Ferrari

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Ferrari is an Italian manufacturer of racing cars and high-performance sports cars formed by Enzo Ferrari in 1929. At first, Scuderia Ferrari sponsored drivers and manufactured racecars; the company went into independent car production in 1946, eventually became Ferrari S.p.A., and is now controlled by the Fiat group. The company is based in Maranello, near Modena, Italy.

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1929-1946
Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 as a sponsor for amateur drivers headquartered in Modena. Ferrari prepared and successfully raced various drivers in Alfa Romeo cars until 1938, when he was officially hired by Alfa as head of their racing department.

In 1940, upon learning of the company's plan to absorb his beloved Scuderia and take control of his racing efforts, he quit Alfa. Because he was prohibited by contract from racing for several years, the Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. Ferrari did in fact produce one racecar, the Tipo 815, in the non-competition period; it was thus the first actual Ferrari car, but due to World War II it saw little competition. In 1943 the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since. The factory was bombed in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946 to include a works for road car production.

"Scuderia Ferrari" literally means "Ferrari Stable" in keeping with the prancing horse emblem; the name is figuratively translated as "Team Ferrari."

1945-present
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The Prancing Horse decorating the rear of a 360 Modena

The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the Scuderia. While his beautiful and blazingly fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, most of whom he felt were buying his cars for the prestige and not the performance value.

Ferrari road cars, noted for their exquisite styling by design houses such as Pininfarina, have long been one of the ultimate accessories for the rich and young (or young-at-heart). Other design houses that have done work for Ferrari over the years include Scaglietti, Bertone, Touring, Ghia, and Vignale.

Ferrari cars feature highly-tuned small V8 and V12 engines, often in a mid-engined configuration; until the introduction of fuel injection in the 1980s, they were quite temperamental. Until the mid-1980s they carried a reputation for unreliability and bad engineering, though these were written off by enthusiasts as "character." Ferrari owners have famously and religiously defended the merits of their cars while virulently criticizing other brands.

As of 2004, FIAT owns 56% of Ferrari, Mediobanca owns 15%, Commerzbank owns 10%, Lehman Brothers owns 7%, and Enzo's son Piero Ferrari owns 10%.


Racing
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The Scuderia celebrate another Schumacher win, (C) Ferrari Press OfficeMain article: Scuderia Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari's true passion, despite his extensive road car business, was always auto racing. His Scuderia started as an independent sponsor for drivers in various cars, but soon became the Alfa Romeo in-house racing team. After Ferrari's departure from Alfa, he began to design and produce cars of his own; the Ferrari team first appeared on the European grand prix scene after the end of World War II.

The Scuderia joined the Formula One World Championship in the first year of its existence, 1950. José Froilán González gave the team its first victory at the 1951 British Grand Prix. Alberto Ascari gave Ferrari its first World Championship a year later. Ferrari is the oldest team left in the championship, not to mention the most successful: the team holds nearly every Formula One record. As of 2004, the team's records include fourteen World Drivers Championship titles (1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), fourteen World Constructors Championship titles (1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), 179 grand prix victories, 3445 and a half points, 544 podium finishes, 174 pole positions, 11,182 laps led, and 180 fastest laps in 1622 grands prix contested.

Famous drivers include Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Phil Hill, Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher.


The "Cavallino Rampante"
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Count Francesco BaraccaThe famous symbol of Ferrari is a black prancing horse on yellow background, usually with the letters S F for Scuderia Ferrari.

The horse was originally the symbol of Count Francesco Baracca, a legendary "asso" (ace) of the Italian air force during World War I, who painted it on the side of his planes. Baracca died very young on June 19, 1918, shot down after 34 victorious duels and many team victories; he soon became a national hero.

Baracca had wanted the prancing horse on his planes because his squad, the "Battaglione Aviatori", was enrolled in a Cavalry regiment (air forces were at their first years of life and had no separate administration), and also because he himself was reputed to be the best cavaliere of his team.

