dream cars&bikes: The Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A.

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1947
Founder	Enzo Ferrari
Headquarters	Maranello, Modena, Italy
Key people	Luca di Montezemolo, Chairman and President Jean Todt, CEO Giancarlo Coppa CFO
Industry	Automotive
Parent	Fiat S.p.A.
Website

Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello and Modena, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street legal vehicles in 1947 as Ferrari S.p.A.. Ferrari's cars are among the most desirable of vehicles to own and drive, and are one of the ultimate status symbols of wealth in the world. Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it has largely enjoyed great success, especially during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, late 1990s, and 2000s.

Finally, after years of financial struggles, Enzo Ferrari sold the company's sports car division to the Fiat group in 1969 in order to help ensure continued financial backing for the foreseeable future. Enzo Ferrari himself retained control of the racing division until his death in 1988 at the age of 90.

Ferrari also has an internally managed merchandising line that licenses a wide range of products bearing the Ferrari brand, including eyewear, pens, pencils, perfume, clothing, high-tech bicycles, cell phones, and even laptop computers. Financial Times named Ferrari number one on its 2007 list of the 100 Best Workplaces in Europe.

1929–1946

Enzo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 as a sponsor for amateur drivers headquartered in Modena. Ferrari prepared and successfully raced various drivers in Alfa Romeo cars until 1938, when he was officially hired by Alfa as head of their racing department.

In 1940, Alfa Romeo was absorbed by the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini as part of the Axis Powers' war effort. Enzo Ferrari's division was small enough to be unaffected by this. Because he was prohibited by contract from racing for four years, the Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. Also known as SEFAC (Scuderia Enzo Ferrari Auto Corse), Ferrari did in fact produce one race car, the Tipo 815, in the non-competition period; it was thus the first actual Ferrari car (it debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia), but due to World War II it saw little competition. In 1943 the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since. The factory was bombed by the Allies in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946, with the war ended and the Mussolini government overthrown, to include a works for road car production. Right up to Il Commendatore's death, this would remain little more than a source of funding for his first love, racing. "Scuderia Ferrari" literally means "Ferrari Stable"; the name is figuratively translated as "Team Ferrari". (It is correctly pronounced "skoo deh REE ah".)

[edit]

1952 Ferrari Barchetta 212/225

1962 Ferrari 330 LM-B

The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the Scuderia. While his beautiful and fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, most of whom he felt were buying his cars for the prestige and not the performance. Ferrari road cars, noted for styling by design houses like Pininfarina, have long been one of the ultimate accessories for the rich. Other design houses that have done work for Ferrari over the years include Scaglietti, Bertone, Touring, Ghia, and Vignale.

In 2005, four universities were granted the opportunity to design the next vehicle line-up for Ferrari in a student competition named 'Ferrari Concepts of the Myth'. Twenty winners were allowed to show off their concepts in a ¼ scale model and present their work to the board at Ferrari to allow for three out right winners to have the chance to work in the Ferrari design studio at Maranello.

As of 2007, the Fiat Group owns 85% of Ferrari, Mubadala 5%, and Enzo's son Piero 10%. Fiat has shelved plans for an IPO because Fiat Auto has now returned to profitability, thus removing pressure from the group.

Racing

Main article: Scuderia Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari won its most recent Formula One title in 2007, with Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa at the wheel.

Enzo Ferrari's true passion, despite his extensive road car business, was always auto racing. His Scuderia started as an independent sponsor for drivers in various cars, but soon became the Alfa Romeo in-house racing team. After Ferrari's departure from Alfa, he began to design and produce cars of his own; the Ferrari team first appeared on the European Grand Prix scene after the end of World War II.

In 1949, Luigi Chinetti drove a Model 166M to Ferrari's first win in motorsports, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Chinetti drove for all except twenty minutes of the Grand Prix race. He soon became the American dealer for Ferraris and established the North American Racing Team, Ferrari's official racing arm. The dealership is reported to have kept the company in business through sales to wealthy Americans, such as Briggs Cunningham, who bought the first one Chinetti sold through the new dealership.

