When we talk about Ferrari, we usually mean something more than just expensive cars. For many of us, this brand is a legend created by one brave man. For more than fifty years, Ferrari cars have left all their competitors far behind. Created by the Italian Enzo Ferrari back in the 40s, they still inspire respect and admiration to this day.
It all started with the dream of a little boy, whom his father took with him to car competitions more than once. It was then that Enzo decided to connect his life with motorsport. At the age of twenty, just after the end of the First World War, he is hired by the CMN car company as a test driver. After working there for two years, he quits and goes to the then still small and little-known company Alfa-Romeo, whose cars are considered quite promising and interesting.
In the post-war years, the automotive industry in Italy developed at a very rapid pace. And for Enzo Ferrari it was a great chance to realize his dream - to create his own racing team. So, in 1929, Scuderia Ferrari appeared in the city of Modena, in the creation of which both his friends and partners, Alfa-Romeo, helped the young Italian, with whom he continued his cooperation.
Scuderia in Italian means "stable", the young Ferrari's logo was chosen accordingly - a rearing horse on a yellow background. Interestingly, the history of the appearance of this emblem is rather complicated. At one time, a rearing horse adorned the fighter of Francesco Baracchi, the ace of the First World War, who died heroically near Montello. In 1923, during one of his performances on the track, Enzo met the pilot's parents, Count Enrico Baracca and his wife. They offered the young man to portray a rearing horse on his racing car. “He will bring good luck,” the countess added then. And I was not mistaken. Enzo Ferrari for all subsequent years kept a photograph of a young pilot, transferred to him by the Barraca family. He left the emblem entrusted to him unchanged, adding only a golden background - the color of the city of Madena.
Throughout the 30s, Scuderia Ferrari acted as a representative of Alfa-Romeo, but soon decided to establish its own independent production of cars. The outbreak of the Second World War suspended the plans of Enzo Ferrari, and the company was forced to work on military orders. But immediately after the end of the war, the Italian again begins to implement his plans.
So, in 1946, the world saw the first car he created - the Ferrari 125, featuring a 12-cylinder aluminum engine and representing a combination of road and racing performance in one car. A year later, an improved modification of the Ferrari engine was released, and the Auto Avia Construzione Ferrari company was created, the purpose of which was to produce and sell sports cars.
Cars created by Enzo Ferrari win victory after victory in a variety of races. The brand is becoming more and more successful, and car sales continue to grow. In the mid-50s, such a racing competition as Formula 1 begins to gain popularity. In 1952 and 1953, the famous Scuderia Ferrari sports car driver Alberto Ascari won this competition, making the Ferrari brand the most famous and most desired in the automotive world.
By the mid-50s, Ferrari had already produced 250 race cars and 200 road cars - for those who need a combination of speed and convenience. Enzo Ferrari does not stand aside from social activities - he creates engineering schools, builds tracks.
At about the same time, the company's competitors began to appear - Lamborghini, lotus, Mazeratti, Porsche. They periodically bypassed famous sports cars in one way or another, sometimes snatched a victory from them during the races. But the leadership in most cases continued to remain with Ferrari. Remarkably, Enzo Ferrari never resorted to advertising his cars, creating a brand solely on quality.
This is not to say that the history of the Ferrari brand has never been overshadowed. Car racing is not without its tragedies, and it has been more than enough for both the company and its creator. So, in the 50s, the famous racer Alberto Ascari died, thanks to whose participation in Formula 1 Scuderia Ferrari gained its worldwide popularity. Following this, death overtook Dino Ferrari, the twenty-four-year-old son of Enzo. Later, 2 pilots crashed one after another on Ferrari 246 cars, whose death was no less a tragedy.
Enzo Ferrari himself is considered to this day one of the kings of the automotive industry. During the years of his leadership of the company, the Ferrari team won more than 5 thousand races, winning 25 world cups. He died in 1988, celebrating his ninetieth birthday. After the death of the great Italian, Ferrari passed to the FIAT corporation, which at that time already owned 50% of its shares.
And although the founder of the company is no longer at the helm, Ferrari is still one of the most expensive car brands in the world. The Ferrari team continues to win victories. So, from 2000 to 2004, the famous racer Michael Schumacher won the world championship on a Ferrari car for four years in a row. More and more powerful and fast cars continue to be created that do not leave indifferent any of the motorists.
One example of this was the special model Ferrari Enzo, presented in Paris in 2003 and recognized at that time as the most powerful of all production cars in Europe. Named after the great designer, it is the embodiment of all the best that the company has achieved in more than fifty years of the history of the legendary brand.
