5 Amazing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Ferrari

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While the very first Ferrari, the 125 S, turned heads immediately when released, the company didn’t actually start mass-producing cars at the time. Only two 125 S Ferraris were ever manufactured in 1947. The car made its competitive debut at the Piacenza Circuit that year, driven by Franco Cortese. Enzo Ferrari would later call that race "a promising failure” after fuel pump issues forced the Ferrari team to abandon the race while they were in the lead. Despite the inauspicious racing debut, and the fact that only two 125S Ferraris were produced, the car still became a legend. It won the Rome Grand Prix later in 1947 and went on to win a total of six victories in a total of 13 races. Sadly for auto historians (and the rest of us), the two 125 S Ferraris that were produced were not preserved. Instead, Ferrari dismantled both cars and used their parts to make the company’s next models.

Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena, Italy in 1898. And although he built the Ferrari brand into a juggernaut and traveled the world with his racing team, he remained extremely close to his hometown of Modena and the nearby Maranello, Italy. The original Ferrari manufacturing plant was in Modena, where Enzo Ferrari lived all his life. Today, Ferrari’s global headquarters are a stone’s throw away in neighboring Maranello (pictured below), where there’s also a Ferrari museum that is focused on the company’s cars as well as its global brand. For the residents of Modena and Maranello, Ferrari helped to put them on the map. Today, people from around the world visit those Italian locations just to see the Ferrari operations and museum.

Ferrari is no longer a family controlled business. In 1969, Enzo Ferrari sold 50 percent of the company he owned outright to rival Italian automaker, the Fiat Group. The deal gave Ferrari a much-needed cash infusion. Just before his death in 1988, Enzo Ferrari and his son Piero Ferrari sold even more of the company, retaining only 10 percent ownership for the Ferrari family. According to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the parent company of Ferrari is now known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Today, the Ferrari family receives very little of the proceeds from all the Ferrari sales and branded merchandise, which is worth billions of dollars annually.

The prancing horse that is Ferrari’s iconic logo is actually a nod to Italian World War I flying ace Francesco Baracca, who died in action in 1918. In 1923, Enzo Ferrari met the Count and Countess Baracca, the parents of the famed World War I pilot, after a race. Legend has it that Baracca’s parents suggested that Ferrari adopt their son’s "prancing horse” logo that had been painted on the sides of his airplanes for his then-fledgling racing team, reportedly saying it would bring Enzo Ferrari good luck. Nine years later, Alfa Romeo (the team that Enzo raced for) allowed Ferrari to put the logo on his car for the 1932 Spa 24 Hours race, after Enzo repeatedly pestered executives about it. A yellow shield was added to the logo in honor of Enzo’s hometown of Modena, Italy.

A big part of Ferrari’s success as a car company comes from its customization. Owners of the iconic sports cars love that they can customize any element of a Ferrari that they purchase. And we mean any element. The company’s "Tailor Made” program allows buyers to personalize every component of a Ferrari. This experience happens at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, where buyers can choose everything from interior trims and finishes, to various accessories and the tire treads. Once a buyer makes all of these choices, they can expect it to take up to two years to receive their custom car. Famous celebrities such as musician Eric Clapton and golfer Ian Poulter have created their own custom-designed Ferraris, as have many other wealthy people with extra money lying around.