Champion's Champion

The world's most famed maker of racing cars is a grizzled, 58-year-old Italian who flunked out of technical school, puts little faith in slide rules and has never seen his autos race. In the 16 years since one of his cars won the first race it had entered. Enzo Ferrari's speedsters have racked up more road and track victories than any other cars in the world. Last year Ferraris thundered first across the finish line in 93 races. This year they have won Grand Prix trophies from Buenos Aires to Sebring, Fla. Last fortnight for the first time, Ferraris captured the first five places in the trick)7, curve-filled Mille Miglia, which even for Italian drivers is the world's toughest open-road race.

But to Enzo Ferrari, the mere fact of victory is less vital than interpreting aright the lessons that the races burn into his automobiles. Says he: "The importance of a race is not so much who is the victor, but the technical results that show whether the engineer is on the right road and progressing." To make sure that he stays on the right road, Ferrari hustles his cars back to his Maranello factory after a race. There they are disassembled and minutely examined by their maker for flaws and hints on how to improve their performance.

Curves at 100. Through his intuition and endless inspection, Speed King Ferrari prevails as an individual against mass-production giants. His cars are high-strung, low-slung machines with the delicate balance of a watch and the stamina of a bull rhino. The 3.5-liter Ferrari that won the Mille Miglia is powered with a huge twelve-cylinder engine, the only V12 currently in production, which can push it smoothly along the straightaway at close to 190 m.p.h. The weight of engine and chassis is kept low in relation to the horsepower (about 6 Ibs. per h.p.). Thus the cars have tremendous pickup. The low center of gravity (and just enough weight to keep rear wheels from spinning) allows them to cling to murderous curves at 100 m.p.h.

A perfectionist who maintains his own foundry because he will not trust another maker's steel, Ferrari manages to communicate his sense of artistry to the 350 workers who turn out his cars and the stable of drivers who gun them to victory. Ferrari, who admits that "the results of a race are due only 50% to the car," splits prize money 50-50 with his drivers and (unlike most automakers) gives them a guaranteed minimum, win or lose, thus has his pick of the world's best drivers. He picks his pilots with the care he puts into tuning an engine, teams a cool, canny technician such as World Champion Juan Fangio with a hotspur such as Eugenio Castellotti, who won this year's Mille Miglia.

Help from Fiat. Ferrari depends heavily on prize money to meet his payroll, since he turns out only 80 cars a year, splits his take with the coachmakers who slip the slick bodies over the functional Ferrari chassis. However, Ferrari's winning ways mean prestige and profit for all Italian automakers, and he was able to persuade Fiat to back him to the tune of $140,000 a year after rounding a tight financial corner in 1955. He counts on winning another $140,000 in prize money this year to stay in competition with bigger, better-financed autos such as West Germany's famed Mercedes. Ferrari this year recruited a new race director, wily Eraldo Sculati; Engineer Vittorio Bellen-tani, who had designed rival Maserati's racing cars since World War II; and a new stable of drivers. The reorganization so far had paid off handsomely: this year Ferraris had won every race they entered up to last weekend, when they lost at Naples and Silverstone.

A hard-driving boss who cannot bring himself to leave his plant for as long as a day, Ferrari started out as an auto mechanic in Turin, began racing for Alfa-Romeo when he was 34. After four years as Alfa-Romeo's racing manager, he made his first car in 1939, switched to machine-tool production in World War II. Though his plant was bombed by the Allies and looted by the Germans, Ferrari managed to win the first postwar Mille Miglia in 1947, has won it every year since except 1954 and 1955, when he lacked the cash needed for topflight competition.

Bestseller for $14,000. Because of the import restrictions that severely curtail sales to other European countries, Ferrari looks to the U.S. for 50% of his sales. All Ferraris are built to order, from seats custom-made to fit the buyer's hips to costly fittings such as chamois upholstery and gilded steering wheels. Ferrari's best-selling cars in the U.S. are the 410 Super America (minimum price f.o.b. Italy: $14,000) and the cheaper, less powerful 250 Gran Turismo (minimum: $9,111). They come in all body styles and several power ranges, including four-and six-cylinder models, depending on the choice and pocketbook of the buyer.

Ferraris are expensive because they are handcrafted, down to the last wing nut, to withstand the engine-gutting rigors of racing; most models have three fuel pumps, two distributors and four interchangeable rear ends to vary gear ratios according to road conditions. They are not for the Sunday sportsman, since Ferraris are firmly sprung, idle briskly (because of full-race cams), are no bargain to drive in slow-moving traffic. But Ferrari, who has a hand in every engine he builds, does not care; he would rather see well-heeled amateurs pass up his cars for Austin-Healeys or Jaguars, which are not only far cheaper and easier to handle but are built for everyday pleasure as well as race-day competition. Says Ferrari: "Ferraris are for world champions to win more world championships."

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