The Scuderia joined the Formula One World Championship in the first year of its existence, 1950. José Froilán González gave the team its first victory at the 1951 British Grand Prix.

Alberto Ascari gave Ferrari its first Drivers Championship a year later. Ferrari is the oldest team left in the championship, not to mention the most successful: the team holds nearly every Formula One record. As of 2007, the team's records include 15 World Drivers Championship titles (1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007) 15 World Constructors Championship titles (1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007), 201 Grand Prix victories, 4735.27 points, 601 podium finishes, 194 pole positions, 12,419 laps led, and 204 fastest laps in 757 Grands Prix contested.

Notable Ferrari drivers include Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Chinetti, Alberto Ascari, Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, John Surtees, Lorenzo Bandini, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda, Carlos Reutemann, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, Michele Alboreto, Gerhard Berger, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa.

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers for the 2006 F1 season were Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. At the end of the 2006 season the team courted controversy by continuing to allow Marlboro to sponsor them after they, along with the other F1 teams, made a promise to end sponsorship deals with tobacco manufacturers. A five year deal worth a reported $500 million was agreed.^{[citation needed]}

The drivers for 2007 are Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen went on to win the drivers championship, with Massa finishing 4th.

[edit] The "Cavallino Rampante"

The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is a black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top. The road cars have a rectangular badge on the hood (see picture above) and this race logo on the side.

On June 17, 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Count Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War I, who used to paint a horse on the side of his planes. The Countess asked Enzo to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would grant him good luck. The original "prancing horse" on Baracca's airplane was painted in red on a white cloud-like shape, but Ferrari chose to have the horse in black (as it had been painted as a sign of grief on Baracca's squadron planes after the pilot was KIA) and he added a canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of Modena, his birthplace. It is worth noting that the Ferrari horse was, from the very beginning, markedly different from the Baracca horse in most details, the most noticeable being the tail that in the original Baracca version was pointing downward.

Count Francesco Baracca

Ferrari has used the cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the Spa 24 Hours race of July 9, 1932, the cavallino rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.

A similar black horse on a yellow shield is the Coat of Arms of the German city of Stuttgart. This horse motif comes from the origins of the city's name: it comes from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the modern German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian as scuderia. Stuttgart is the home of Porsche, which also uses the Stuttgart sign in its corporate logo, centred in the emblem of the state of Württemberg.

Coat of arms of Stuttgart, Germany

Fabio Taglioni used the cavallino rampante on his Ducati motorbikes. Taglioni's father was a companion of Baracca's and fought with him in the 91st Air Squad. As Ferrari's fame grew, Ducati abandoned the horse- perhaps the result of a private agreement between the two companies.

Austrian Fuel Stations

The cavallino rampante is now a trademark of Ferrari. However, other companies use similar logos: Avanti, an Austrian company operating over 100 filling stations, uses a prancing horse logo which is nearly identical to Ferrari's.

Many aspects of the cover design of the third Jamiroquai album, Travelling Without Moving, as well as the single Virtual Insanity and some single promos pay homage to the Ferrari logo.

[edit] Rosso Corsa

Main article: Rosso corsa

Since the 1920s, Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and later Ferrari and Abarth were (and often still are) painted in "race red" (Rosso Corsa). This was the customary national racing color of Italy, as recommended between the World Wars by the organizations that later would become the FIA. In that scheme, French cars like Bugatti were blue, German like BMW and Porsche white (since 1934 also Silver Arrows), British racing green etc.

Curiously, Ferrari won the 1964 World championship with John Surtees by competing the last two races in cars painted white and blue, as these were not entered by the Italian factory themselves, but the US-based NART team. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.

