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Interesting Facts about Ferrari
Ferrari, originally known as Scuderia Ferrari (Ferrari Stable), an Italian sports car manufacturer is one of the most popular names in the post 1945 automobile history. Ferrari, A brainchild of Enzo Ferrari, never intended to produce road cars when he started the company. With an attractive and iconic “Prancing Horse” logo, Ferrari has a cult following everywhere in the world.
Here are some of the interesting facts about Ferrari Racing Cars.
Here are some of the interesting facts about Ferrari Racing Cars.
Tipo 815, was the first racing car built by Ferrari in 1940, in the non-competition period. It was the first actual Ferrari car (it debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia) but saw little competition due to the World War II.
Ferrari's first official road car was built in the year 1947 called 125 S, which was powered by 1.5 litre V12. This car was driven on the tracks of Piacenza (Italy) by Franco Cortese in 1947. The car though did not win the checkered flag, it won the Rome Grand Prix in the same year.
Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund Scuderia Ferrari. While his beautiful and fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers.
Dino 246 GT was a mid-engine rear drive car which was produced in 1968. The uniqueness of this car was that the Ferrari signature was no where mentioned or embedded on the car.
Dino 246 was the car driven by Phil Hill that won the 1960 Italian Grand Prix, a last major victory for a front engine GP car.
328 GTS was one of the best selling cars from Ferrari’s stable. It ruled for three years from 1986-89. Total of 6,068 cars were produced.
Ferrari was involved in an unusual project called BIMOTORE which was the development of a single seater car with a motor mounted in the rear and front end of the car.
Introduced in 1973, 308GT4 was designed by Bertone (an Italian car company specialized in car styling). It was the only car body that was made by fibre glass which was later re-designed using steel.
Ferrari 250GTO carried one of the most expensive price tag of $12 millions.
Enzo Ferrari when was not making or racing cars, he liked to unwind himself by riding his (British) Rudge motorbike.
Lancia Stratos, Lancia Thema (car models form the house of an Italian car manufacturer called Lancia and Fiat Dino were all equipped with the Ferrari engines.
As a mark of 50th anniversary, the car manufacturer launched F50 which was produced in limited numbers in 1995. It was a two-door, two seater convertible with a removable hardtop.
The automatic transmission was introduced in 976 Ferrari 400GT.
The cheapest component in a Ferrari car is a 3 c washer.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, a Tractor tycoon, went on to make his brand of super cars when he was not happy with the quality of Ferrari car which he owned and when his complaints were met with frosty indifference. Ferruccio named his supercars the legendary “Lamborghini”.
The “Ferrarina” was a pint sized version of the Testa Rossa designed by Ferrari engineer Giotta Bizzarini in 1958. It had a 1,000 cc91 bhp all alloy four cylinder engines and could reach a max speed of 113 mph.
Ferrari won 25 championship titles in a 500 F2.
Ferrari’s powerful icon of a ‘Horse’ was first seen on the radiator grille in 1959.
The horse icon was designed by a Turin based company Cerrato and was engraved by Incerti for Ferrari Scaglietti models. The ‘horse’ was in the 3mm thick sheets of brass pantographed( it was pantograped as the image could be magnified) and chrome-plated. Until the year 1962 the ‘horse’ symbol remained the same.
But it was realized the symbol did not match the cars and therefore it was removed.
Then came the ‘ornamental horse’ which was seen on the all the Ferrari cars for more 30 years with only minor changes in colour and size.
In 1982 the symbols were seen on the front of the cars too which replaced the flat pantographed version. From 1992 all the Ferrari cars were seen with this iconic ‘horse’ in the front as well as in the rear.
The trademark combining the initials of the Ferrari and Farina names in the naval alphabet was used on cars designed by Pininfarina. It was set in red rhomboid against a white background to indicate the letter F. Later when the surname was changed to Pininfarina, the letter ‘F’ was swapped by the letter P.
But in 1964, the trademark was generally discarded except for 2+2 models which presently seen on 456 GT.
Ferrari cars were care was manufactured in Maranello in north Italy. Later in the year 1982, the plant was shifted next to Ferrari’s race track called Fiorano exclusively for the making of Formula One cars. Not only the cars are produced here, but also the car parts are manufactured at this facility.
Maserati which was once Ferrari's bitterest rival, now is run on a Ferrari engine for Fiat.
The colour Red was given by the International Automobile Federation to the Italian cars competing in Grand Prix races in the early turn of the century.
Ferrari cars not only come in Red, the factory currently offers a choice of 18 colours.
The Ferrari Owner's Club - A very exclusive group has 18 chapters around the world.
