Enzo Ferrari And His One Of The Most Famously Known Exotic Car Companies
Historical Context
Ferrari, known worldwide for some of the most incredibly crafted automobiles, admired by most and owned by few but who birthed one of the most famously known exotic car companies? The man responsible is Enzo Ferrari, born in the year 1898 in Modena Italy. Enzo wasn’t highly educated when growing up however, his passion towards the automotive industry grew upon witnessing racer, Felice Nazzaro win the 1908 Circuito de Bologna and such an event pushed him towards his very own racing career. Fast forward to 1919-1920 when Enzo started his competitive racing career and eventually hired to Alfa Romeo’s racing division, which eventually led the creation of his own race team named Ferrari.
As result of some differences between Alfa and Enzo, he ended up leaving that team and decided upon forging his own race team and in 1947 Enzo took the first official Ferrari race car, the 125 s, out for its official test-drive. Unfortunately, even though his race team and car rose to the top of success rapidly in the 1950s Enzo eventually fell back from the company due to his son’s death and ended up putting in his resign as the company’s president in 1977 and later reached his demise in 1988.
Contribution to PEM
The first vehicle that had Enzo’s signature was the Ferrari 125 S. There were a couple of modifications made on this car from his influence, for instance, its chassis was made of steel frames and had a double wishbone suspension with transverse leaf springs in front with a live axle in the rear. Its rear and front wheels were fitted with hydraulic power brakes. The double wishbone suspension technique has been adopted in most of the modern luxury cars, for instance, there has been a huge utilization of the double A-arms, which come in numerous shapes like A-shape and L- shape. The L shape arm is mostly used in passengers’ vehicle. Further, he powered the 125 S with 14497cc Gioacchino Colombo engine. This engine was capable of producing 85 kW. Some of its special features include the use of a single overhead camshaft model and two valves per cylinder with three double-choke. It marked a transition in the use of super engines that could provide a powerful thrust.
The preceding years were characterized by automobile machines that had more than two cylinders. For instance, the V12 engine which has 12 pistons. Is widely used in making speed cars. This design was later on utilized aeronautics and marine vessels. With raised fuel economy, Enzo saw the need to make use of engines that saved on fuel; the six-stroke engines served this purpose. Modern automotive engines are mounted with a turbo charge that facilitates efficient fuel consumption of fuel. Although Enzo’s fuel-efficient engines used a different concept compared to the turbo charge, the main idea would be traced back to Enzo Ferrari. Enzo further modified the 125 S with a five-speed gearbox instead of the four-speed gearbox. The fifth speed gear was an unsynchronized gear which is mostly used in heavy tracks.
Modern automobiles designed for higher speed navigation and luxury cars are fitted with the six-speed gear. Apart from the engine, Enzo played a major role in the architectural design of his race cars. During his time, most vehicles had features that were unsuitable for race cars. For instance, the most commonly used material was steel. Due to the heavy nature of steel, their speed cars could not reach the preferred speed. Fortunately, Enzo introduced a new era of vehicles body parts. He substituted steel with aluminum which had less weight and therefore favored speed car navigation.
Further, Enzo designed the first race car in a streamlined shape; a streamlined shape allowed his cars to acquire a maximum speed with less wind resistance. The modern automobile industry has utilized a great deal of Enzo’s modification. For instance, automobile engineers have verified that decreasing the weight by 10% increases the navigation efficiency by 5-8 percent. As much as this slight change may seem to have an insignificant impact, in car racing sectors, one microsecond can make a world of difference. Some of the light materials used include magnesium, carbon fiber and glass fiber. Today, the automotive industry and more so the Ferrari Company would not be in existence were it not for Enzo. The company's philosophy “Building the greatest cars in the world” is part of a dream come true all thanks to Enzo Ferrari.
Modern Relevance
After Enzo’s death Ferrari as a company has come very far in the past 70 years or so thanks to his contributions to the company since its start as a race team. In 2015 the company itself was valued at nearly 10 Billion in the stock exchange and in recent years it has since double to around 20 Billion, As stated in an article “This makes the carmaker one of the most valuable and recognizable brands in the world; its "prancing horse" logo is synonymous with sex, money and the high life”. So ironically enough Enzo’s small racing company turned into one of today’s most modern luxury car company.
Personally I think one of Enzo’s greatest contributions that are still relevant today would be his agreement to sign off on one final build under his name before his death, that car was the famous f40. Which even though the car was built in the 1980s-1990s to this day it is seen as the greatest Ferrari built. Even more accomplishments have been completed under the Ferrari name after Enzo’s death such as the formula one race team winning eight world championships, and not to mention that the brand has grown past cars and is now a recognized clothing brand that sells everything from jewelry to accessories. Lastly Enzo designed the entire basic principles to the Ferrari brand being more than just a race team and without that framework there wouldn’t be the global luxury brand as we see it today creating Super Cars and Hyper Cars that are renowned. In conclusion Enzo unknowingly created his very own luxury car brand that would carry on years after his death and become something greater than I’m sure he ever imagined.