[edit] List of models

Until the early 1980s, Ferrari followed a three-number naming scheme based on engine displacement:

V6 and V8 models used the total displacement (in decilitres) for the first two digits and the number of cylinders as the third. Thus, the 206 was a 2.0 L V6 powered vehicle, while the 348 used a 3.4 L V8, although, for the F355, the last digit refers to 5 valves per cylinder. Since the 360, the digits for V8 models refers only to total engine displacement.
V12 models used the displacement (in cubic centimetres) of one cylinder. Therefore, the famed 365 Daytona had a 4390 cc V12. However, some newer V12-engined Ferraris, such as the 599, have three-number designations that refer only to total engine displacement.
Flat 12 (boxer) models used the displacement in litres. Therefore, the 512BB was five litre flat 12 (a Berlinetta Boxer, in this case). However, the original Berlinetta Boxer was the 365 GT4 BB, which was named in a similar manner to the V12 models.
Some models, such as the 1980 Mondial and the 1984 Testarossa did not follow a three-number naming scheme.

Most Ferraris were also given designations referring to their body style. In general, the following conventions were used:

M standing for "Modificata," this suffix is placed to the end of a model's number designation to denote that it is a modified version of its predecessor and not a complete evolution (see F512M and 575M Maranello).
GTB models are closed Berlinettas, or coupes.
GTS models, in older models, are convertibles (see 365 GTS4); however, in late models, this suffix is used for targa top models (see 348 GTS, and F355 GTS; exception being the 348 TS, which is the only targa named differently). The convertible models now use the suffix "Spider" (see F355 Spider, and Ferrari 360 Spider).

This naming system can be confusing, as some entirely different vehicles used the same engine type and body style. Many Ferraris also had other names affixed (like Daytona) to identify them further. Many such names are actually not official factory names. The Daytona name commemorates Ferrari's triple success in the February 1967 24 Hours of Daytona with the 330P4. Only in the 1973 Daytona 24h, a 365 GTB4 model run by N.A.R.T. (North American Racing Team, who raced Ferrari's in America) scored 2nd—behind a Porsche 911.

The various Dino models were named for Enzo's son, Dino Ferrari, and are not formally Ferraris, though are to all intents and purposes considered so.

In the mid 1990s, Ferrari added the letter "F" to the beginning of all models (a practice quickly abandoned after the F512M and F355, but recently picked up again with the F430).

[edit] Road models

Ferrari road car timeline, 1947-1967 v • d • e

Next ->

Type

1940s

1950s

1960

250 GT
Tour de France

<- Previous		Ferrari road car timeline, 1960s–present v • d • e
Type		1960s										1970										1980s										1990s										2000s
		0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
FR	GT	America				330		365		365 GTB/4 Daytona																												550						575M				599
		250				275
	2+2	250GT				330GT			365GT				GTC/4		GT4			400			400i						412							456						456M						612
RMR	V6/V8									Dino 206		Dino 246							308GTB			308i		308 QV			328					348										360						F430
																						208															F355
	2+2														Dino GT4							Mondial 8		Mondial QV			3.2 Mondial				Mondial t
	flat-12														365BB			512 BB					512i BB			Testarossa							512TR			F512M
Supercar				250 GTO			250 LM																			288 GTO			F40								F50		F50 GT						Enzo			FXX

The Ferrari Club of America's parking lot at the 2005 United States Grand Prix

[edit] Sports cars

Ferrari's first models were sports/racing cars quite different from the grand touring models that followed. See below for a complete list.

[edit] 2-seat Gran Turismo

Ferrari quickly moved into the Gran Turismo market, and the bulk of the company's sales remain in this area.

