History Of The Ferrari Essay, Research Paper

Ferrari, when most people think of this word they think of two things: speed and sport. Ferrari is one of the most distinguished cars in history. It has won more races than almost any other cars racing. It is also just delicate a machine as it is the fast and furious sports car. Ferrari has come a great distance since its begins in the stock races onto the modern road. It has been compared with such great cars as the Bugatti and Alfa Romeo. In my report I will tell you the beginning and the future of this famous sports car.The MakerThe man who made Ferrari, and made the name, was Enzo Ferrari. Born in Modena February 18, 1898. Forced to leave school when his father died he got work as a turning instructor in the Modena Fire Brigades’ workshop. He served in WW I as a mechanic and later found work as a test driver in 1918 in Turin. He later moved to CMN to become a race car driver and tester.His racing debut came in the 1919 Parma-Berceto race and he entered the Targa Florio that same year. In 1920, he moved to Alfa Romeo establishing a relationship that lasted two decades and a career that took him from test driver to race driver to sales assistant and finally to the post of Director of the Alfa Racing Division until November 1939.(www.ferrari.it/storia/enzoferr.e/enzoferr.html)In 1929 he joined with Alfa Romeo. He made the name Scuderia Ferrari. His goal was to organize racing for Alfa. He fully took over in 1933 and in 1940 completely separated from Alfa. The workshop was bombed out in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946 the year in which it started designing and building the very first Ferrari. In 1963 Enzo Ferrari built his Istituto Professionale per l’Industria e l’Artigianato, a training school in Maranello. In 1972 he built the Fiorano test track.(www.ferrari.it/storia/enzoferr.e/enzoferr.html)He received numerous awards for his automotive genius, such as Italian award of Cavaliere and the Gold Medal from the Italian School of Art and Culture. After his many accomplishments and his numerous racing wins, he died on August 14 1988.The Early YearsNow I will tell you of the early years of this car. The first Ferrari’s were stock and racing cars, the Ferrari became a “street car” in about 1950, and were made in Maranello during WW II with the soul purpose was to race and win. Body of the cars weren’t much to look at, but by looking at them you wouldn’t know the power they had. Ferrari reigned as king of the racing world from the 1930’s to the 1970’s winning nearly every race it entered. As Ferrari’s reputation grew as a fine racer he realized that he needed a symbol for his car. There are many rumors as to where he got the famous prancing horse. The most accurate of those is that one day after he won a race in Ravenna he made and acquaintance of the parents of the young Count Francesco Baracca, Italy’s WW I ace of aces, who brought down the staggering number of 34 enemy planes before meeting his own death. Enzo said that his mother said to him, “Ferrari, put on your cars the prancing pony of my son. It will bring you luck.” The parents, he says, confided the emblem to him; he added the yellow background–the color of Modena–to the rampant colt. (Ferrari the Man the Machines p. 17)The one thing wrong with this that it was not her sons, but the squadron he flew in The Cavallino Rampante. In the 1950’s Ferrari began making cars for the road. Enzo had no sales managers or sales companies to help him sell his cars. He did all the business himself. His first cars set the precedent for others; A de-tuned racing machine, not a warmed-over touring machine with a heavy, hotted-up lump of crudely cast iron under its hood, plus various makeshift alterations to its chassis meant to tone up the flaccid muscles of its suspension. Nor do trick stripes, the letters “GT,” or sundry air scoops disguise its original advertised purpose as a “personal car.” Whatever that is. (The Great Cars p.144)The Present YearsThe present Ferrari?s are a lot more sleeker and futuristic looking compared to past models. The have more room, but that’s still not much, and a lot more power. There fuel efficiency has been increased and there have been several modifications to the engine and body. While past Ferrari’s were made from steel, the newer ones are made from aluminum. One thing that has also changed greatly about the Ferrari is the price. A Ferrari used to retail for about $14,000. That’s hardly nothing compared to the now $150,000 models of today.Enzo Ferrari said that;”The greatest thing a race car drive could do would be to die behind the wheel of my car.”-Enzo Ferrari