Ferrari

Formed in 1939 as a breakaway of the Alfa Romeo racing division, Ferrari initially focused purely on racing cars. Having successfully managed Alfa Romeo’s racing division through the 1930s, Enzo used his knowledge and experience to build a successful racing organisation, one that needed money to keep it going. After World War Two, to raise much needed cash Enzo began selling tamed versions of his race cars to exclusive, wealthy clientele - often in the US. Word spread quickly, and it wasn’t long before his road cars became as famous as those that dominated Grand Prix racing, and Le Mans. A legend was born.

Bought by Fiat in 1969 - Ferrari has continued to go from strength to strength, recently rated the world's most powerful brand. Of the famous cavallino rampante (‘prancing horse’) logo, Enzo Ferrari told this anecdote: "The story of cavallino rampante is very simple yet fascinating. It was painted in the side of the plane of Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian Air Force and national hero of World War I. In 1923, when I won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna, I met the Count Enrico Baracca, father of the hero; after that, I met the Countess Paolina, mother of Francesco Baracca, who asked me to use her son’s horse on my car suggesting that it would bring me good luck."

Here we look back on some of the magnificent early front-engine road cars with the race-bred Colombo V12, including the mighty GTO , 275GTB and culminating with the brutal 365 GTB/4 Daytona. The first rear-engine Ferrari road car - the V6 Dino, and later 308 with the compact V8, and of course the Berlinetta Boxer and Testarossa supercars with flat 12 powerplants.

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