It has been supposed that the choice of a horse was perhaps partly because his noble family was known for having many horses on their estates at Lugo di Romagna. Another theory suggests Baracca copied the rampant horse design from a shot down German pilot who had the emblem of the city of Stuttgart on his plane. This is supported by the evidence that Barraca's horse looks more similar to the one of Stuttgart (not changed since 1938) than the current Ferrari design, especially as the legs of the horses are concerned.

Interestingly, rivalling German sports car manufacturer Porsche designed its logo by embeddeding the prancing horse logo of Stuttgart into the emblem of the state of Württemberg, just like the city is placed within the state. In the 1920s, Ferdinand Porsche had constructed supercharged cars for Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart before starting his own engineering company there in the 1930s, designing the Auto Union race cars, amongst others.

Curiously, the name Stuttgart is derived from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the modern German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian as scuderia. In turn, the Italians call Stuttgart Stoccarda. Obviously, the Ferrari-led Alfa team often met the Silver Arrow teams of Mercedes-Benz (from Stuttgart itself) and later Auto Union at race tracks in the 1920s and 30s, so each knew of the other.

On June 17, 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Baracca. The Countess asked that he use the horse on his cars, suggesting that it would grant him good luck, but the first race at which Alfa would let him use the horse on Scuderia cars was eleven years later at SPA 24 Hours in 1932. Ferrari won.

Ferrari left the horse black as it had been on Baracca's plane; however, he added a canary yellow background because it was the symbolic color of his birthplace, Modena.

The prancing horse has not always been uniquely identified with the Ferrari brand: Fabio Taglioni used it on his Ducati motorbikes. Taglioni's father was, in fact, a companion of Baracca's and fought with him in the 91st Air Squad. But, as Ferrari's fame grew, Ducati abandoned the horse; this may have been the result of a private agreement between the two brands.

The prancing horse is now a trademark of Ferrari.

List of models
Until the mid-1990s, Ferrari followed a three-number naming scheme based on engine displacement:

V6 and V8 models used the total displacement (in deciliters) for the first two digits and the number of cylinders as the third. Thus, the 206 was a 2.0 L V6-powered vehicle, while the 348 used a 3.4 L V8.
V12 models used the displacement per cylinder (in cubic centimeters) for all three digits. Therefore, the famed 365 Daytona had a 4380 cc engine (365 times 12).
Most Ferraris were also given designations referring to their body style. In general, the following conventions were used:

M standing for "Modificata," this suffix is placed to the end of a model's number designation to denote that it is a modified version of its predecessor and not a complete evolution (see F512M and 575M Maranello).
GTB models are closed Berlinettas, or coupes
GTS models, in older models, are convertibles (see 365 GTS4); however, in late models, this suffix is used for targa top models (see 348 GTS, and F355 GTS; exception being the 348 TS, which is the only targa named differently). The convertible models now use the suffix "Spider" (see F355 Spider, and Ferrari 360 Spider).

This naming system can be confusing, as some entirely different vehicles used the same engine type and body style. Many Ferraris also had other names affixed (like Daytona) to identify them further. Many such names are actually not the car's official name given by the factory. The 365 GTB4 model only became known as a Daytona after racing variants run by N.A.R.T. (North American Racing Team, who raced Ferrari's in America) won the famous 24 hour race of the same name. As well, the 250 GTO's famous acronym, which means Gran Turismo Omologato, was simply a name the Italian press gave the car which referred to the way Ferrari had, in a sense, avoided the rules and successfully homologated the car for racing purposes (Ferrari had convinced the FIA, somehow, someway, that the 250 GTO was the same car as previous 250's). This was done probably to avoid confusion with the multiple 250 models which were produced before the GTO.

In the mid 1990s, Ferrari added the letter "F" to the beginning of all models (a practice quickly abandoned after the F512M and F355, but recently picked up again with the F430).

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Sports cars
Ferrari's earliest models were pure sports cars, not the exotics we know today.

