When motor racing became more and more popular with drivers, it also became more and more popular with spectators. Of course some cars were more successful than others and naturally the more successful cars attracted the most fans. None more so than Ferrari.
Ferrari is probably the most well known car manufacturer in the world with its unmistakable blood red body and prancing horse, it truly is every boys dream to own one.
Ferrari’s record at Formula 1 is second to none. They have represented a team at every Grand Prix since its inception and have clocked up well over 200 race victories. It’s unlikely that another team will ever surpass their record whilst they are still competing and that looks like it will be for years to come.
The Ferrari racing team was established in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari who himself was a racing driver and had been since 1919. He wasn’t a particularly good racing driver, although he did win 13 races out of the 47 starts that he made. Racing wasn’t his first love, it was actually building the cars that was his passion and so in the mid 20’s, Enzo Ferrari retired form motor racing in order to start his passion of building cars. He worked for the Alfa Romeo Company, but was sacked from the company after a disagreement with the owners.
Post-War Success
During the second world war, after he had started his own manufacturing business, Ferrari built parts for war machinery as sales of sport cars, or any cars for that matter, was almost non-existent. Three years after the war had ended, the first genuine “all Ferrari” cars became available for sale. The Ferrari team also won the 1947 Grand Prix in Rome on their first attempt, with a car driven by an Italian driver, Franco Cortese. In 1949, 1950 and 1951 Ferrari also won Rome Grand Prix races in the Formula 2 season.
They continued to enjoy racing success throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s and dominated the racing scene from the mid-seventies until the mid-eighties when the McLaren and Williams teams shared the spoils of Formula 1 for almost 15 years before Ferrari were constructor’s champions again.
Ferrari has also achieved great success with their road cars from the day they started producing them. The first was seen in 1947 called the 125 S. This little 2-seater open top car was fitted with a small 1.5 litre engine but had a V12 engine configuration which, by today’s standards, is bizarre when you consider that a 1500cc car would generally have a flat 4 configuration. V12 engines were usually derived from cars with at least 4 litre engines. Only 3 racing versions were made, making it probably the rarest racing Ferrari ever.
The more recent Ferrari models are unlikely to become rare collectors pieces quite like the early models as they are built in much larger quantities. Over the last few years, production has reached over 6,000 units although the special edition models such as the F40, F50 and F60 models continue to sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The latest news is that Ferrari have designed and built a new F70 model with over 900 brake horsepower that is likely to be on sale to selected customers towards the end of 2012. The estimated price is rumoured to be in excess of £500,000.
This post has been provided by the auto enthusiasts at The Private Plate Company. Check out theprivateplateco.co.uk blog for more fun posts or browse our huge inventory of personalised and DVLA number plates.
