The content of the article:
- A chidhood dream
- Emblem
- Bad start
- First victories
- Ferrari tragedies
- Lamborghini and Ferrari
- Cinema
- Ferrari and Ford
- Ferrari and Vatican
- Most expensive
Ferrari, which will soon celebrate its 90th anniversary, is much more than just an automaker. Her cars are becoming legends of racing, immortal elements of pop culture and simply museum pieces that are unmatched. The article will tell you about the most interesting moments of the iconic brand.
1. Childhood dream
Unlike the founders of other well-known car manufacturers who started out with bicycles, motorcycles and even looms, Enzo Ferrari knew immediately what he wanted. And he wanted a bright, eventful life, fame and recognition. Frequent attendance at car competitions with his father led to the fact that Enzo fell in love with the race, which he decided to make his destiny.
He never liked to study, so after serving in the army he began to look for work. Ferrari tried to get a job at the Fiat plant, having only a letter of recommendation from the commander of his unit. There he received a blow to his pride in the form of an answer that they did not take to the company, just anyone.
The young man, without changing his dream, went to be hired as a test racer at CMN. It was here that his first sports trip took place in 1919, when he was only 21 years old. First, on the Parma-Berceto track, where he failed to show a significant result, and then on Targa Florio, although he "owes" his 9th place to the presidential speech in the square, because of which the carabinieri blocked the road.
For two years, he gained racing experience there, until he changed employer for the then completely unknown small company Alfa-Romeo. With his natural instinct, he realized that the cars developed by this company have an interesting design that promises great prospects. In the two decades he spent at Alfa-Romeo, Enzo rose from a simple driver to the head of the sports division. Having become more familiar with the production, he assembled his own team called "Ferrari Stable", whose purpose was to improve the cars produced. His dream was to create the perfect, fast as the wind, racing car.
Until the late 1930s, his "Stable" continued to refine Alfa-Romeo cars, until Ferrari decided that he was ready for his own enterprise. But even after the birth of "Auto-avia Construzione" he could not produce a car under his own brand for another 4 years, which was a condition of the contract with Alfa-Romeo.
2. Emblem
The legendary horse that adorns the Ferrari emblem is a tribute to the first transport entrusted to the young Enzo. In the army, he supervised the maintenance of regimental horses and carts, doing repairs, feeding and horseshoeing.
Then, already performing on the tracks as a full-fledged racer, Ferrari had a chance to meet the parents of Francesco Baracca. An aristocrat born into an earl's family, Baracchi became the best fighter in Italy during the First World War, on whose account there were more than 30 downed enemies. The fuselage of his plane was decorated with a rearing black horse, which became a legend along with its owner.
During a memorable meeting at that competition, the Count and Countess of Baracchi offered the young Ferrari this emblem for his car, believing that it would bring him good luck. Enzo could not refuse such a gift, bringing from himself only a golden background - the color of his hometown of Modena.
This is one of the few car signs that practically did not change their shape over the entire period of its existence.
3. Unsuccessful start
Ferrari did not have education and technical training, but he possessed incredible charm, oratorical talent and energy that attracted outstanding people to him. The first in his team was the designer from Fiat Vittorio Yano, to whom the world owes the eminent winner of all European tracks Alfa Romeo P2. After him, Enzo lured away from his previous employer the very talented engineer Giokino Colombo, and Ferrari looked for pilots for his cars all over the world and personally approved.
The first to leave the assembly line of the now own car-making company was a car called the Ferrari-125 GT. And here, when his dreams finally began to come true at the age of 40, Ferrari showed excessive impatience. The car was absolutely not ready to go out into the world, it was still necessary to carry out many tests, to bring the technical part to mind, but Ferrari had already announced it for the next race. As a result, the first car was crashed during the test drive, and the second one a few meters after the start.
Two years later, on the next Ferrari-125 model, Russian pilot Igor Trubetskoy also loses the Monaco Grand Prix by crashing a car. And only in 1951, the Argentine driver was able to get the first victory for Ferrari in the British Grand Prix.
4. First victories
The earliest advances were made in small, local auto racing. This continued until the 50s, until Alberto Ascari joined the team.
The competition, called Formula 1, was gaining momentum every year, turning into a global event. And immediately two years in a row - 1952 and 1953 - Sc uderia Ferrari, piloted by Askari, wins an absolute victory.
After that, victories rained down one after another, and the team was replenished with eminent race drivers: Giuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Gilles Villeneuve.
And although the Ferrari team constantly had worthy competitors - Mazeratti, Porsche and the same Lamborgini - and they even managed to intercept the winning cups, still the absolute leadership of the races remained with Enzo Ferrari.
5. Tragedies of Ferrari
The company managed to avoid the common problems of automakers: the economic crisis, falling demand, workers' strikes. But this does not mean that the history of the brand is not overshadowed by anything. Death followed Ferrari's heels:
- Formula 1 world champion Alberto Askari died during a test run at the age of 36;
- at the age of 23, Dino's beloved son died of congenital muscular dystrophy;
- Peter Collins in memory of Dino Ferrari won the French Grand Prix and gave the mourning bandage to Enzo, and the 27-year-old driver died while participating in the German Grand Prix;
- rainy weather while testing the car led to the death of promising 26-year-old Eugenio Castellotti;
- almost immediately after in the race, the Mille Miglia crashed into the crowd, died themselves and were responsible for the death of spectators 28-year-old Alfonso de Portago and his partner Ed Nelson;
- even 29-year-old Mike Hawthorne, a British race car driver who left the Ferrari team, just a month after leaving, crashed on a regular road in a car accident;
- Gilles Villeneuve, father of two eminent Formula 1 drivers, also fell victim to Enzo Ferrari's exorbitant ambitions at the age of 32.