1948-1950 166
1951 195 Coupe
1951-1952 212 Coupe/Cabriolet
1952 340 MM Berlinetta/Spider


Mid-engine V6/V8
The Dino was the first mid-engined Ferrari. This layout would go on to be used in most Ferraris of the 1980s and 1990s. V6 and V8 Ferrari models make up well over half of the marque's total production.

1968-1975 Dino
1968-1973 Dino 206GT
1968-1973 Dino 246GT/GTS
1975-1989 208/308/328 GTB/GTS
1975 308 GTB/GTS
1980 208 GTB/GTS
1980 308 GTBi/GTSi
1982 208 GTB/GTS Turbo
1982 308 GTB/GTS Quattrovalvole
1985 328 GTB Berlinetta
1986 GTB/GTS Turbo
1989 348
1989 348 TB/TS
1993 348 GTB/GTS
1995-1998 F355
1994 F355/GTS
1997 355 F1
1999-2004 Ferrari 360
1999-2004 360 Modena/Spider
2003-2004 Challenge Stradale
2005 F430

2-seat Gran Turismo
Ferrari quickly moved into the Gran Turismo market, and the bulk of the company's sales remain in this area.

1952-1967 America
1952 340 America
1953 375 America
1956 410 superamerica
1957 410 superamerica III
1960 400 superamerica
1964 500 Superfast
1966 365 California
1953-1962 250
1952 250S/250MM
1953 250 Export/Europa
1954-1963 250 GT Europa/Boano/Ellena/Coupe Pininfarina/Lusso
1957-1960 250 GT Berlinetta/Cabriolet/California Spyder/SWB
1964 330
1966 330 GTC Coupe
1966 330 GTS Spider
1964-1968 275
1964-1965 275 GTB/GTS
1966-1968 275 GTB/4
1968 365
1968-1969 365 GTC Coupe
1969-1970 365 GTS Spider
1968-1973 Daytona
1968 365 GTB4/365 GTS4
1996-2001 550 Maranello
1996-2000 550 Maranello Coupe
2001 550 Barchetta
2002-2004 575M Maranello
2004 Barchetta
2005 Superamerica
2006 Ferrari 600 Imola

Mid-engine 2+2
For a time, Ferrari built 2+2 versions of its mid-engined V8 cars. Although they looked quite different from their 2-seat counterparts, both the GT4 and Mondial were very closely-related to the 308 GTB.

1974-1980 208/308 GT4
1974-1975 Dino 308GT4
1976-1980 308GT4
1975 208 GT4
1980 Mondial
1980 Mondial 8
1982 Mondial Quattrovalvole
1983 Mondial Cabriolet
1985 3.2 Mondial/3.2 Cabriolet
1989 Mondial T

Front-engine 2+2
The company has also produced front-engined 2+2 cars, culminating in the current 612 Scaglietti.

1960-1963 250
1960-1963 250 GT 2+2
1964-1967 330
1964-1967 330 GT 2+2
1967-1971 365
1967-1971 365 GT 2+2
1968-1973 365 Daytona
1971-1972 365 GTC4
1972-1976 365 GT4 2+2
1976-1989 400/412
1976 400 Automatic
1979 400i
1985 412
1992-2003 456/456M
1992-1997 456 GT/GTA Coupe
1998-2003 456M GT Coupe
2004-2005 612 Scaglietti

Mid-engine 12-cylinder
Ferrari entered the mid-engined 12-cylinder fray with the flattened Berlinetta Boxer in 1971. The later Testarossa remains one of the most famous Ferraris.

1971-1984 512 Berlinetta Boxer
1971 365 GT4 BB
1976 512BB
1981 512iBB
1984-1996 Testarossa
1984-1992 Testarossa
1992-1994 512TR
1994-1996 F512M

Supercars
The company's loftiest efforts have been in the supercar market.

