Ferrari Overview

© Ferrari S.p.A. Ferrari defines motoring excitement. Coming at you is a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. See more pictures of Ferraris in action.

Ferrari expert or casual enthusiast, this wide-ranging look at Ferrari gets you up to speed on the world's most thrilling automobiles.

As you'll see in the previews below, this deftly assembled collection of articles and pictures tells the Ferrari story though every important Ferrari car and the people who designed them, built them, drove them, and raced them.

More than 100 Ferrari models are featured, from the earliest postwar sports-racers to today's magnificent road cars and Formula 1 single-seaters. Taking their place among scores of timless classics are such Ferraris as the fetching 166 MM Barchetta, snarling 250 GTO, exotic Testarossa, and sharknose Dino 156 F1 Grand Prix racer.

Here's a preview of the exciting components that make up our celebration of Ferrari:

Ferrari Cars
Learn about every important Ferrari road car, sports-racing car, and Formula 1 car, including such coveted machines as the 250 GT Spyder California, Ferrari F430, 250 Testa Rossa, and F2007.

Other Cars With Ferrari Engines
Check out the cars that boasted Ferrari power but not the Ferrari badge. Among them are hot little numbers like the Fiat Dino and Lancia Stratos.

Ferrari History and Biographies
Discover how Enzo Ferrari propelled himself and his cars to the pinnacle of the automotive universe, and check out concise biographies of the friends, and the foes, who also were vital to the marque's success.

Ferrari Pictures
Enjoy the sheer pleasure of looking at the incomparable design of some of the most beautiful Ferraris ever built. A special bonus treats you to The Five Fastest Ferraris and The Five Most Collectible Ferraris of all time.

The Ferrari 250 GT SWB, introduced in 1959, is among the most coveted Ferraris.

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• How the Enzo Ferrari Works
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• The Five Most Collectible Ferraris
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• The Consumer Guide to Premium Sporty/Performance Cars

Ferrari Cars

The midengine Ferrari F430, introduced in 2004, is a stirring modern-day Ferrari.

Ferrari is passion on wheels, and that passion comes alive in the articles we’ve created.

Every significant Ferrari car is profiled, more than 100 models in all, from the very first machines to wear the prancing horse in 1947 to today’s thrilling lineup of V-8 and V-12 coupes and convertibles.

Our journey proceeds along the three paths that make up the Ferrari cars legend: the road cars, the sports-racing cars, and the F1 cars.

Clothed in graceful bodywork by Enzo Ferrari’s friend, Battista “Pinin” Farina, the early road cars were only slightly tamed versions of his racing cars. Indeed, the very first Ferrari road car, the 166 MM, took part of its name from the Mille Miglia, the famed 1,000-mile Italian road race won by a Ferrari in 1948.

The theme continued through such wondrous stallions as the Ferrari 340 America and 375 MM of the early 1950s. These cars could be driven to the track, compete for the checkered flag, and carry their driver to dinner that night. This was the romance of the dual-purpose sports car, an ideal that culminated with the Ferrari 250 GT SWB coupe of 1959.

The Ferrari 375 MM racer of the 1950s wasn't a world apart from Ferrari road cars.

After that, the all-out performance demanded by competition and the veneer of civility required by Ferrari’s wealthy non-racing customers sent his road cars along their own route.

Certainly, each succeeding decade had its share of ferocious road going Ferraris -- the 365 GTB/4 Daytona in the 1960s followed by the midengine 512 BBi in the ‘70s, F40 in the ‘80s, F50 in the ‘90s, and Enzo in the new millennium. But each period also had its gorgeous grand touring models as well, including the 250 GT Coupe, 330 GTC, and today’s 612 Scaglietti, all of which followed Ferrari’s classic front-engine V-12 format.

It’s a cannon of the Ferrari faith that Enzo sold road cars mainly to finance his first love, racing. And in the first half of the company’s 60-year existence, that mostly meant endurance racing. Ferrari’s sports-racing cars were generally recognizable as wilder versions of models customers could buy and they competed in the big glamor events, like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Targa Florio.

Such Ferraris as the pontoon-fender 250 Testa Rossa and the voluptuous 330 P4 battled Jaguar and later, Ford, for supremacy in this particular crucible of 200-mph machine and high-risk automotive marketing.

