Enzo Ferrari was amongst the most enigmatic and talented figures to grace the European automobile industry in the Twentieth century. Ferrari enjoyed a magnificent career as a racing car driver, and team manager for Alfa Romeo, developing a string of racing cars over a period spanning three decades on their behalf.
SAt the height of his fame during the late Forties, as the result of continued pressure from his followers, Enzo Ferrari turned some of his talents to the production of sports cars, making no secret that this new venture would be short-lived and was only a means to continue to finance his motor racing activities.
eventy years later Ferrari have grown to become one of the world’s most important producers of quality sports cars and coupes.
Ferrari began his career in cars immediately after the end of World War One, working as a test driver for a small touring car production plant in Turin.
In 1919 Enzo was presented with the chance to become a racing driver for the Milan-based Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali, ( C.M.N) making his competitive debut in the 1919 Parma-Poggio di Berceto hill climb race, where he finished a commendable fourth.
After a string of minor successes during the first few months of 1920, Enzo, just 21, Enzo captured the attention of Nicola Romeo owner of Alfa Romeo, who was always on the lookout for talented young drivers to join his racing team.
From that point onwards began a collaboration that allowed Ferrari to grow with the company, eventually becoming head of the great Alfa Corse racing division.
In 1929, under the patronage of Alfa Corse, Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari racing team, based in the city of Modena, where he was born. Ferrari’s concept for the Scuderia Ferrari team was to build a stable of owner-drivers who needed cooperation and support to help them finance their motor racing activities.
Ferrari’s idea proved to be an outstanding success, with the Scuderia Ferrari eventually amalgamating to form a track team of their own. From then onwards, it was only a matter of time before the “Scuderia” became the racing department for Alfa Romeo.
With less time spent behind the wheel, Enzo Ferrari found himself becoming increasingly involved with design and development at Alfa Romeo, playing a major part in the development of the 158 "Alfetta", released in 1938.
The 158 "Alfetta" soon proved to be an outstanding success, winning many races some of them on the international circuit.
In 1939, at the age of forty, and involved with Alfa Romeo for almost half his life, Enzo Ferrari decided that the time was right for fresh challenges, leaving to form his own racing team.
To this day it remains a secret if this parting of the ways was amicable or not.
What is known is that under the terms of him leaving Alfa Romeo, Ferrari was obliged to sign a provision that he would not use the “Ferrari “ name in any connection to the business of motor racing or the production of racing cars for a minimum of four years. With his hands tied Ferrari named his new venture Auto Avio Costruzioni (AAV), which he based in Modena, in the former headquarters of Scuderia.
Initially, AAV operated only as machine tool manufacturers as Enzo Ferrari, a man of honour, waited the agreed time before Alfa Romeo's provision on producing cars bearing his name remained in force.
Once the ban was lifted in the early 1940s, Ferrari moved his plant to the town of Maranello, just 18 km from Modena. To ease the transition, Ferrari operated cuderia Ferrari as well as AAV from the same premises, although as his motor racing activities rapidly gained pace, Enzo gradually phased out his machine tooling activities.
It was in the considerably larger plant at Maranello that Enzo Ferrari began to embrace the possibilities of producing touring cars as well as racing cars.
The very first Ferrari production car was the Tipo 1255, which also featured in sports car races, from May 1947, which was later fitted with a larger engine and marketed as the Type 166 Sport, basically a coupe version of Tippo35.
Ferrari turned to Carrozzeria Touring of Turin, at that time the country’s most prestigious designer and manufacturer of car bodies to design and produce a coupe body and chassis for the Type 166.
