Enzo Ferrari

In 1941, when Enzo Ferrari established his manufacturing firm, he was forty-seven years old. He already had a quarter century of achievements to his credit, first as a racing driver, then as organize of his own racing team. In an Italy still reeling from the effects of the war, he risked his all: in November 1946 he announced his intention to give up making machine tools and concentrate on sports and racing cars. Only three cars were produced in 1947, the first to bear the famous prancing horse emblem. It had formerly graced the cockpit of World War I fighter ace Francesco Baracca , who eventually met his death on Mount Montello. Countess Paolina Baracca had predicted that the black horse on a yellow ground (the colour of Modena) would bring Ferrari luck. The Ferrari factory at Marunello then began to produce a steady but limited stream of fast racing machine and hand-crafted sports models. In the words of Enzo Ferrari: "I have never been a major constructor, nor have aspired to become one. I remain a provincial craftsman,,. In fact, Ferrari has never produced more than 4,000 cars a year, not wishing to jeopardize the marque’s exclusivity. According to the famous advertising slogan: "A Ferrari is not something you can buy: it's something you long for.., ". Though now under the control of Fiat, Ferrari has never departed from this principle. For the Ingegniere's successors, the continuing challenge will be to marry craftsmanship with advanced technology. At auction, Ferraris are undoubtedly the most beautiful, expensive, sought after and inaccessible of all cars. Acceptance of one's order for a thoroughbred of this kind is a sign of the highest personal success. On the race track, despite the marque's present discomfiture in Formula 1, the prancing horse remains the symbol of top-level competition. So it has been since 25 May 1947 , when Cortese, driving a Type 125 on the Rome circuit, scored Ferrari's first race victory.