70 Years Celebration of FERRARI
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| Enzo Ferrari- Founder |
Motor racing was Enzo Ferrari’s passion. Road cars were an annoyance a, distraction. Yet without the latter, Scuderia Ferrari as we know it today wouldn’t exist. Ferrari built road cars to sell to wealthy customers to fund his racing team.
These were people for whom Il Commendatore famously had no time as he felt they were buying the cars for their prestige rather than their performance.
The truth is that they were probably buying the cars for both prestige and performance reasons. And that’s certainly the case today, exactly 70 years after the first official Ferrari was built.
It’s a landmark that is being marked by an exceptional display of Ferrari road cars that will form the centrepiece of the London Classic Car Show, which takes place from February 23-26 at ExCeL,London.
The first Ferrari, the 125 S sports racer, to appear in 1947 is the starting point of Celebration of 70th Anniversary of Ferrari. It was powered by a 1.5-litre V12 engine and just two examples were built.
the introduction of the 250 Europa GT, a 3.0-litre V12 road car that marked the start of Ferrari as a serious manufacturer
of Gran Turismo cars was back in 1954. There will be a number of variations on the 250 theme at the London Classic Car Show as part of a display conservatively reckoned to be worth more than £100 million. They will include a 250 Lusso, a 250 California Spyder and a 250GT SWB and will be joined by a pair of later models, the 275GTS and 275GTB.
By the late 1960s, however, Ferrari’s financial difficulties were rising. More and more money was needed for new car development and to meet increasingly demanding safety and emissions requirements. Ferrari’s response was to look for a partner. He needed someone not only with deep pockets but one which would leave him in peace to run the race team while they looked after the road car side which, at the time, was producing essentially only three models: the V12-engined 365 GT and 365 GTB/4 Daytona and the beautiful V6, mid-engined Dino. A Dino and a Daytona will be displayed at the show.
Fiat entered in 1963 had taken the small share in the industry after that they increased the share in Ferrari by 50%. in 1971. From that Ferrari become the Managing Director of the Road Division and from then the new era of Ferrari Cars begun.
Over the years, a series of V8-powered mid-engined cars leading to today’s 488 have provided the majority of sales while the greats include cars such the V12 550 Maranello, the flat-12 Berlinetta Boxer and Testarossa, as well as the current GTC4Lusso, a V12-engined grand tourer in finest Ferrari tradition.
then there are the supercars like the F40 – the world’s first
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| Ferrari F40 |
Since the 1970s, Ferrari production has increased to the point where record sales in 2015 hit 7,664 cars and the range has expanded to embrace V8 and V12 models; two- and four-seaters; four- and rear-wheel drive; coupés, spiders and convertibles. If you include limited edition special models such as LaFerrari, LaFerrari Aperta and the F12tdf, the current range is nine models.
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| Ferrari La Ferrari Aperta |
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| Ferrari F12 FRS |
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| Ferrari F12 Berlinetta |
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| Ferrari Enzo |
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