Enzo Ferrari: the mantle of mystique

F1
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3Bimport

In celebration of the upcoming Motor Sport Hall of Fame, we look back on the careers of our founding members and inductees.

Taken from the October 1988 issue of Motor Sport
By Denis Jenkinson

Anyone who lives beyond man’s natural span of “three score years and 10” has to be respected, and to live a further 20 years demands admiration. If that man has devoted nearly 70 of those years to a passion for racing cars and motor racing, then those of us who believe in motor racing as a way of life must hold the greatest admiration for such a man, and such a man was Enzo Ferrari.

From 1920 to 1938 his name was synonymous with Alfa Romeo, and in Italy Alfa Romeo was motor racing. In 1947 Ferrari struck out on his own as the manufacturer of Ferrari cars, and they have become more of a part of the Italian way of life in motoring and motor racing than even Alfa Romeo. If Enzo Ferrari had not fallen out with Wilfredo Ricart, Alfa Romeo’s chief engineer, in 1938, he might never have started his own firm and a Ferrari car might never have been born. The name of Ferrari would undoubtedly have stayed with motor racing, for it was Ferrari’s passion, even to becoming an obsession.

Click here to read the rest of this feature on the Hall of Fame website

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