Before he created the famous car brand Ferrari, Enzo owned a company called “Auto Avio Costruzioni”, which produced for Mussolini’s fascist government during the Second World War.
The famous car manufacturer – Enzo Ferrari – was born on this day in the Italian city of Modena. He began his career as a racing driver. The first success he achieved for the team of Alfa Romeo. After one victory, he won a Prancing Horse badge that decorated the plane of Francesco Baracca, Italy’s leading fighter ace in World War I. The emblem was taken from the wreckage of the Baracca’s plane that mysteriously crashed in the war. Later, this emblem would become the crest of the Ferrari Company.
In time Enzo Ferrari became a team leader, founding the Alfa Romeo team Scuderia Ferrari (literally “Ferrari stall”). He finally abandoned Alpha in 1937 and founded his own company, Auto Avio Costruzioni, which produced for Mussolini’s fascist government during the Second World War, and constructed the first Ferrari car Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 (only one has been preserved).
Enzo’s factory was bombed by the Allies during the war. He built a new one in the town of Maranello near Modena (Ferrari’s headquarters are still there). To rid himself of the connection with his fascist past, Enzo founded a new company in 1947 under his own name – Ferrari, which still exists today. They began to produce road cars in order to raise money for racing.
The first Ferrari road car was the Ferrari 125 S. It had a V12 engine, which is still the feature of the most powerful Ferrari cars today. Numerous victories in races and many new models of road cars followed. Enzo died at the age of 90 in the mentioned Maranello.
