 History
Ferrari
1929-1946
See Scuderia Ferrari for further history of the Ferrari racing team.
Ferrari founder 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, upon learning of the company's plan to absorb his beloved Scuderia
and take control of his racing efforts, he quit Alfa. Because he was
prohibited by contract from racing for several years, the Scuderia briefly
became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine
tools and aircraft accessories. Ferrari did in fact produce one racecar,
the Tipo 815, in the non-competition period; it was thus the first actual
Ferrari car, 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 in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946 to include a works
for road car production.
"Scuderia Ferrari" literally means "Ferrari Stable" in
keeping with the prancing horse emblem; the name is figuratively translated
as "Team Ferrari."
1946-present
 The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5-litre
V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the
Scuderia. While his beautiful and blazingly 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 value.
Ferrari road cars, noted for their exquisite styling by design houses
such as Pininfarina, have long been one of the ultimate accessories for
the rich and young (or young-at-heart). Other design houses that have
done work for Ferrari over the years include Scaglietti, Bertone, Touring,
Ghia, and Vignale.
Ferrari cars feature highly-tuned small V8 and V12 engines, often in
a mid-engined configuration; until the introduction of fuel injection
in the 1980s, they were quite temperamental. Until the mid-1980s they
carried a reputation for unreliability and bad engineering, though these
were written off by enthusiasts as "character." Ferrari owners
have famously and religiously defended the merits of their cars while
virulently criticizing other brands.
As of 2004, FIAT owns 56% of Ferrari, Mediobanca owns 15%, Commerzbank
AG owns 10%, Lehman Brothers owns 7%, and Enzo's son Piero Ferrari owns
10%.
Further
informations at Wikipedia
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