History

May 11, 1997, marked an Italian milestone: the 50th anniversary of the Ferrari marque. The
manufacturer of what many call the best sports car in the world celebrated this historical event in Italy
and in every country Ferrari have dealers.
The late Enzo Ferrari below, surely would have enjoyed seeing so many of his cars celebrating in so many venues all over the world

Enzo Ferrari — a former race driver and Alfa Romeo dealer — stepped into history in 1947 as a car manufacturer with his 125 S, below. This open sports car was equipped with a 1,498-cc twelve-cylinder engine (72 horsepower!) and was built exclusively for racing.
 

Since then, many legendary types have galloped out of the stables with the Prancing Horse, such as the 340
America, the 250 GT, the breathtaking 275 GTB (1964), the Dino, the Testarossa and the F40, which marked Ferrari's 40th birthday. And, of course, the most recent members of the clan, the F50, the F355, the 465 and the 550 Maranello. The world-renowned flaming red cars have many fans whose hearts skip a beat at the sight of their favorite badge.

After his resignation from Alfa Romeo in 1929, Enzo Ferrari set up an Alfa dealership and started his own racing stable. Scuderia Ferrari, an independent team, hired out Alfas to wealthy race drivers.

Three years later, Ferrari took over Alfa's race department and thus became a semi-works team. Ten years after that, Alfa started its own race team again, which caused a split with the Scuderia. Ferrari decided to build race cars himself, to teach Alfa a lesson.

The results are well known: Il Commendatore shared many victories with his men. From the very first Grand Prix of Monte Carlo in 1948 until his death in 1988, many drivers passed from the scene. Enzo Ferrari died a month too early to celebrate the double victory of Berger and Alboreto in the Italian GP. In the meantime the Ferrari Formula 1 team, with double World Champion Michael Schumacher and Eddie Ervine at the wheel, is back at the top. Nobody wants to run ahead of this year's world championship, but with all the 1998 regulation changes, we'd place a small bet on the Scuderia.

Galleria Ferrari

The Galleria Ferrari, the recently renovated museum, is just across the road from the factory's premises in
Maranello, some hundred miles from Torino.

No Ferrari fan on earth would want to skip that part of any trip to Italy now. Although the Galleria's collection was
not very impressive until its takeover last summer by the Ferrari Trust Fund, a visit to the museum these days is
more than worth its entry fee of 12,000 lires (US$7.50). The Galleria is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., except on Mondays.

You enter through the shop, where you can find the official Ferrari gear, from postcards to T-shirts, silk scarves,
key rings and expensive leather goods. In the basement are legendary models such as a Dino, a Monza, a GTO and our favorite, the 265 GTB4 in yellow. On the first floor is a full-scale copy of Enzo Ferrari's office, and there are also scale models of Formula 1 cars and sports cars, which were used for wind-tunnel testing. A collection of F1 memorabilia includes the trophies of Schumacher and Irvine, and a gallery contains panels explaining the production process of a car.
 
 
 
 

                     M.schumacher                                                                                                Irvine