Ferrari

INTRO:

Ferrari (Ferrari N.V) is an Italian sports car manufacture based in Maranello, Italy.
Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939 as ‘Auto Avio Costruzioni’.Built its 1^St car in 1940.
But the company’s inception is recognized as 1947, when it came out with 1^st car with the Ferrari badge.
Headquartered in Amsterdam Netherlands. But still Maranello in Italy is considered as H.Q.
Ferrari is considered to be the world’s most powerful brand according to Brand Finance.
Throughout its history, the company has been popular for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it is the most successful racing team, currently holding the most Constructors Championship (16) and having produced the highest number of winning drivers (15).
Ferrari Sports cars are seen as a symbol of speed, luxury and wealth around the globe.
HISTORY:
Enzo Ferrari was not initially interested in the idea of producing road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, with H.Q in Modena. Scuderia Ferrari literally means “Ferrari Stable” and usually it means “Team Ferrari”.
Ferrari bought, prepared and fielded Alfa Romeo racing cars for gentlemen drivers. In 1933 Alfa Romeo withdrew its in-house racing team and Scuderia Ferrari took over as its works team. The Scuderia received Alfa’s Grand Prix cars of the latest specifications and fielded many famous drivers such as Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi.
In 1938 Alfa Romeo bought its racing operation again in-house, forming Alfa Corse in Milano and hired Enzo Ferrari as manager of the new racing department; therefore the Scuderia Ferrari was disbanded.
In September 1939 Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo under the provision that he would not use the Ferrari name in association with races or racing cars for at least four years.

A few days later he founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, H.Q in the facilities of the old Scuderia Ferrari. The new company ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories.

In 1940 Ferrari did in fact produce a race car – the Tipo 815, based on Fiat platform. It was the 1^st Ferrari car and debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia, but due to World War-2 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 and subsequently rebuilt including a works for road car production.
The 1^st Ferrari-badged car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5L V12 engine; Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund Scuderia Ferrari.
The Scuderia Ferrari name was resurrected to denote the factory racing cars and distinguish them from those fielded by customer teams.
Early in 1969, fiat took a 50% stake in Ferrari. An immediate result was an increase in available investment funds, and work started at once on a factory extension intended to transfer production from Fiat’s Turin plant of the Ferrari engine Fiat Dino. New model investment further up in the Ferrari range also received a boost.
In 1988, Enzo Ferrari oversaw the launch of the Ferrari F40, the last new Ferrari to be launched before his death later that year, arguably one of the most famous supercars ever made.
In 1989 the company was renamed as Ferrari S.p.A.
From 2002 to 2004, Ferrari produced the Enzo, their fastest model at that time, which was introduced and named in honor of the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari. It was to be called F60, continuing on from the F40 and F50, but Ferrari was so pleased with it, they called it the Enzo instead.
It was a limited edition model only 399 made ( 400^th one was given to Vatican as charity) had a price tag of $650,000 a piece.
Motorsports:
Since the company’s beginning, Ferrari has been involved in motorsports, competing in a range of categories in a range of categories including Formula One and other sports car racing through its Scuderia Ferrari sporting division as well as supplying cars and engines to other teams and for one make race series.
The 1940 AAC 815 was the 1^st racing car to be designed by Enzo Ferrari, although it was not badged as a Ferrari model.
Currently Scuderia Ferrari is only officially involved in Formula One. It is the only team to have competed in the Formula One championship continuously since its inception in 1950.
Ferrari is the oldest and most successful team in the Formula One championship.
Ferrari went on to win and dominate the early years of the World Sportscar Championship, which was created in 1953, winning the title 7 out of its 1^st 9 years.
Road Cars:
Ferrari’s 1^st car was the 125 S sports/racing model. In 1949, the Ferrari 166 Inter was introduced. The presentation of this car marked the company’s 1^st move into the grand touring market, which continues to make up the bulk of Ferrari sales to the present day.
Several early cars featured bodywork customized by a number of coachbuilders such as Pinninfarina, Zagato and Bertone.
The Dino was the 1^st mid-engined Ferrari. This layout would go on to be used in most Ferraris of the 1980s and 1990s. V8 Ferrari models make up well over half of the marque’s total production.
For a time, Ferrari built 2+2 versions of its mid-engined V8 cars. Although they looked quite different from their 2-saet counterparts, both the GTA and Mondial were closely related to the 308 GTB.The company has also produced front-engined 2+2 cars, culminating in the current California.
Ferrari entered the mid-engined 12-cylinder fray with the Berlinetta Boxer in 1973. The later Testarossa remains one of the most famous Ferraris.
The company’s loftiest efforts have been in the supercar market. The 1984 GTO (288 GTO) may be considered the first line of Ferrari supercars, which extends to the recent LaFerrari model.

