Glamorous Car
Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborgini, Royce, Jaguar
Enzo Ferrari formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, based in Modena, to sponsor amateur driving. Ferrari prepared and successfully raced various drivers for Alfa Romeo cars until 1938.
In 1940, on learning of the plan to take over Scuderia, and take control of his racing efforts, he quit Alfa. Because he was prohibited by contract from racing for several years.
Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. Then Ferrari produced a road car in1947 the 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund Scuderia. The fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, who he felt were buying cars for prestige not performance.
Ferrari road cars, noted for magnificent styling by design houses like Pininfarina, have long been one of the ultimate accessories for the rich. Other design houses that have done work for Ferrari over the years include Scaglietti, Bertone, Touring, Ghia, and Vignale.
In 2004, FIAT owns 56% of Ferrari.
Ferrari's
true passion, despite the road car business, was racing. The Scuderia joined the
Formula One World Championship in the first year of its existence, 1950. José
Froilán González gave the team its first victory in the 51 British
Grand Prix. Ascari gave Ferrari a first World Championship a year later.
Ferrari is the oldest and most successful: the team and holds nearly every Formula One record. As of 2006, the team's records include fourteen World Drivers Championship titles 52, 53, 56, 58, 61, 64, 75, 77, 79, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and fourteen World Constructors Championship titles 61, 64, 75, 76, 77, 79, 82, 83, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), nearly 200 race wins, approaching 600 podium wins.
Famous drivers include Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto
Ascari, Phil Hill, Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Gilles
Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi and Michael Schumacher.
The
Cavallino Rampante the famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is a black prancing
horse on yellow shield shaped background, usually with the letters S F for Scuderia
Ferrari, and with three stripes of the Italian national colors green-white-red
on top. The road cars have a rectangular badge on the bonnet.
Since the 1920s,
Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and later Ferrari and Abarth were (and
often still are) painted in "race red" (Rosso Corsa).
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Porsche is a German manufacturer of sports cars, founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the engineer who created the first Volkswagen. The company is located in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart.
The symbol of porsche, a horse is the symbol
of Stuttgart, is similar to the symbol of Ferrari. Many say this is no conicence.
The
first Porsche, the Porsche 64 from 1938, used many components from the Volkswagen
Beetle. The second Porsche model and first production car, the 356 sports car
of 1948, was built in Gmünd, Austria, where the company was evacuated to
during war times, but after building 49 cars the company relocated to Zuffenhausen.
Many people regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first
model sold by the fledgling company. Ferdinand Porsche worked with his son Ferry
Porsche in designing the 356 but died soon after the first prototype was built.
Again, the car used components from the Beetle including engine, gearbox and suspension.
In
1963, after success in racing, the company launched the famous Porsche 911. The
team to lay out the bodyshell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son Ferdinand
Alexander Porsche (F.A.). Far more than any other model, the Porsche brand is
defined by the 911. It remains in production; however, after several generations
of revision.
In late 2005, Porsche took a 18.65% stake in VW, further cementing
their relationship and preventing a takeover. Speculated suitors included DaimlerChrysler,
BMW and Renault.
In 1972 the company's legal form was changed from limited partnership to private limited company, because Ferry Porsche and his sister Louise Piëch felt their succeeding generation did not team up well. This led to the foundation of an executive board out of managers not being family members and a supervisory board consisting mostly of family members..
In 1990, Porsche had a memorandum of understanding with Toyota to learn and benefit from lean Japanese production methods.
Lamborghini,a manufacturer of high performance sports cars based in Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) as a spin-off from his very successful tractor company.
Ferruccio Lamborghini was an enthusiastic owner of sports cars, including a Ferrari. Ferruccio Lamborghini went to meet Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari factory to complain about the clutch in Lamborghini's Ferrari 250 GT. Enzo Ferrari sent him away telling him to go and drive tractors because he was not able to drive cars.
The company was founded by two men Mr Royce and Mr Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on May 4 of that year, and the pair agreed a to deal where Royce would manufacture cars, to be sold exclusively by Rolls. A clause was added to the contract stipulating the cars would be called "Rolls-Royce". The company was formed on March 15, 1906, and moved to Derby in 1908.
The Silver Ghost (1906-1925) was the model responsible for the company's early great reputation.
In 1931 the company acquired rival car maker Bentley, whose finances were not able weather the Great Depression. From then until 2002, Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars were often identical apart from the radiator grille and minor details.
Financial problems caused largely by development of the new RB211 turbofan engine led to the company being nationalized by the Heath government in 1971. In 1973 the automobile business was spun off as a separate entity, Rolls-Royce Motors. The main business of aircraft and marine engines remained in public ownership until 1987, when it was privatised as Rolls-Royce plc, one of many privatisations of the Thatcher government.
In 1980 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was acquired by Vickers. In 1998 Vickers sold the company on to Volkswagen. A year later Rolls-Royce plc acquired Vickers plc for £576m.
Founded in 1922 as Swallow Sidecar Company, by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, the Jaguar name first appeared on a 2.5 Litre saloon in 1935. This name was given to the entire company when SS Cars Ltd was renamed Jaguar after World War II because of the unfavourable connotations of the initials, SS.
Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation, the Austin-Morris combine, to form British Motor Holdings in 1966. After merger with Leyland and Rover, the resultant company then became British Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968. Financial difficulties and the publication of the Ryder Report led to effective nationalisation in 1975 and the company became British Leyland Ltd.
In 1984, Jaguar was private on the stock market - one of the Thatcher government's many privatizations. It took the Vanden Plas name with it. It was then taken over by Ford in 1990. In 1999 it was made part of Ford's new Premier Automotive Group.
The company was originally located in Blackpool, relocated to Coventry in 1928 to be at the heart of the British motor industry. Today, Jaguars are assembled at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham and Halewood in Liverpool.
A Multiple Choice Quiz on motoring