Enzo Ferrari Born: The Man Behind the Prancing Horse

Enzo Ferrari transformed a small racing team in northern Italy into the most prestigious name in motorsport and one of the most desirable automotive brands on earth. The prancing horse logo, originally borrowed from a World War I Italian fighter ace, became the universal symbol of speed, ambition, and Italian craftsmanship. Born in Modena, Italy on February 18, 1898, Ferrari's father ran a small metal fabrication business. Young Enzo developed a passion for motor racing after watching a race at the Bologna circuit as a child. He worked as a test driver and racing driver for Alfa Romeo in the 1920s and 1930s before founding his own racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, in 1929. He began building his own cars in 1947, after the war. His obsession was racing, not road cars. Ferrari built and sold sports cars primarily to fund his racing program. He called his road car customers the people who bought cars he didn't want to build so he could build the cars he did want to race. The company's relationship with its customers was famously adversarial: Ferrari himself was dismissive of buyers and complained that they didn't understand the cars. Ferrari's Formula One team has won sixteen Constructors' Championships and fifteen Drivers' Championships, more than any other constructor. Drivers including Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher raced for the Scuderia. The team's red cars became so identified with the sport that Ferrari red became a synonym for Italian racing. His personal life was marked by tragedy. His eldest son, Alfredo (Dino), died of muscular dystrophy in 1956 at twenty-four. Ferrari named the Dino road car series after him. He had a second son, Piero, from an extramarital relationship, whom he did not publicly acknowledge until late in life. He sold a majority stake in the company to Fiat in 1969 but retained control of the racing program until his death on August 14, 1988, at 90. His death was not publicly announced for two days, per his wishes.