1962 250 GTO
1984 288 GTO
1988-1992 F40
1995-1997 F50
2003 Enzo Ferrari

Competition models
Current
360 GTC
360 Challenge
575 GTC
FXX

Past
1958 Ferrari 250
1947 125 Sport
1948 166
1949 125 F1
1951 340 America
1952 250MM
1953 340 MM
1953 375 MM
 
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari (February 18, 1898 - August 14, 1988) was the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer.

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Biography
Born in Modena, Italy, Ferrari grew up with little formal education but a strong desire to race cars. During World War I he was a mule-skinner, his father Alfredo and brother Dino died in 1916. Leaving the army, the family firm had collapsed and Ferrari sought work with Fiat but could only find it with the small firm CMN. He took up racing in 1919, initially with little success.

He left CMN in 1920 to work at Alfa Romeo, racing their cars in local races he had more success. In 1923, racing in Ravenna, he acquired a Prancing Horse badge (a WWI pilot symbol), although this did not make it onto a car until 1932. In 1924 he won the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara. His successes in local races encouraged Alfa to offer him a chance of much more prestigious competition and he was lauded by Mussolini. Ferrari turned this opportunity down and in something of a funk he did not race again until 1927 and even then his racing career was mostly over. He continued to work directly for Alfa Romeo until 1929 before starting Scuderia Ferrari as the racing team for Alfa.

Ferrari managed the development of the factory Alfa cars, and built up a team of over forty drivers, including Giuseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari. Ferrari himself continued racing until the birth of his first son in 1932 (Alfredo, known as Dino, who died in 1956). The support of Alfa Romeo lasted until 1933 when financial constraints made Alfa withdraw, it required the intervention of Pirelli for Ferrari to receive any cars at all. Despite the quality of the Scuderia drivers the company won few victories (1935 in Germany by Nuvolari was an exception), Auto Union and Mercedes dominated. In 1937 Alfa took control of its racing efforts again, reducing Ferrari to Director of Sports under Alfa's engineering director. Ferrari soon left, but a contract clause restricted him from racing or designing for four years.

He set up Auto-Avio Costruzioni, a company supplying parts to other racing teams. But in the Mille Miglia of 1940 the company manufactured two cars to compete, driven by Alberto Ascari and Lothario Rangoni. During WW II his firm was involved in war production and following bombing relocated from Modena to Maranello. It was not until after WW II that Ferrari sought to shed his fascist reputation and make cars bearing his name, founding Ferrari in 1947.

The first race was in Monaco in 1947, but the first victory was not until the British Grand Prix of 1951. The first championship came in 1952-53, when the Formula One season was raced with Formula Two cars. The company also sold production sports cars in order to finance the racing endeavours not only in Grand Prix but also in events such as the Mille Miglia and Le Mans. Indeed many of the firm's greatest victories came at Le Mans (14 victories, including six in a row 1960-65) rather than in Grand Prix, certainly the company was more involed there than in Formula One during the 1950s and 1960s despite the successes of Juan-Manuel Fangio (1956), Mike Hawthorn (1958), Phil Hill (1961) and John Surtees (1964).

In the 1960s the problems of reduced demand and inadequate financing forced Ferrari to allow Fiat to take a stake in the company, Ford had tried to buy the firm in 1963 for $18m but had been rejected. The company became joint-stock and Fiat took a small share in 1965 and then in 1969 they increased their holding to 50% of the company (In 1988 Fiat's holding was increased to 90%). Ferrari remained managing director until 1971. Despite stepping down he remained an influence over the firm until his death. The input of Fiat took some time to come through however, it was not until 1975 with Niki Lauda that the firm won any championships - the skill of the driver and the ability of the engine overcoming the deficiencies of the chassis and aerodynamics. But after those successes and the promise of Jody Scheckter title in 1979, the company's Formula One championship hopes fell into the doldrums. 1982 opened with a strong car, the 126C2, world-class drivers, and promising results in the early races. However, otherworldly talent Gilles Villeneuve was killed in the 126C2 in May, and teammate Didier Pironi had his career cut short in a violent end over end flip on the misty backstraight at Hockenheim in August. Pironi was leading the driver's championship at the time; he would lose the lead as he sat out thew remaining races. The team would not see championship glory again during Enzo's lifetime. Ferrari died in Modena in 1988 at the age of 90 at the beginning of the dominance of the Mclaren Honda combination.

