Ferrari

1947 - The beginning
The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 Sport, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the Scuderia. While his beautiful and blazingly fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, most of whom he felt were buying his cars for the prestige and not theperformance.[citation needed]

[edit] 1961 - The great walkout
Enzo Ferrari's strong personality had served his company and racing team well for decades. But internal tensions reached the boiling point in November 1961 Long-time sales manager, Girolamo Gardini, had long chafed at Enzo's wife, Laura's, involvement in the company. The two frequently argued, but their dispute became a crisis for the companywhen Gardini made an ultimatum to Enzo: If tensions continued, he would leave the company.

Enzo was never a man to accept a challenge to his authority, and he dealt with the situation with a typically heavy hand. Gardini was ousted, as was Scuderia Ferrari manager, Romolo Tavoni, chief engineer Carlo Chiti, experimental sports car development chief, Giotto Bizzarrini, and a number of others whostood by them. All were tremendous losses to the company, and many thought this might be the end of Ferrari. Indeed, the defectors immediately formed a new company, ATS, to directly compete with Ferrari on the street and the track, and took with them Scuderia Serenissima, one of Ferrari's best racing customers.

This "great walkout" came at an especially difficult time for Ferrari. At the urgingof Chiti, the company was developing a new 250-based model to defend its honor against the Jaguar E-Type. Development of this car, the 250 GTO, was at a critical point, with the chassis development and styling left incomplete. Even if the car could be finished, it was unclear if it could be raced successfully without Tavoni and his lieutenants.

Into this void stepped young engineer MauroForghieri and long-time racing bodyman, Sergio Scaglietti. Both were up to the task, with Forghieri successfully honing the GTO's handling and Scaglietti designing an all-new body for the car. The GTO went to Sebring with driver Phil Hill and placed first in class. It continued winning through 1962, brushing aside the challenge from Jaguar and becoming one of the most famous sports cars in history.This shakeup, and Forghieri's engineering talent, made the 1960s even more successful for Ferrari than the previous decade. The mid-engined Dino racers laid the foundation for Forghieri's dominant 250-powered 250 P. On the street, the Dino road cars sold strongly, and legendary models like the 275 and Daytona were on the way.

1963-1967 - The US rivals
The big V8-powered Shelby Cobra developedand built by the American entrepreneur Carroll Shelby challenged the Ferraris in the early 1960s. By mid 60's, Ford tried to buy Ferrari but no agreement was reached. Instead, after being defeated in 1964 and 1965 races the Ford GT40 ended the dominance of Ferrari Prototypes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 when the GT-40 Mark II dominated the race with a 1-2-3 finish.. Ford would win again in1967, this time with its Mark IV prototype and also in 1968 and 1969 with the Gulf-Wyer entered Ford GT-40 Mk.I cars winning both years to close out the decade against the new and upcoming Porsche 917.

1968 - Ferrari boycott
After the performance of the big V8-powered Ford at the 1967 Le Mans, the FIA banned prototypes over 3000cc, which also affected the Ferrari 330P models. This was announcedin late 1967 and came in effect for 1968, and the Scuderia did not take part in Sports car racing in order to protest this.

[edit] 1969-1971 - Porsche
These years saw a new challenger. Formerly competing with smaller cars only, the Germans entered the new 3 litre sports car prototype class in 1968 with the Porsche 908, while Ferrari raced the Ferrari 312P in only few events in 1969. In March...