1949 166 Inter
1950 195 Inter
1951 212 Inter
1951 342 America
1953 375 MM Coupe
1953 250 Europa
1953 375 America
1954 250 Europa GT
1956 410 Superamerica
1956-1963 250 GT Europa/Boano/Ellena/Coupe Pininfarina/Lusso
1957-1960 250 GT Berlinetta/Cabriolet/California Spyder/SWB
1960 400 Superamerica
1964-1968 275
- 1964-1965 275 GTB/GTS
- 1966-1968 275 GTB/4
1964 500 Superfast
1964 330
- 1966 330 GTC Coupe
- 1966 330 GTS Spider
1966 365 California
1968 365
- 1968-1969 365 GTC Coupe
- 1969-1970 365 GTS Spider
1968-1973 Daytona
- 1968 365 GTB4/365 GTS4
1996-2001 550 Maranello
- 1996-2001 550 Maranello
- 2001 Barchetta
2002-2006 575M Maranello
- 2002-2006 575M Maranello
- 2005 Superamerica
2007 599 GTB Fiorano

[edit] Mid-engine V6/V8

Ferrari 328 GTS Targa

The Dino was the first mid-engined Ferrari. This layout would go on to be used in most Ferraris of the 1980s and 1990s. V6 and V8 Ferrari models make up well over half of the marque's total production.

1968-1975 Dino
- 1968-1973 Dino 206 GT
- 1968-1973 Dino 246GT/GTS
1975-1989 208/308/328 GTB/GTS
- 1975-1977 308 GTB Fibreglass
- 1977-1979 308 GTB and GTS
- 1980-1981 208 GTB/GTS
- 1980-1981 308 GTBi/GTSi
- 1982-1985 208 GTB/GTS Turbo
- 1982-1985 308 GTB/GTS Quattrovalvole
- 1986-1989 328 GTB/GTS
- 1986 208 GTB/GTS Turbo
1989-1994 348
- 1989-1993 348 TB/TS
- 1993-1994 348 GTB/GTS/Spider
1994-1999 F355
- 1994-1999 F355 Berlinetta/GTS
- 1995-1999 F355 Spider
- 1995 F355 Challenge
- 1998-1999 355 F1
1999-2004 360
- 1999-2004 360 Modena/Spider
- 2003-2004 Challenge Stradale
2005 F430
- 2005 F430 & F430 Spider
- 2007 430 Scuderia

[edit] Mid-engine 2+2

Bertone-bodied Dino 308 GT4

For a time, Ferrari built 2+2 versions of its mid-engined V8 cars. Although they looked quite different from their 2-seat counterparts, both the GT4 and Mondial were very closely-related to the 308 GTB.

1974-1980 208/308 GT4
- 1974-1975 Dino 308GT4
- 1976-1980 308GT4
- 1975-1980 208 GT4
1980-1993 Mondial
- 1980-1981 Mondial 8
- 1982-1985 Mondial Quattrovalvole
- 1983-1985 Mondial QV Cabriolet
- 1985-1989 Ferrari Mondial#3.2 Mondial/3.2 Mondial Cabriolet
- 1989-1993 Mondial T/Mondial T Cabriolet

[edit] Front-engine 2+2

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

The company has also produced front-engined 2+2 cars, culminating in the current 612 Scaglietti.

1960-1963 250
- 1960-1963 250 GT/E 2+2
1964-1967 330
- 1964-1965 330 GT 2+2
- 1965-1967 330 GT 2+2 Mk II
1967-1971 365
- 1967-1971 365 GT 2+2
1968-1973 365 Daytona
- 1971-1972 365 GTC/4
- 1972-1976 365 GT4 2+2
1976-1989 400/412
- 1976 400 Automatic
- 1979 400i
- 1985 412
1992-2003 456/456M
- 1992-1997 456 GT/GTA Coupe
- 1998-2003 456M GT/GTA Coupe
2004 612 Scaglietti

[edit] Mid-engine 12-cylinder

Ferrari entered the mid-engined 12-cylinder fray with the Berlinetta Boxer in 1973. The later Testarossa remains one of the most famous Ferraris.

1973-1984 Berlinetta Boxer
- 1973-1976 365 GT4 BB
- 1976-1981 512 BB
- 1981-1984 512i BB
1984-1996 Testarossa
- 1984-1992 Testarossa
- 1992-1994 512 TR
- 1994-1996 F512 M