Driver, mechanic, engineer, genius, mogul, father, lover, fighter, eccentric, scumbag. embodiment of his own quotation, “If you can dream it, you can do it” In books and magazines about the man who created one of the most durable, longest and most fascinating brands in the world, one of these epithets was almost always there.
Enzo Ferrari was a person who loved speeding cars and racing more than anything else. The man who handed us some of the best and most prestigious cars of today, has gone through a lot of things, but he quickly found his true passion and started to realize his dreams.
Legend of Enzo Ferrari begins on February 18, 1898, on the day of his birth, in the suburbs of Modena in Italy. Even the very beginning of his life was interesting. Ferrari was born on 18 February 1898 in Modena, Italy. His birth certificate had recorded his birth date on 20 February because a heavy snowstorm had prevented his father from reporting the birth at the local registry office. He was the younger of two children to Alfredo and Adalgisa Ferrari, after his elder sibling Alfredo Junior (Dino). Alfredo Senior was the son of a grocer from Carpi and started a workshop fabricating metal parts at the family home.
Enzo Ferrari has shown passion and interest in sport cars in his early youth, thanks to his father. After he and his brother’s father took to the Bologna car race in 1908, he promised his father that he would one day become a racing car driver. And he was dreaming of sitting behind the car’s steering wheel and jumping in the race. He was dreaming about becoming an opera singer. However, the deaths of his father and brother, resulting from a flu epidemic, prompted him to grow fast. She abandoned her further education, and hired at a Modena workshop. Ferari joined the Italian Army in 1917, where he was assigned to the Third Alps Division, simultaneously leading his own battle with the flu taken by his father and brother. That same year he was honored to be released from the army.
Having regained strength, he searched for a job in Fiat but, despite military recommendations, he was denied. Ferrari was eventually employed by a smaller CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali), where he redesigned the bodywork of old trucks and converted them into small passenger vehicles. There he first got the chance to be a test driver and later got a chance to participate in the races.
He continued his career at Alfa Romeo as a mechanic-racer, where he took several victories and got the nickname Rider.In 1923 Enzo met with the parents of
Francesco Baracca the Italian pilot, and suggested that, “for the sake of happiness” and the memory of their son-in-law hero who died before the end of the war, to adds a black prancing horse, what his son had on his plane, to his crazy fast-running car.Yellow, the official color of Modena, birthplace of Enzo Ferrari, was taken as a background, and the legend was born.
Then, in 1929, Enco founded its legendary racing team, the Scuderia Ferrari, which in the literal translation means Ferari’s stables. A few people actually knows that Ferrari DNA started in the Alfa Romeo company. Enzo made a racing team out of nothing. He gathered some of Europe’s best drivers at that time, and gave them even better cars, who led the Scuderia to victory.Tazio Nuvolari, who Ferdinand Porsche later said was the best driver of the past, the present and the future, was one of them.
While he was in Alfa Romeo, although the beast named Alfa Bimotora could develop speeds of over 300 kilometers per hour due to instability and poor maneuvering abilities, especially in turn, it never came to life.
Enzo left Alfa Romeo 1938 dissatisfied with their behavior towards him and his team. For four years, he was forbidden to use the name Ferrari and the horse logo. That is why he opened the AAC (Auto-Avio Costruzioni) company, Ferrari’s factory was forced to undertake war production for Mussolini’s fascist government. It gave Enzo enough money to start building a car empire. At that time, type 815, the first real Ferrari, was born, who, indeed, carried the AAC mark.
Otherwise, it is well-known that Ferrari was unwillingly to make mass-produced cars at the very begin, uningwhen his first factory in Modena was destroyed in the bombing. He then moved to Maranello, where he had survived another complete destruction of the plant, after which his associates sought to build a factory for the production of cheap cars, which would be the source of money for serious production. Unwillingly he accepted.
Only after the Second World War Ferari could begin manufacturing cars that carried his name in 1947. Two years later his first standard model “125 sport” came out. Soon his cars become the most wanted because of their exquisite ability.In the center of his interest was racing and the construction of passenger cars for him was a necessity that was the source of income. That’s why he was known for being disrespectful to the people who bought his cars for brand and exterior look.
Because of his sharp-tongued, sharp mind, business abilities and its fantastic design, Enzo Ferrari has never lacked the enemy. One of them was Ferruccio Lamborghini. The rivalry between Lamborghini and Ferrari, a company that makes some of the world’s coolest cars, has gained a mythical scope. When Lamborghini (at that time manufacturer of tractors and similar work machines) drove his Ferrari 250 GT to a regular service, he saw that transmission have the similar solution as the one he had in his tractors. Lamborghini asked Ferrari to change the transmission solution, to which he replied that he was just a stupid tractor manufacturer, and he did not know anything about sports cars. Lamborghini spit between Ferrari`s legs , turned and began to make his luxury cars. Lamborghini’s logo, gold-black bull, was designed by founder Ferruccio Lamborghini, and a bull, a symbol of his horoscope. The legend says that Mr. Lamborghini intentionally copied Ferari’s shield, replaced the areas of yellow and black fields to hurt the ego of Enzo Ferrari. However, as both actors of this typical male story of spite and succulence have died, we will never find out the truth.
Due to financial problems in 1969, Fiat took part in the company, which by 50 percent later increased to as much as 90 percent. The company recovered only after the victory in Formula 1, with the highest credit of Niki Lauda.
His obsessive passion for proving and competing has sometimes fallen and bothers, but he has certainly given strength to many. He often provoked and motivated the members of his team to constantly move and prove. Ferrari liked so much racers that in his company they had the status of demigod.
As much as he publicly praised his drivers for success, some employees claimed that he had always thought that everything was in a good car. Since 2008, Fijat Group has 85 percent stake in “Ferrari” company. The rest are held by “Mubadala Development Company” and Piero Ferrari.
Enzo is one of the main reasons why we have such fast and luxury cars on the roads. People often talks of him as a man who defined the term speed. With his wife Laura,he had one son, who died after her illness in her 24th year.Piero could be recognized as Enzo’s son after Laura’s death in 1978. Piero is currently a vice-president of the Ferrari company with a 10% share ownership
Ferrari died on 14 August 1988 in Maranello at the age of 90. His death was not made public until two days later, as by Enzo’s request, to compensate for the late registration of his birth.[citation needed] He witnessed the launch of the Ferrari F40, one of the greatest road cars at that time, shortly before his death, which was dedicated as a symbol of his achievements. In 2002 the first car to be named after him was launched as the Enzo Ferrari.
