When one of my readers gave me the idea to the section on legendary personalities from the auto industry, he did so specifically mentioning Ferdinand Piëch, whom I therefore did the first portrait of earlier this summer. Had I come up with the idea myself though, I wouldn’t have started with Piëch. If someone says “automotive legend” to me, there’s really one name that springs to mind before the others, and it is that of Enzo Ferrari. I kind of suspect it may be the same for some of you, so in this second portrait, we’ll have a look at the Commandatore himself, the legendary man who spent his life in northern Italy between Turin, Milan, Maranello and Modena, and whose legend has only grown since he passed away around 35 years ago.
It apparently took little Enzo 10 years from his birth in 1898 to be stung by the racing bug, which happened when his father took him to a car race in Bologna. Enzo had an older brother and early on dreamt of becoming an opera singer, but the Spanish flu that swept across the world at the time killed both Enzo’s older brother and his father, forcing him to grow up quickly and lay his ideas of a singing career to rest. He joined the army in 1917 and was very close to dying from the flu as well shortly thereafter, but survived and was honorably discharged the same year. Rather than becoming a soldier, his big dream was now to work for Fiat, but his application was rejected, which we should perhaps all be grateful for.
Enzo instead went on to work for a company called Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali for whom he also debuted as a racing driver. He took part in a number of races over the coming years with quite some success, before a very defining moment for him but also for the larger automobile world occurred in 1923, when Enzo met the parents of the noble flying ace Francesco Baracca. Baracca had done some heroic flights but later perished in the war, and his parents now invited Enzo to use their son’s coat of arms on his cars for good luck. You’ve guessed it, that coat of arms was none other than a prancing horse, and the Ferrari logo had thus been born.
In 1929, Enzo’s racing career was crowned when he was knighted for his achievements and given the title “Commandatore” (Commander), that would stick with him for the rest of his life. He would end his driving career in the coming years and instead set up the sporting society Scuderia (“team”) Ferrari, a kind of racing club for aspiring drivers with as symbol the prancing horse. The club would a few years later become affiliated to Alfa Romeo, but the association would only last a few years.
Enzo had now also become the proud father of a boy called Dino, but as he didn’t know then, Dino would only have a short life, dying of dystrophy in 1956. Between the Spanish flu, his son’s dystrophy and other terrible viruses and bugs at the time, it doesn’t hurt to remember that modern medicine has done quite a few wonders in curing and exterminating what people died of less than 100 years ago… Dystrophy however, as a genetic disease, is unfortunately one we don’t yet have a remedy to.
Just before WW II broke out, Enzo had founded his new company Auto Avio Costruzioni in Modena, later moved to Maranello. As soon as the war was over, Ferrari started racing and the 125 S would score its first victory in 1947. That would be the start of many race wins over the coming years, including notably the Mille Miglia in 1948, the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1949, and the world racing championship both in 1952 and 1953, in both cases with the legendary Alberto Ascari as driver. it was at this time that Ferrari also started producing road cars, already then with the rich and famous in mind.
If the late 40’s were all happy days, the 50’s and early 60’s would be less so. Next to the loss of his son, six Ferrari drivers would be killed between 1955 and 1965, Enzo as head of Ferrari would be charged with manslaughter following the accident in the Mille Miglia in 1957 that I described in my post about the race, and Enzo would also lose several of his top people in the Palace Revolt in 1961, that we looked into in the post on Bizzarrini back in February 2021. These events and of course, especially the death of Dino, changed Enzo into a reclusive man. It was most probably also these events that led him to consider a sale of Ferrari to Ford in the 60’s, that would however never happen. Instead it was Fiat that Enzo sold half of the company to in 1969, because Ferrari by then had serious financial issues.
At the age of 79, Enzo would resign as president of the company he founded in 1977, but president or not, it was still clear to everyone who was really running the company. A further personal blow was the death of his beloved wife the year after, and finally Enzo himself took his last breath in 1988 at the age of 90, in Maranello that he made so famous. He was later introduced to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, given the 13 world championships and 4.000 race wins achieved over his lifetime.
Next to the racing successes, Enzo of also led the development of Ferrari’s road cars during the decades he was active. Going through them all is a post by itself, but let me pick two of my (and many others’) favorites. The Dino, named in honor of Enzo’s son, is to me one of the most beautiful Ferraris, and the F40, which was the last car Enzo signed off on personally, one of the most spectacular. These and others are shown in the Ferrari gallery in Maranello that it’s well worth visiting if you’re in this beautiful region of Italy, going by a single motto: Forza Ferrari!
The Thrill of Driving 