Ferrari N.V.

Enzo Ferrari founded Scuderia Ferrari as a racing team in 1929, initially operating as the official Alfa Romeo factory racing team. When Alfa Romeo shut down its racing programme in 1938, Ferrari founded his own company — Auto Avio Costruzioni — in 1939. His vision was purely motorsport: he wanted to build race cars and win races. Road cars were, from the beginning, a necessary evil to fund what he actually cared about.

The first car to bear the Ferrari name, the 125 S, was completed in 1947. Enzo Ferrari reportedly said: "I sell my clients the engine. I give them the rest of the car for free." This statement captured his philosophy precisely: the road cars existed to subsidise the racing programme, not the other way around. Ferrari personally approved every car sold and maintained a customer waiting list regardless of demand — scarcity was always deliberate.

By the late 1960s, the cost of Formula One competition had outgrown what road car sales could sustain. In 1969, Enzo Ferrari sold 50% of Ferrari to Fiat for an undisclosed sum, retaining personal control of the racing operation. The deal gave Ferrari the financial resources to compete at the highest level of motorsport while maintaining the exclusivity and independence that defined the brand. Fiat eventually increased its stake to 90%, but Enzo retained effective control until his death in 1988.

Enzo Ferrari died on August 14, 1988 at age 90, having watched his company produce over 100,000 cars and win more Formula One World Championships than any other constructor. He had lived to see Ferrari become the most emotionally resonant automotive brand in the world — a name that represented not just a car but a philosophy of performance, passion, and Italian craftsmanship. His death, rather than diminishing Ferrari's mystique, deepened it.

Ferrari went public on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2015, spinning off from Fiat Chrysler at a valuation of approximately $10 billion. Investors quickly revalued the company as a luxury goods business rather than an automotive manufacturer — comparing it to Hermès and LVMH rather than Ford and Volkswagen. Ferrari's profit margins, at over 20%, were multiples of any conventional car company. By 2024, Ferrari's market capitalisation exceeded $70 billion — more than Ford and General Motors combined. Enzo had been right: it was never really a car company.