Although in the paddock, members of various teams gave the nickname "black coffins" to the cars of the Lotus team, according to harsh statistics, most of the riders died in Ferrari cars.
6. Lamborghini and Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari was described as a quarrelsome man, a tyrant and despot. But it was thanks to his irascibility that the world saw no less legendary models released by Lamborghini.
Ferruccio Lamborghini owned a small tractor factory. In the post-war period, agricultural machinery was in great demand, so the company quickly grew and made its owner a wealthy man.
Lamborghini decided to please himself with the purchase of a beautiful sports car and opted for a Ferrari. And he was dissatisfied. He went to the manufacturer to comment on the performance of the machine. Further, the story has two versions of presentation.
According to the first, the Ferrari secretary simply did not let Lamborghini in, saying that the owner had no time to waste time on the first comer. The second version says that Enzo still received a visitor, whom he rudely ordered to deal with tractors and not get into the automotive world.
No matter how it actually happened, Lamborghini got angry in earnest. In spite of Ferrari, he decided to assemble a strong team and develop his own sports car, faster and more perfect than the competitor.
Excellent education and years of experience played into the hands of the angry Italian. He disassembled the Ferrari model he had purchased for parts, and the best specialists in their field, partially enticed from Ferrari, helped to understand the principle and create an improved version of Lamborghini. Because of his arrogance, Enzo often undeservedly insulted his people, so qualified engineers and designers left the company without remorse. They - designer Franco Scaglione, engine developer Giotto Bizarini and engineer Luciano Bonacini - formed the core of Ferruccio Lamborghini's team and his new company Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini, located just 15 kilometers from their opponent.
To give Lamborghini his due - on the first try he created a really good Lamborghini 350GT. It is difficult to say whether the success of his colleague Enzo Ferrari noticed the success, but for more than half a century, the models of the two auto giants continue to fiercely compete with each other.
And by the way, now Ferrari does not hesitate to produce tractors.
7. Ferrari in cinema
It's amazing that such iconic cars are rarely made in films. Perhaps this is due to the original attitude of Enzo to his creations, which he loved much more than people. Or, perhaps, with the fact that Ferrari never advertised its cars in principle.
How many films can boast of owning the most recognizable car in the world?
- The second part of "Charlie's Angels" impresses with a beautiful shot when Demi Moore in a bikini drives a two-seat supercar Ferrari Enzo, designed in memory of the founding father of the company;
- In the film version of Gone in 60 Seconds, Nicolas Cage quite successfully steals the fastest and most powerful car of 1987-1989, worth under $ 2 million - the Ferrari F40;
- In the 80s, the Ferrari 308 GTS was most often involved in filming, which, perhaps, can be explained by its low price. So, she appeared in "Vacation" with Chevy Chase and "Cannonball" with Burt Reynolds;
- But for the mega-popular Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy borrowed his own Ferrari 328 GTS. Murphy rode another model while filming How to Steal a Skyscraper in 2011. Numerous responses to the film confirm that the excellent acting is definitely outshined by the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso;
- How not to remember the phenomenal success of the series “Miami Police. Department of Morals ", on the basis of which a special subculture was born. Film critics are still confident that if it were not for the soundtrack and used cars, the series would have turned out to be completely different. True, in the first seasons there was a small conflict with Ferrari representatives due to the fact that instead of the original, they took a Daytona Spider based on a Chevrolet Corvette for filming. So a real Ferrari Testarossa was provided for the third season.
8. Ferrari and Ford
Not only Lamborghini angered Ferrari, but Henry Ford as well. The American entrepreneur saw the potential of the booming Italian company and decided to acquire it. He was negotiating with Enzo, raised enough money when Ferrari stunned him with a refusal. It turns out that he did not agree with Ford on the issues of car participation in races, which were above all for Enzo.
And then the story that happened once was repeated. Ford directed all his efforts to create a unique sports car that would wipe the nose of Ferrari. It was the legendary 4-time Le Mans GT40 race winner, who became the ancestors of all American sports cars.
9. Ferrari and the Vatican
In 2004, the last Enzo came off the assembly line and was donated to the Vatican. This fact seems surprising that the Catholic Church more than once reproached Enzo Ferrari for the useless deaths of his racers. Moreover, the Pope even called him Saturn devouring his children. As if trying to piss off, Enzo, in response, either gave the steering wheel from Schumacher's car, then sent checks to charity.
Nevertheless, the donated car went to a good cause: Pope Benedict sold it at an auction, and used the proceeds to help the victims of the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004.
10. The most expensive
Ferrari managed to make a brand with the prefix "the best". Anything with a Ferrari emblem automatically becomes sky-high. So, the 250GTO model was sold for 15 million dollars, the anniversary model F40 is still the most expensive one sold in the UK - 193.3 thousand pounds sterling, a simple advertising brochure of the 250LM model went for a record amount of one thousand pounds, and only the engine for 599GTB Fiorano costs 70 thousand dollars.
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