Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Ferrari History

1929–1948

Enzo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he had formed Scuderia Ferrari (literally "Ferrari Stable", and usually used to mean "Team Ferrari", it is correctly pronounced "skoo deh REE ah") 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 hired by Alfa Romeo to head their motor racing department.

In 1941, Alfa Romeo was confiscated by the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini as part of the Axis Powers' war effort. Enzo Ferrari's division was small enough to be unaffected by this. Because he was prohibited by contract from racing for four years, the Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. Also known as SEFAC(Scuderia Enzo Ferrari Auto Corse), Ferrari did in fact produce one race car, the Tipo 815, in the non-competition period. It was the first actual Ferrari car (it debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia), 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 by the Allies in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946, after the war ended, and included a works for road car production. Until Il Commendatore's death, this would remain little more than a source of funding for his first love, racing.

166MM Barchetta 212/225.

[edit]1947–present

The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 LV12 engine; Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund Scuderia Ferrari.[citation needed]

While his beautiful and fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers.[citation needed]

A 312PB during the team's final year in the World Sportscar Championship.

[edit]Sports car racing

In 1949, Luigi Chinetti drove a 166M to Ferrari's first win inmotorsports, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari went on to dominate the early years of the World Sportscar Championship which was created in 1953, winning the Manufacturers Championship seven out of its first nine years.

When the championship changed formats in 1962, Ferrari earned championships in at least one class until 1966, then again in 1968. Ferrari would win one final championship in 1972 before Enzo decided to leave sports car racing and concentrate Scuderia Ferrari solely on Formula One.

During Ferrari's seasons of the World Sportscar Championship, they also gained more wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the factory team earning their first in 1954. Another win would come in 1958, followed by five consecutive wins from 1960 to 1964. Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team(NART) would take Ferrari's final victory at Le Mans in 1965.

Although Scuderia Ferrari no longer participated in sports cars after 1973, they have occasionally built various successful sports cars for privateers. These include the 512BB/LM in the 1970s, the 333 SPwhich won the IMSA GT Championship in the 1990s, and currently the F430 GT2 and GT3 which are currently winning championships in their respective classes.

[edit]Formula One

Main article: Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari won its most recent Formula One driver's title in2007, with Kimi Räikkönen.

The Scuderia joined the Formula One World Championship in the first year of its existence,in 1950. José Froilán González gave the team its first victory at the 1951 British Grand Prix.

Alberto Ascari gave Ferrari its first Drivers Championship a year later. Ferrari is the oldest team left in the championship, not to mention the most successful: the team holds nearly every Formula One record. As of 2008, the team's records include 15 World Drivers Championship titles (1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,2004 and 2007) 16 World Constructors Championship titles 1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982,1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008, 209 Grand Prix victories, 4925.27 points, 622 podium finishes, 203 pole positions, and 218 fastest laps in 776 Grands Prix contested.

Notable Ferrari drivers include Tazio Nuvolari, José Froilán González, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Chinetti,Alberto Ascari, Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Giancarlo Baghetti, John Surtees, Lorenzo Bandini, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti, Clay Regazzoni, Niki Lauda, Carlos Reutemann, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, Patrick Tambay,Rene Arnoux,Michele Alboreto, Gerhard Berger, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa.

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers for the 2006 F1 season were Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. At the end of the 2006 season the team courted controversy by continuing to allow Marlboro to sponsor them after they, along with the other F1 teams, made a promise to end sponsorship deals with tobacco manufacturers. A five year deal worth a reported $500 million was agreed.[citation needed]

The drivers competing for 2008 were Felipe Massa and defending champion Kimi Räikkönen (both retained from 2007). Massa finished the season as runner-up to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton by only one point, with Räikkönen third. Massa and Räikkönen have again been signed by Ferrari for the 2009 season to compete in the new Ferrari F60.

[edit]A1 Grand Prix

On October 11 2007, it was announced that Ferrari will power all A1 Grand Prix cars from the 2008-09 season.[3]

[edit]The "Cavallino Rampante"

Count Francesco Baracca

The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is a black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top. The road cars have a rectangular badge on the hood (see picture above), and, optionally, the shield-shaped race logo on the sides of both front wings, close to the door.