DESIGN DESIGNATIONS:Most Ferraris were 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.
·       GTB: (“Gran Turismo Berlinetta”), models are closed Berlinettas or coupes.
·       GTS:(“Gran Turismo Omologata”),placed at the end of a model’s number, denotes a modified version of its predecessor. Indeed, those 3 letters designate a model which has been designed and improved for racetrack use while still being a street-legal model. Only 3 models bear those 3 letters; the 250 GTO of 1962, the 288 GTO of 1984 and the 599 GTO of 2010.
This naming system can be confusing, as some entirely different vehicles used the same engine type and body style.
Like the name Daytona commemorates Ferrari’s triple success in the February 1967 24 Hours of Daytona with the 330 P4.
The various Dino models were named for Enzo’s son, Dino Ferrari, and were marketed as Dinos by Ferrari.
IDENTITY:The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is the Cavallino Rampante (“prancing horse”) black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters SF ( for Scuderia Ferrari), with 3 stripes of Green, White and Red ( the Italian national colours) at the top.
The story of the logo of Ferrari goes like this:
On 17^th June 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of count Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War-1, 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 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 colour 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 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 9 July 1932, the Cavallino Rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.
COLOR: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 colour 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’s scheme, French entered cars such as Buggati were “Blue”, German such as Mercedes “white” (since 1934 also bare sheet metal or silver), and British “Green” such as the mid-1960s Lotus and BRM, for example.

CORPORATE AFFAIRS:In 1963, Enzo Ferrari was approached by the Ford Motor Company about a possible buy out. Ford audited Ferrari’s assets but legal negotiations and talks were unilaterally cut off by Ferrari when he realized that the deal offered by ford would not enable him to stay at the helm of the company racing program.

 Henry Ford-2 consequently directed his racing division to negotiate with Lotus, Lola and cooper to build a car capable of beating Ferrari on the world endurance circuit, eventually resulting in the production of the Ford GT40 in 1964.
As the Ford deal fell through, FIAT approached Ferrari with a more flexible proposal and purchased controlling interests in the company in 1969. Enzo Ferrari retained a 10% share, which is currently owned by his son Piero Lardi Ferrari.
Ferrari has an internally managed merchandising line that licenses many products bearing the Ferrari brand, including eyewear, pens, pencils, electronic goods, perfumes, cologne, clothing, high-tech bicycles, watches, cell phones and laptop computers.

Ferrari also runs a museum, the Museo Ferrari in Maranello, which displays road cars and other items from the company’s history.
Ferrari has had a long-standing relationship with Shell Oil. It is a technical partnership with Ferrari and Ducati to test as well as supply fuel and oils to the Formuls 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.
ACQUISITION:FIAT S.P.A acquired 50% of Ferrari in 1969 and expanded its stake to 90% in 1988. In October 2014 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced its intentions to separate Ferrari S.p.A. from FCA; as of the announcement FCA owned 90% of Ferrari.

 The separation began in October 2015 with a restructuring that established Ferrari N.V ( a company incorporated in the Netherlands) as the new holding company of the Ferrari group and the subsequent sale by FCA of 10% of the shares in an IPO.

Though the 10% continuing to be owned by Piero Ferrari. The spin-off was completed on 3^rd January 2016. ********************Reference Wikipedia & Google *************************