If you asked me five years ago if I would have owned any Ferrari, I would have told you absolutely not.
Ferrari, especially the modern cars, are often (but not always) for people who like to display their wealth and attract attention. Not something I was particularly fond of. Besides my father loved Porsche -especially the ’911′ – and this fondness was passed on to me.
However about five years ago I started to get interested in the history of old cars. This changed everything.
Without a doubt, Ferrari has the richest history of any car manufacturer in the world. Not only in terms of racing history and success does it remain unmatched but also in terms of building the best dual purpose (for road and racetrack) cars in the world – Ferrari was the king of the ‘golden period’ of car building from 1950-70. Ferrari has had the in past the most interesting race-car drivers (Fangio, Gendebien, Musso, Von Tripps, Moss, De Portago) drive for the brand, the most interesting customers (King of Sweden, Shah of Iran, President of Mexico, playboys like Porfirio Rubirosa, Giovanni Angelli), the most interesting partners (Batista Pinfarina, Vignalle, Zagato) and lastly the most fascinating and legendary leader- Enzo Ferrari.
But what attracts me most to this brand- are the beautiful and timeless road cars from the 1950s and 60s. No other vintage car gives you as much emotion (in terms of sound, looks and drivability) as Enzo era v12 Ferrari. It is the best car in the world to drive. It is that simple. This is the reason why vintage Ferrari achieves the highest results at auctions (see post here).
NB: The picture above explains why I am fascinated by this brand. It shows a 14 louver Ferrari 250 TDF (Tour de France) which was a successful GT race car for Ferrari in the 1950s together with the man that made this car famous: Olivier Gendebien – a gentlemen GT and endurance race-driver for Ferrari who won Le Mans 3x and the Tour de France 4x.