On June 17, 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track inRavenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of CountFrancesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War I, who used to paint a horse on the side of his planes. The Countess asked Enzo to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would bring him good luck. The original "prancing horse" on Baracca's airplane was painted in red on a white cloud-like shape, but Ferrari chose to have the horse in black (as it had been painted as a sign of grief on Baracca's squadron planes after the pilot was killed in action) and he added a canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of Modena, his birthplace. The Ferrari horse was, from the very beginning, markedly different from the Baracca horse in most details, the most noticeable being the tail that in the original Baracca version was pointing downward.

Ferrari has used the cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the Spa 24 Hours of July 9, 1932, the cavallino rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.

Stuttgart
Austrian Fuel Stations

The motif of a prancing horse is old, it can be found on ancient coins. A similar black horse on a yellow shield is the Coat of Arms of theGerman city of Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz and the design bureau of Porsche, both being main competitors of Alfa and Ferrari in the 1930s. The city's name derives from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian asscuderia. Porsche also includes the Stuttgart sign in its corporate logo, centred in the emblem of the state of Württemberg. Stuttgart's Rössle has both rear legs firmly planted on the soil, like Baracca's horse, but unlike Ferrari's cavallino.

Fabio Taglioni used the cavallino rampante on his Ducati motorbikes, as Taglioni was born at Lugo di Romagna like Baracca, and his father too was a military pilot during WWI (although not part of Baracca's squadron, as is sometimes mistakenly reported). As Ferrari's fame grew, Ducati abandoned the horse- perhaps the result of a private agreement between the two companies.

The cavallino rampante is now a trademark of Ferrari. Cavallino Magazine uses the name, but not the logo. However, other companies use similar logos: Avanti, an Austrian company operating over 100 filling stations, uses a prancing horse logo which is nearly identical to Ferrari's, as does Iron Horse Bicycles. Many pay homage to the Ferrari logo, e.g. the Jamiroquai album Travelling Without Moving.

[edit]Rosso Corsa

Main article: Rosso corsa

Since the 1920s, Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and later Ferrari and Abarth were (and often still are) painted in "race red" (Rosso Corsa). This was the customary national racing color of Italy, as recommended between the World Wars by the organizations that later would become the FIA. It refers to the nationality of the competing team, not that of the car manufacturer or driver. In that scheme, French-entered cars like Bugatti were blue, German like Benz and Mercedes white (since 1934 also bare sheet metal silver), and British green such as the mid 1960s Lotus and BRM, for instance.

Curiously, Ferrari won the 1964 World championship with John Surtees by competing the last two races in North America with cars painted in the US-American race colors white and blue, as these were not entered by the Italian factory themselves, but by the U.S.-based North American Racing Team (NART) team. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.

[edit]Partnership with Shell

Ferrari has had a long standing relationship with Shell Oil. It is a technical partnerships with Ferrari and Ducati to test as well as supply fuel and oils to the Formula One, MotoGP and World Superbike racing teams. For example, the Shell V-Power premium gasoline fuel has been developed with the many years of technical expertise between Shell and Ferrari. [4]

[edit]Models

Until the early 1980s, Ferrari followed a three-number naming scheme based on engine displacement:

  • V6 and V8 models used the total displacement (in decilitres) for the first two digits and the number of cylinders as the third. Thus, the 206 was a 2.0 L V6 powered vehicle, while the 348 used a 3.4 L V8, although, for the F355, the last digit refers to 5 valves per cylinder. Upon introduction of the 360Modena, the digits for V8 models (which now carried a name as well as a number) refer only to total engine displacement. The numerical indication aspect of this name has carried on to the current V8 model, the F430.
  • V12 models used the displacement (in cubic centimetres) of one cylinder. Therefore, the famed 365 Daytona had a 4390 cc V12. However, some newer V12-engined Ferraris, such as the 599, have three-number designations that refer only to total engine displacement.
  • Flat 12 (boxer) models used the displacement in litres. Therefore, the 512BB was five litre flat 12 (a Berlinetta Boxer, in this case). However, the original Berlinetta Boxer was the 365 GT4 BB, which was named in a similar manner to the V12 models.
  • Some models, such as the 1980 Mondial and the 1984 Testarossa did not follow a three-number naming scheme.
612 Scaglietti Sessanta Edition

