Everything about Ferrari totally explained
Ferrari S.p.A. is an
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.. 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.
After years of financial struggles, Enzo Ferrari sold the company's sports car division to the
Fiat group in 1969 to ensure continued financial backing. Enzo Ferrari retained control of the racing division until his death in 1988 at the age of 90. Earlier that year he'd overseen the launch of the
Ferrari F40; the last new Ferrari to be launched before his death.
Ferrari also has an internally managed merchandising line that licenses many products bearing the Ferrari brand, including eyewear, pens, pencils, electronic goods, 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.
History of Ferrari
1929–1946
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he formed
Scuderia Ferrari (literally "Ferrari Stable", usually used to mean "Team Ferrari", it's correctly pronounced "skoo deh
REE ah") 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 to head 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 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, after the war ended, and included a works for road car production. Until
Il Commendatore's death, this would remain little more than a source of funding for his first love, racing.
1947–present
The first Ferrari road car was the 1947
125 S, powered by a 1.5 L
V12 engine;
Enzo Ferrari 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.
Sports car racing
In 1949,
Luigi Chinetti drove a
166M to Ferrari's first win in
motorsports, the
24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari went on to dominate the early years of the
World Sportscar Championship which was created in
1953, winning the
Manufacturers Championship seven out of its first nine years. When the championship changed formats in
1962, Ferrari earned championships in at least one class until
1966, then again in
1968. Ferrari would win one final championship in
1972 before Enzo decided to leave sports car racing and concentrate
Scuderia Ferrari solely on
Formula One.
During Ferrari's seasons of the
World Sportscar Championship, they also gained more wins at the
24 Hours of Le Mans, with the factory team earning their first in . Another win would come in before they began a streak of five straight wins from to .
Luigi Chinetti's
North American Racing Team (NART) would take Ferrari's final victory at
Le Mans in .
Although
Scuderia Ferrari no longer participated in sports cars after 1973, they've occasionally built various successful sports cars for
privateers. These include the
512BB/LM in the 1970s, the
333 SP which won the
IMSA GT Championship in the 1990s, and currently the
F430 GT2 and GT3 which are currently winning championships in their respective classes.
Formula One
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, 4753.27 points, 603 podium finishes, 195
pole positions, 12,489 laps led, and 205 fastest laps in 758 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.
The drivers competing in 2007 were
Felipe Massa and
Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen went on to win the drivers championship, with Massa finishing 4th.
A1 Grand Prix
On
October 11 2007, it was announced that Ferrari will power all
A1 Grand Prix cars from the 2008-09 season.
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 bring 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 killed in action) and he added a
canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of
Modena, his birthplace. 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.
Ferrari has used the
cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the
Spa 24 Hours 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.
Fabio Taglioni used the
cavallino rampante on his
Ducati motorbikes, as Taglioni was born at Lugo di Romagna like Baracca, and his father too was a military pilot during WWI (even if not part of Baracca's squadron, as is mistakenly reported). As Ferrari's fame grew, Ducati abandoned the horse- perhaps the result of a private agreement between the two companies.
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.
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
Audi,
BMW, and
Porsche white (since 1934 also
Silver Arrows), and British such as
BRM green, for instance.
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 U.S.-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.
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. Upon introduction of the 360 Modena, the digits for V8 models (which now carried a name as well as a number) refer only to total engine displacement. The numerical indication aspect of this name has carried on to the current V8 model, the F430.
- 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 didn't 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 ("Modificata"), placed at the end of a model's number, denotes a modified version of its predecessor and not a complete evolution (see F512M and 575M Maranello).
GTB models are closed Berlinettas, or coupes.
GTS in older models, are open Spyders (spelt "y"), or convertibles (see 365GTS4); however, in more recent models, this suffix is used for targa top models (see Dino 246GTS, and F355 GTS; the exception being the 348 TS, which is the only targa named differently). The convertible models now use the suffix "Spider" (spelt "i") (see F355 Spider, and 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 24 Hours, a 365 GTB4 model run by NART, who raced Ferrari's in America) ran second, 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 abandoned after the F512M and F355, but adopted again with the F430).
Road models
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.
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
1953 250 Europa
1953 375 America
1954 250 Europa GT
1956 410 Superamerica
1956-1963 250 GT Europa/Boano/Ellena/Pininfarina Coupe/Lusso
1957-1960 250 GT Berlinetta/Cabriolet/California Spyder/SWB
1960 400 Superamerica
1964-1968 275
1964 500 Superfast
1964 330
1966 365 California
1968 365
1968-1973 365 Daytona
1996-2001 550 Maranello
2002-2006 575M Maranello
2007 599 GTB Fiorano
Mid-engine V6/V8
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.
1968-1974 Dino
1975-1989 208/308/328 GTB/GTS
1989-1994 348
1994-1999 F355
- 1994-1999 F355 Berlinetta & GTS
- 1995-1999 F355 Spider
- 1995 F355 Challenge
- 1998-1999 355 F1
1999-2004 360
2005 F430
Mid-engine 2+2
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 closely related to the 308 GTB.
1974-1980 208/308 GT4
1980-1993 Mondial
Front-engine 2+2
The company has also produced front-engined 2+2 cars, culminating in the current 612 Scaglietti and upcoming California.
1960-1963 250
1964-1967 330
1967-1971 365
1968-1973 365 Daytona
1976-1989 400 & 412
1992-2003 456 & 456 M
2004 612 Scaglietti
2009 Ferrari California
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
1984-1996 Testarossa
Supercars
The company's loftiest efforts have been in the supercar market.
1962-1964 250 GTO
1984-1985 288 GTO
1987-1992 F40
1995-1997 F50
1996 F50 GT
2003-2005 Enzo
2006 FXX
Competition models
Current
2009 GT California
2008 F2008
2007 599 GTB Fiorano
2006-2008 Ferrari F430
2006 F430 GT
2006 F430 Pista
2006 FXX
Past
Sports cars
Formula 1
Formula 2
Concept Models
1968 Ferrari P5
1969 Ferrari Pininfarina 512S Berlinetta Speciale
1970 Ferrari Pininfarina Modulo
1989 Ferrari Mythos
2005 Ferrari GG50
2005 Ferrari Ascari
2006 Ferrari P4/5
2006 Ferrari Zagato 575 GTZFurther Information
Get more info on 'Ferrari'.
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