History of Ferrari

Which car is the greatest supercar? Many would argue Ferrari.

Ferrari is one of the best sports car brands in the world. Enzo Ferrari, based in Marenello, Italy founded the company in 1947. Initially, known as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored race drivers and manufactured racecars, before they started the production of street-legal vehicles in the year 1947 as Ferrari S.p.A. However, till date the company still continues with its racing ventures, especially formula one.

The first Ferrari road car was the "1947 125 Sport", powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine. The idea of manufacturing and selling road cars by Enzo was to fund Scuderia Ferrari. This car soon gained popularity and a reputation for excellence. Despite the gaining popularity, Enzo was reluctant in selling road cars. He believed that people were buying his cars for mere prestige and not for performance.

Ferrari soon emerged as a leading racecar manufacturer and a leading race team. Despite the success of the company, the internal tensions amongst the senior managers had reached boiling points. "Giralamo Gardini" the sales manager had problems with the interference of Enzo's wife Laura in the company. Their disputes and arguments finally led to the resignation of Gardini. Gardini had a strong support in the company. Scuderia manager, "Romolo Tavoni", chief engineer "Carlo Chitti" and many others had to leave the company alongside Gardini. As a revolt against Ferrari these men formed a new company ATS, to compete with Ferrari. This was known as "The Great Walkout". With the outburst of this walkout, the company lost one of their best racing customers the "Scuderia Serenissima".

Before the big walkout, the company was working on the "250GTO". This project then landed in the hands of a young engineer "Mauro Forghieri" and a long time racecar body maker, "Sergio Scaglietti". This project soon managed to improve things for Ferrari. The Dino road cars and legendary models such as the "F275" and "Daytona" made their way in the market and were amongst the best sellers.

The company witnessed a lot of competition in the early 60s due to the emergence of V8 engine powered "Shelby Cobra". Ford also tried to buy the company, but failed in their motives. In the year 1966 Fords, "GT-40 Mark 2" engines dominated the "24 Hours Le Mans race". After 1967, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) banned the use of prototype engines over 3000cc, which heavily affected the upcoming Ferrari 330P models. To protest this, Scuderia did not take part in the event.

The company also witnessed great challenges by Porsche in 1968 with models such as the "Porsche908". However, the Ferrari 312PB models dominated the World Sports Car Championship in 1972.

Enzo died in the year 1988 and as a result, the company saw a huge rise in the old car values as well as sales of the new models. The signing of Michael Schumacher was a comeback for the Ferrari F1 Team. From 2004 till date, Fiat Group controls Ferrari and owns 56% stakes of the company.