Vittorio Jano: the engineer who designed the engines that won for Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Ferrari, and whom almost nobody remembers Here’s a question. If you walked into Goodwood next summer, stopped any ten people in the paddock, and asked them to name the most influential engine designer in the history of Italian motorsport, what … Read more
The Italian Who Walked Away From Henry Ford Detroit, 1920. The Rouge plant was still being built but Highland Park was already running flat out, churning out Model Ts at a pace nobody in Europe could match. Henry Ford himself sat down with a 27-year-old visitor from Turin and offered him a job. Stay in … Read more
Ferrari 125 S, A Promising Failure: How Ferrari Began with Three Broken Words May 11, 1947. Piacenza circuit, northern Italy. The first car ever to wear the Ferrari name is leading its debut race. Then a fuel pump dies. The driver pulls in. The car stops. There are two normal reactions to this scenario. One: … Read more
The Man Who Saved Alfa Without Loving Cars: Nicola Romeo Most car brands that survive a century get a fairy tale stitched onto their origin story. There’s always a founder with petrol in his veins, a workshop epiphany, a sketch on a napkin. Henry Ford watching the Model T roll out the door. Frederick Henry … Read more
Ferrari F40: The Car That Was Born So Five Prototypes Wouldn’t End Up In The Scrapyard Everything you’ve been told about the origin of the Ferrari F40 is half-true. That it was Enzo’s gift to celebrate forty years of the factory. That it was the answer to Porsche and the 959. That it was the … Read more
Ferruccio Lamborghini: the farmer who insulted Enzo Ferrari and built an empire The man who answered an insult with a V12 A 47-year-old tractor manufacturer walks into Enzo Ferrari’s office in Maranello and tells him his cars are rubbish. Ferrari tells him to go back to his tractors. Four months later, the tractor manufacturer has … Read more
The Man Who Built the Most Recognisable Brand on Earth and Buried Eight of His Drivers The official newspaper of the Vatican compared him to Saturn devouring his own children. Not a rival. Not a bitter ex-driver. Not some leftist tabloid sniffing around for controversy. L’Osservatore Romano. The official newspaper of the Holy See. In … Read more
Ferrari 330 P4: The Most Perfect Reply To a Humiliation Ferrari never answered Ford with words. Ferrari answered with a photograph. Daytona, 5 February 1967, half past three in the afternoon. Three red cars crossing the finish line side by side, shoulder to shoulder, drivers revving their engines like men spitting in their rivals’ faces. … Read more
Ferrari 288 GTO and Evoluzione: The Last Ferrari Designed To Win Races That Never Raced There’s a room in Maranello’s engine department where a Ferrari is parked that shouldn’t exist. It has no licence plate. It has no race category. It has no calendar. It’s been sitting there for nearly forty years, preserved by the … Read more
MAURO FORGHIERI: The Engineer Who Held Ferrari Together for 27 Years and Got a Decorative Office in Return Picture this. You’re 26. You’ve been at Ferrari for one year. Last week, every senior engineer in the place walked out at once. You’re the only qualified engineer left because you happen to be the youngest one … Read more
THE WAR FERRARI LOST AGAINST ITSELF. June 1969 Enzo Ferrari signs the papers. Fifty percent of his company is no longer his. He has just sold it to Fiat. In exchange he receives a brutal sum of money that he needs for a single reason: to build a car capable of beating Porsche. The Porsche … Read more
Wifredo Ricart: The Spanish Engineer Who Made Ferrari Happen… Without Even Trying A kid from Barcelona, born in 1897. A guy who graduated in industrial engineering before turning 21. A man who designed racing cars with double overhead cams and 16 valves when most manufacturers didn’t even know those words. A Spaniard who walked into … Read more