Together with his honours of Cavaliere and Commendatore in the 1920s, he was made a Cavaliere del Lavoro in 1952 received a number of honorary degrees, the Hammarskjöld Prize in 1962, the Columbus Prize in 1965, and the De Gasperi Award in 1987. In 1994, he was posthumously iducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

After the death of his son Alfredo Ferrari, Enzo wore sunglasses just about every day to honor his son.
 
The Ferrari automobile company has produced exceptional sports cars since 1947. Unlike many similar companies, Ferrari continued to thrive after the death of its charismatic founder and is today one of the most successful sports car companies in the world.

The sports car years
The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the Scuderia. While his beautiful and blazingly fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, most of whom he felt were buying his cars for the prestige and not the performance value.


The great walkout
Enzo Ferrari's strong personality had served his company and racing team well for decades. But internal tensions reached the boiling point in November of 1961. Long-time sales manager, Girolamo Gardini, had long chafed at Enzo's wife, Laura's involvement in the company. The two frequently argued, but their dispute became a crisis for the company when Gardini made an ultimatum to Enzo: If tensions continued, he would leave the company.

Enzo was never a man to accept a challenge to his authority, and he dealt with the situation with a typically heavy hand. Gardini was ousted, as was Scuderia Ferrari manager, Romolo Tavoni, chief engineer Carlo Chiti, experimental sports car development chief, Giotto Bizzarrini, and a number of others who stood by them. All were tremendous losses to the company, and many thought this might be the end of Ferrari. Indeed, the defectors immediately formed a new company, ATS, to directly compete with Ferrari on the street and the track, and took with them Scuderia Serenissima, one of Ferrari's best racing customers.

This "great walkout" came at an especially difficult time for Ferrari. At the urging of Chiti, the company was developing a new 250-based model to defend its honor against the Jaguar E-Type. Development of this car, the 250 GTO, was at a critical point, with the chassis development and styling left incomplete. Even if the car could be finished, it was unclear if it could be raced successfully without Tavoni and his lieutenants.

Into this void stepped young engineer Mauro Forghieri and long-time racing bodyman, Sergio Scaglietti. Both were up to the task, with Forghieri successfully honing the GTO's handling and Scaglietti designing an all-new body for the car. The GTO went to Sebring with driver Phil Hill and placed first in class. It continued winning through 1962, brishing aside the challenge from Jaguar and becoming one of the most famous sports cars in history.

This shakeup, and Forghieri's engineering talent, made the 1960s even more successful for Ferrari than the previous decade. The mid-engined Dino racers laid the foundation for Forghieri's dominant 250-powered 250 P. On the street, the Dino road cars sold strongly, and legendary models like the 275 and Daytona were on the way.
 
bro..

i got a little more knowledgeable bout my fav F1 racing...team after reading ..thanks a lot bro!thx!!
 
Nevermind larr ambayah .... since im too free that day, just doin' it ;) .. he he .. act to boss tat i got work in PC to do ... ;)
 
poorer people like me can only afford poor man's version, the SW20 MR2. hehe
 
Learn to give credit or paste the source's link next time.
Even though nobody will believe you wrote those shits but it's normal practice for ppl to show the links of the original article.
 
zeroTohundred: I'm matured than u, so talk no fuck to me cause its the readers choice to find prove and comment also its the writer's or poster's decision whether want to include credits or not u lazy bum... u simply posting to increase post? wait till i inform Tom to decrease it .. he he ..

i aint tell lie that ferrari owned by proton .. :biggrin:

dunt fuckin' arnd in ma' thread .. or someone will get hurt really bad ;) .. i mean "really" ..
 
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