Ferrari is a sports car company based in Maranello (Italy). It was founded in 1929 by a racing car driver, Enzo Ferrari, under the name of Scuderia Ferrari, building racing cars and, later, in 1947, making sports cars.
The Scuderia Ferrari began sponsoring pilots and cars of Alfa Romeo and Fiat. The company began producing series cars in 1947. It became Ferrari S.A. when in 1969 Fiat Group became part of the Board of Directors and became a shareholder of the company. Currently the main shareholder of the Italian company is Fiat Group, with 90%, 5% of the shares has been bought, in 2005, by an UAE company, and the rest belongs to Piero Ferrari, son of Enzo. The company is headquartered in Maranello, near Bologna and Modena, Italy. In the year 2005 Ferrari sold 5409 units, with a sales increase of 8.7%, and with a turnover of 1500 million euros.
In 2013 Ferrari expressly reduced its car production to 6922 units at its Maranello factory. This figure was 5.4% less than the previous year, despite taking out 5.4% more benefits. In the year 2017, Ferrari presented the Ferrari 812 Superfast with a V12 engine, the company considers it the most powerful Ferrari in history.
In August 2017 Ferrari revealed a new convertible. The Ferrari Portofino, which comes with a V20 engine, will replace the California, basic Ferrari model.
History
Enzo Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 with the aim of sponsoring amateur pilots of Modena. Ferrari trained several pilots and competed with great success with Alfa Romeo cars until 1938, when it was officially hired by Alfa Romeo as president of its racing department.
In 1940, after learning of the company’s plans to absorb his beloved Scuderia and take control of his work in the competition, he quickly left Alfa Romeo. Since it was forbidden by contract to compete for several years, the Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which apparently manufactured aircraft machinery and accessories. During this period when he could not compete, Enzo Ferrari actually produced a race car, Type 815, this being the first car originally from Ferrari, but due to World War II had very little participation in the races. In 1943 the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained since then. It was heavily bombed and partially destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946 to later produce its famous and expensive luxury sports cars.
The Ferrari factory in Maranello.
The first Ferrari sports car, the 125 S of 1947, was powered by a 1.5-liter V12 engine. Although he was reluctant to do so, Enzo built and sold his cars to finance the Scuderia. While his cars quickly earned a reputation for quality, Enzo maintained a famous aversion to his customers, feeling that most of them were buying their cars for prestige and not for their benefits.
Ferrari sports cars were notable for their exquisite style because some were designed by design houses such as Pininfarina. Over several years, other body design houses, such as Scaglietti, Bertone and Vignale, have worked for Ferrari. Although its traditional red color inherited from the racing models is characteristic, they also sell cars in different colors.