By the mid 1970s, Formula 1 had taken over as the aristocrat of motor racing, and Ferrari refocused its efforts on this form of open-wheel, single-seat competition. Immortals like Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio had driven Ferrari Grand Prix cars in the 1950s. And the distinctive shark-nose Dino 156 F1 made Phil Hill the first American F1 world champion in 1961.

But even those classic men and their machines couldn’t match the dominance of Michael Shumacher who, starting in the mid 1990s, led Ferrari to six F1 manufacturer’s titles and captured for himself five F1 world driving championships.

You’re invited to learn about all these cars and more, plus the stories of the people who designed, built, and drove them. The Ferrari articles we’ve created are portals to a story of automotive magic unlike any other.

F1 world champion driver Michael Shumacher in the Ferrari F2004 Formula 1 car.

• Ferrari F1 Cars
• How the Enzo Ferrari Works
• The Five Fastest Ferraris
• The Five Most Collectible Ferraris
• American Muscle Cars
• Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
• The Consumer Guide to Premium Sporty/Performance Cars

Other Cars With Ferrari Engines

The Lancia Stratos of the early 1970s used a Ferrari V-6 engine.

The heart of any Cavallino is its engine, and over the years, that magic Maranello beat has thumped under the hood of a few cars that were not Ferraris.

Learn about the exclusive but diverse group of cars that have benefited from genuine Ferrari power.

ASA 1000 GT and 1000 GT Spider
This compact coupe and convertible was built in the 1960s in small numbers by a prominent Ferrari client and his son who had the pull to land for their car a Ferrari-built 97-horsepower four-cylinder engine.

Fiat Dino Spider and Coupe
When Ferrari had to install a V-6 engine in more than 500 cars to qualify it for racing, it turned to Italy's largest automaker and the Pininfarina-designed Fiat Dino Spider convertible and Bertone-designed Dino Coupe were born.

Lancia Stratos
The wildest non-Ferrari to run a Ferrari engine was this 1970s rally car. Also offered in a roadgoing version, the wedge-shaped lightweight had a 192-horsepower V-6, handled like a racecar, and could hit 140 mph.

Lancia Thema 8.32
It wasn't just sports cars that borrowed Ferrari engines. This luxurious sedan took its name from its 8-cylinder, 32-valve Ferrari V-8 and, with its low-key styling, was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

For even more fabulous features on Ferrari and other electrifying performance cars, check out:

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• How the Enzo Ferrari Works
• The Five Fastest Ferraris
• The Five Most Collectible Ferraris
• American Muscle Cars
• The Consumer Guide to Premium Sporty/Performance Cars
  

Ferrari History and Biographies

Enzo Ferrari in 1921 as a 23-year-old race driver at the wheel of his Alfa Romeo.

It begins near the Italian city of Modena, where Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898, almost as the automobile itself came into the world. By the time of his death in 1988 at age 90, Ferrari’s vision had shaped the world of sport motoring and helped elevate some of it to great art.

These articles on the history of Ferrari, along with concise biographies of pivotal figures in that saga, are a passage to a unique and fascinating story.

Ferrari History
Discover how the son of a metalworker created a small company that would attain worldwide renown producing unparalleled objects of automotive desire.

Ferrari Biographies
Enzo didn’t do it alone. Learn about some others who were indispensable to the creation and groth of the greatest marque in high-performance motoring.

• Gianni Agnelli
• Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni
• Lugi Chinetti
• Gioachino Colombo
• Adolfo Orsi and Ferruccio Lamborghini
• Mauro Forghieri
• Giolamo Gardini
• Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
• Battista and Sergio Pinninfarina
• Sergio Scaglietti
• Michael Schumacher
• Jean Todt

• Ferrari F1 Cars
  
• How the Enzo Ferrari Works
• The Five Fastest Ferraris
• The Five Most Collectible Ferraris
• American Muscle Cars
• The Consumer Guide to Premium Sporty/Performance Cars

Ferrari Pictures

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This Ferrari 375 MM of 1954 was built for Italian film director Roberto Rossellini.

This 1988 Ferrari F40 shows Ferraris can look brutal as well as beautiful.

The Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California SWB vies for "most-beautiful Ferrari" honors.

The Dino 246 GT wore no Ferrari badge, but was a member of the Ferrari family.

The Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona was pretty and potent. This is a 1969 example.

• Ferrari F1 Cars
  
• How the Enzo Ferrari Works
• The Five Fastest Ferraris
• The Five Most Collectible Ferraris
• American Muscle Cars
• The Consumer Guide to Premium Sporty/Performance Cars