Ferrari FXX: the most elegant scam in motoring history Run the numbers. In 2005 Ferrari pulled off a move that, attempted by anyone else, ends in a courtroom. They sold you a car for over a million euros. Then they kept it. They stored it at their place. They charged you separately for the privilege … Read more
The Engineer Ferrari Tried to Erase There’s a car that regularly sells for over fifty million dollars at auction. It is, by most measures, the most valuable automobile ever made. The man who engineered its engine never saw it win a race. He was fired before it crossed a finish line — handed a sealed … Read more
Colombo V12: The V12 Drawn on a Garden Table That Stayed Inside a Ferrari for Forty-Two Years Some engines get designed in proper engineering departments. Glass-walled offices, slide rules, scheduled meetings, espresso machines, the lot. And then there’s this other one, which was sketched in pencil in Milan, in August nineteen forty-five, while Italy was … Read more
Ferrari F40 LM and Competizione: Maranello’s Group B Debt, Paid Ten Years Late There are cars that arrive on time and cars that arrive late. The Ferrari F40 LM arrived late. It arrived three years after Henri Toivonen was killed in Corsica and the FIA killed Group B. It arrived two years after the road … 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
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
Ferrari 250 GT Breadvan: The Ferrari Ferrari Refused To Acknowledge There exists a Ferrari built to destroy Ferrari. Read that again, slowly, because it isn’t a metaphor. A car with a Colombo V12, a 250 GT SWB chassis, a body designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, built by coachbuilder Piero Drogo in Modena in roughly two weeks, … Read more
Ferrari F50: The Ferrari The Press Couldn’t Read Let’s get one thing straight before we start. In 1995, when Ferrari launched the F50, the motoring press of the entire planet agreed on one thing: it was a disappointment. They said it in the United States. They said it in England. They said it in Italy. … 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
GIANPAOLO DALLARA: THE ENGINEER WHO CHOSE A GARAGE IN PARMA OVER A DESK IN MARANELLO The first note Enzo Ferrari left on his desk read “Più ordinato, per favore.” Tidier, please. Handwritten in the purple ink the Commendatore used for everything. It was December 1959. Gianpaolo Dallara had just left university and just walked into … Read more