Most Ferraris were also given designations referring to their body style. In general, the following conventions were used:

  • M ("Modificata"), placed at the end of a model's number, denotes a modified version of its predecessor and not a complete evolution (see F512M and 575M Maranello).
  • GTB ("Gran Turismo Berlinetta") models are closed Berlinettas, or coupes.
  • GTS ("Gran Turismo Spyder") in older models, are open Spyders (spelt "y"), or convertibles (see 365GTS4); however, in more recent models, this suffix is used for targa top models (see Dino 246GTS, and F355 GTS; the exception being the 348 TS, which is the only targa named differently). The convertible models now use the suffix "Spider" (spelt "i") (see F355 Spider, and 360 Spider).

This naming system can be confusing, as some entirely different vehicles used the same engine type and body style. Many Ferraris also had other names affixed (like Daytona) to identify them further. Many such names are actually not official factory names. The Daytona name commemorates Ferrari's triple success in the February 1967 24 Hours of Daytona with the 330P4[5]. Only in the 1973 Daytona 24 Hours, a 365 GTB4 model run by NART, who raced Ferrari's in America) ran second, behind a Porsche 911[6].

The various Dino models were named for Enzo's son, Dino Ferrari, and were marketed as Dinos by Ferrari and sold at Ferrari dealers -- for all intents and purposes they are Ferraris.

In the mid 1990s, Ferrari added the letter "F" to the beginning of all models (a practice abandoned after the F512M and F355, but adopted again with the F430).

[edit]Road cars

The Ferrari Club of America's parking lot at the 2005 United States Grand Prix

[edit]Sports cars

Ferrari's first models were sports/racing cars quite different from the grand touring models that followed. See below for a complete list.

[edit]2-seat Gran Turismo

Ferrari quickly moved into the Gran Turismo market, and the bulk of the company's sales remain in this area.

[edit]Mid-engine V6/V8

328GTS Targa

The Dino was the first mid-engined Ferrari. This layout would go on to be used in most Ferraris of the 1980s and 1990s. V6 and V8 Ferrari models make up well over half of the marque's total production.

[edit]Mid-engine 2+2

Bertone-bodied Dino 308 GT4

For a time, Ferrari built 2+2 versions of its mid-engined V8 cars. Although they looked quite different from their 2-seat counterparts, both the GT4 and Mondial were closely related to the 308 GTB.

[edit]Front-engine 2+2

612 Scaglietti

The company has also produced front-engined 2+2 cars, culminating in the current 612 Scaglietti and upcoming California.

[edit]Mid-engine 12-cylinder

Ferrari entered the mid-engined 12-cylinder fray with the Berlinetta Boxer in 1973. The later Testarossa remains one of the most famous Ferraris.

[edit]Supercars

Enzo Ferrari

The company's loftiest efforts have been in the supercar market.

[edit]Competition cars

[edit]Current

[edit]Past

1958 250 Testa Rossa from theRalph Lauren collection
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.

[edit]Concept models and one-off specials

[edit]See also

[edit]References

  1. ^ "22.01.2009 FIAT GROUP Q4 AND FULL YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT". italiaspeed.com/2009/cars/industry. Retrieved on 2009-01-22.
  2. ^ "Annual Report 2007" (PDF). fiatgroup.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-08.
  3. ^ "Ferrari's A1GP Deal". Yahoo Sport. 2007-10-11. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  4. ^ "Ferrari and Shell V-Power". Shell Canada. 2009-01-15. Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
  5. ^ Race results
  6. ^ Race results
  7. ^ Elias, Mark (May 26, 2008). "ESCAPE ROADS: 1958 Ferrari 412S". Autoweek (Detroit, Michigan: Crain Communications Inc.) 58 (22): 25. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
  8. ^ 2010 Ferrari Millechili - Car News/Future Cars: 2010 and Beyond/Car Shopping/Hot Lists/Reviews/Car and Driver - Car And Driver

[edit]External links
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