Exotic Car

Born in Emilia-Romagna, and raised in Modena, Italy, Enzo Ferrari grew up with little formal education but an irresistible desire to race vehicles. During World War I he was a mule-skinner in the Italian military. His granddad, Alfredo, died in 1916 as a result of a widespread Italian influenza outbreak. Enzo became sick himself and was therefore discharged from Italian service. On coming back home he discovered that the family business had fell down. Having no other job prospects he sought unsuccessfully to find employment at Fiat and at last settled for a job at a smaller car company called CMN redesigning used truck bodies into tiny, passenger autos. He took up racing in 1919 on the CMN team, but had tiny first success.

He left CMN in 1920 to work at Alfa Romeo and racing their autos in local races he had more success. In 1923, racing in Ravenna, he purchased the Prancing Horse badge which decorated the fuselage of Francesco Baracca's (Italy's leading ace of WWI ) SPAD fighter, given from his mother, taken from the wreckage of the aeroplane after his puzzling death. This icon would wait till 1932 to be plastered on a racing vehicle. In 1924 he won the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara. His successes in local races encouraged Alfa to offer him a chance of much more celebrated competition and he was praised by Mussolini. Ferrari turned this opportunity down and in a funk he did not race again till 1927 and even then his racing career was often over. He continued to work without delay for Alfa Romeo till 1929 before beginning Scuderia Ferrari as the racing team for Alfa.

Ferrari managed the development of the factory Alfa autos, and built up a gang of over forty drivers, including Giuseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari. Ferrari himself continued racing till the birth of his first son in 1932 (Alfredo Ferrari, known as Dino, who died in 1956 ) .

Enzo Car

Enzo Car