ROBERT COUCHER
The Driver
Ferrari. F-E-R-R-A-R-I! What a wonderful word. It sounds fast, exotic, Continental, flamboyant and fun in the way McLaren or Porsche never will. A Rosso Corsa Ferrari with its yellow-and-black
Cavallino Rampante shields and multiple exhaust pipes is the machine of dreams, the more so with only around 200,000 Ferraris manufactured in the company’s 70 years. What an impact so few motor cars, built by a tiny company, have made on the automotive world.
Ferrari has always punched above its weight because of founder Enzo’s single-minded passion: motor racing. Scuderia Ferrari’s cars have been major players in Formula 1 every year since 1950. Alberto Ascari won the Drivers’ Championship in 1952 and Ferrari went on to become the most successful team in Formula 1, with 221 Grand Prix victories. It also dominated the World Sports Car Championship which was created in 1953, winning the title in seven out of its first nine years. And with the current Formula 1 season off to an exciting start, it’s great to see the Scuderia back at the front of the grid ahead of that incredibly successful British team, Ilmor. Those silver cars might be badged Mercedes-Benz but they actually hail from Brixworth… in England.
This halo of motor sport prowess adds priceless panache to Enzo’s road cars. Many specialist carmakers have created, designed and built superb machines (think AC, Alpine, Bizzarrini, Frazer Nash, Invicta, Lancia, TVR) but they had no equivalent of the forza of Ferrari, with Enzo going racing and making his road car customers pay the substantial bills.
Building a car is like cooking. All the ingredients are there but it’s the way they are put together that makes the difference. Enzo was an ace in this regard. A few lumpy examples early on aside, Ferraris have always been beautiful and forceful thanks to the skills of Pininfarina, Bertone, Zagato and their like. Then there were the magnificent engines created by engineering geniuses Gioacchino Colombo, Aurelio Lampredi and Vittorio Jano. A Ferrari engine is as soulful as you will find. Every start-up – introduced by that long, steady starter-motor whirr before the engine erupts – is a special occasion that even the most blasé enthusiast can’t ignore.
And the detailing. How can a car not look fabulous sitting on wide, polished Borrani wire wheels? Who can resist caressing a wood-rimmed Nardi steering wheel, or that long gearlever standing proudly from the exposed gearshift gate? Then there are the signature quad ANSA exhaust ‘snaps’ at the rear, a design flourish that only an E-type Jaguar’s twin pipes approach.
Most Ferrari racing cars have been effective and successful, while Ferrari road cars have nearly always been stylish grabbers of attention. Built in small numbers to a high standard, they are more exciting than ‘engineered’ Mercedes-Benzes and Porsches, while Jaguar quality in the past was let down by Sir William Lyons’ notorious penny-pinching. It means the best classic Ferraris now command stratospheric values, and you can’t argue with that. As well as brilliant engineering, looks, style and sound, every sports car needs a good dose of mythology. Bentley attained that with its ‘Bentley Boys’, dominating Le Mans whilst swilling goblets of champagne. Porsche’s mystique was enhanced with James Dean killing himself in his ‘Little Bastard’ 550 Spyder, and continued the allure with its dangerous-toknow, tail-happy 911. And the ubiquitous Steve McQueen added a dash of glamour to the Jaguar XKSS and Ford Mustang.
Ferrari became a household name through not just its on-track victories but also the exploits of some of its careless playboy drivers, tragically in the case of Alfonso de Portago who crashed out of the 1957 Mille Miglia at 150mph in his Ferrari 355 S, killing nine spectators. As TC Browne wrote: ‘The inevitable happened when Alfonso de Portago stopped along the course, ran to the fence, kissed Linda Christian, ran back to his Ferrari and drove on to his destiny, killing himself, his co-driver, 10 spectators and the Mille Miglia.’
More vim was added in the 1960s by Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican Republic diplomat. He had affairs with Eartha Kitt, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Eva Peron before marrying Barbara Hutton, the wealthiest woman in the world. He died at the wheel of his silver Ferrari 250 GT on the Bois de Boulogne in Paris after partying all night at the famous nightclub, Jimmy’s.
Apparently Rubirosa had a very large ‘personality’, so Parisian waiters named those gigantic pepper mills ‘Rubirosas’ in his honour. That’s a proper Ferrari driver.
‘DE PORTAGO STOPPED, RAN TO THE FENCE, KISSED LINDA CHRISTIAN AND DROVE ON TO HIS DESTINY’