Enzo Ferrari – Lived a Turbulent Life, Beloved by the Tabloids, and Created the Best Car Ever

Enzo Ferrari is one of the most famous racing drivers of all time and the founder of the Ferrari automotive empire.

Enzo was born on February 18, 1898, in the Italian city of Modena. From an early age, he was fascinated by the automotive world and loved the speed and adrenaline he felt while driving, reports Index.hr.

At the age of 19, he was called to serve in World War I, where he worked as a car mechanic and a donkey keeper.

After the war, he returned to Turin and got a job at Fiat. But he was soon fired and vowed that Fiat would regret it.

He began moving in circles of people involved in the world of car and motorcycle racing and soon started working for Alfa Romeo. Shortly after, he began racing and competing in rallies, winning titles, but he wanted to become an Alfa Romeo dealer.

At that time, he met his first wife, Laura Domenica Garello, a member of a wealthy Turin family, and saw in her an opportunity to realize his business ambitions. Although it was rumored that she had been a prostitute, the couple married in 1923, and Enzo once said he didn’t care what Laura did as long as he had a wife by his side to help him succeed in business.

Fiat Made Him a Counteroffer

Their marriage was troubled from the start, and since Domenica and Enzo’s mother, Adalgisa Bisbini, did not get along well, things became even worse when Adalgisa moved in with them. Enzo devoted more and more time to his work and soon designed the first racing “beast” for Alfa Romeo – the P1 model, a precursor to Formula 1.

After the tragic death of Enzo’s friend in that car model, Enzo decided to redesign his racing car and created the P2 model, which became the fastest car of its time. Fiat offered him a place on their team, but Enzo refused his former employer.

After one victory, he was awarded the emblem of a prancing horse, which had adorned the plane of Italy’s greatest flying ace in World War I, Francesco Baracca.

The emblem was taken from Baracca’s plane, which mysteriously crashed during the war, and later became the Ferrari company emblem.

Over time, Enzo Ferrari went from being a driver to a team leader, founding the Scuderia Ferrari team for Alfa Romeo (literally – Ferrari’s stables).

He left Alfa in 1937 and founded his own company, Auto Avio Costruzioni, which produced parts for Mussolini’s fascist government during World War II, and also built the first Ferrari car, the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815.

Private Life Full of Scandals

Enzo’s factory was bombed by the Allies during the war. He built a new one in the small town of Maranello, near Modena, and met Lina Lardi, with whom he had a passionate affair and an illegitimate son, Piero. Enzo had two families, each in a different city, and Domenica and Lina did not know about each other.

To break ties with his fascist past, Enzo founded a new company under his own name – Ferrari – in 1947, which still exists today.

They began producing road cars to raise money for racing. His business empire grew, as did his wealth, and his distinctive racing cars kept winning race after race.

While his business life flourished, his private life was far less happy. His eldest son Alfredo, whom he had early in his marriage to Domenica, died at the age of 24, and Laura learned about his second family and his affair with Lina.

His private life became increasingly difficult, but the scandals never damaged his business image.

He began spending more and more time with his second family and soon moved away from Domenica. However, the couple never divorced, and their more than 50-year-long and unhappy marriage ended with Domenica’s death in 1978.

Enzo never retired; until his death, he remained the main man at Ferrari and kept his racing enthusiast spirit alive forever.

He died in 1988, surrounded by family and friends, at the age of 90, leaving behind one of the greatest automotive empires.