ferrari prototypes in the championship of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 1966, when its GT-40 Mark II finished in the first places. -
GTO
There was a "big stoppage" at Ferrari, as their latest racing models were not measuring up and were being outperformed by models from other brands such as Jaguar. During this gap, Enzo hired young engineer Mauro Forghieri and racing car veteran Sergio Scaglietti. The two improved the GTO model, which went to Sebring International Raceway with driver Phil Hill and came in first place; it continued to win until 1962 and became one of the most famous sports cars in history. -
Reply
In March 1969, the presentation of the 5-liter Porsche 917, a model of which 25 examples were built in advance, also surprised Ferrari, which that same year responded with 25 examples in advance of the Ferrari 512S, financed with the money earned from an agreement it made with Fiat. -
Affiliate
In early 1969, Fiat acquired a 50% stake in Ferrari. An immediate result was an increase in available investment funds, which began work on a factory extension aimed at transferring production from Fiat's Turin plant. In addition, Ferrari was able with this money to start evaluating the construction of new models mainly oriented to the high end. -
Ferrari vs Germans
The 1970s came with new challenges. Formerly competing only with smaller cars, the Germans inaugurated a new class of 3-liter sports car prototypes in 1968, with the Porsche 908, while Ferrari followed suit with the 312P model, although this model appeared in very few events. -
Testarrosa and F40
One of the most emblematic Ferraris appeared on billboards around the world: the Testarossa, which inaugurated a series of models that marked a before and after in the history of the brand, among which were the Mondial convertible and the F40, which was built to commemorate the company's 40th anniversary. With this, Ferrari's brand recognition reached an all-time high. -
The death of Enzo Ferrari
But the decade ended bitterly with an event that shocked the whole world: the death of Enzo Ferrari. Although it is true that the event was a foregone conclusion, as the man was already very old (he died on February 18, 1988, at the age of 90), he had already died at the age of 90. -
Fiat 90%
It brought about a number of important changes, such as the almost total sale of the brand to the Fiat group, specifically a 90% stake, the appointment of former sports director Luca Cordero di Montezemolo as president in 1991 (in place of Enzo's son Piero, who ended up as vice president) and Ferrari's temporary withdrawal from Formula 1. -
Sold 34%
In June 2002, Fiat sold 34% of Ferrari to a consortium of banks led by Mediobanca for 775.2 million euros. This consortium was also composed of Commerzbank (which obtained a 10% stake), Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna (which held 1.5%) and Compagnie Monégasque de Banque (which held 1%). Mediobanca retained a 21.5% stake and in July 2005 sold, for 114 million euros, a 5% stake to Mubadala Development Company, an Abu Dhabi government investment company. -
Fiat is back
In October 2006, being faithful to its early desires to dominate a significant share of the auto racing market, Fiat took back a 29% stake in Ferrari that cost it 892 million euros; but it was not until November 2010 that it was able to recover the full stake it had previously sold by purchasing the 5% ownership of Ferrari that belonged to Mubadala Development for 122 million euros. -
488 GTB
Ferrari 488 GTB en el Geneva Motor Show de 2015 -
Ferrari in 2023
The Daytona SP3 is all-new and will only be in Ferrari's lineup for the 2023 model year. Only 599 examples are being built, and all have already been sold. Of the 599 cars, 499 of them have been sold to owners who have purchased one of the previous Icona series cars.