This month, Ferrari turns 70 years old, and as part of the celebration, presents a re-enactment of its first ever model – the 125 S – leaving the factory gates in ’70 Years of Emotion’
Certainly the time is now for celebrating milestones. Last year, Lamborghini threw several high profile bashes for the Miura, Sant’Agata’s first ever supercar having turned 50 years old just three years after Lamborghini celebrated its own bicentennial. Last year McLaren celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix start at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. Even the Porsche Boxster turned 20 years old, though the focus on its new, and rather insipid ‘718’ nomenclature means you might have missed that.
Arguably the biggest landmark though is Ferrari, which in 2017 celebrates 70 years since Il Commandatore took the first ever car to bear his name – the 125 S – for a test drive on the streets surrounding his Fiorano facility on March 12 1947.
Don’t expect a long, detailed account of Ferrari’s illustrious heritage on this page, but this timeline might help nail down some of the more historic periods from those seven decades:
| 1947 | Ferrari is founded |
|---|---|
| 1950 | Ferrari makes F1 debut |
| 1958 | Mike Hawthorn becomes F1 World Champion in a Ferrari 246 F1 |
| 1962 | Unveiling of the 250 GTO, winner of the International Championship for GT Manufacturers in 1962, 1963 and 1964 |
| 1964 | John Surtees becomes Formula 1 World Champion with the 158 F1 |
| 1967 | Three Ferraris (two 330 P4s and a 412 P) deliver a spectacular 1-2-3 parade finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona |
| 1968 | The 365 GTB4 (Daytona) is unveiled at the Paris Motor Show |
| 1969 | Fiat becomes aFerrari shareholder |
| 1972 | The Fiorano Circuit is officially opened |
| 1975 | Niki Lauda takes the Formula 1 World Champion title in the 312 T |
| 1981 | Gilles Villeneuve delivers first ever victory in a turbocharged F1 car in the 126 K at Monaco |
| 1984 | The Ferrari Testarossa is unveiled at the Paris Motor Show |
| 1987 | The F40 debuts at the Frankfurt Motor Show |
| 1988 | Enzo Ferrari passes away at the age of 90 on 14 August |
| 1993 | The marque’s first single-make championship, the Ferrari Challenge, is launched |
| 1998 | The new Renzo Piano-designed GES Wind Tunnel opens |
| 2004 | Ferrari sets a new F1 record of 6 Constructors’ and 5 Drivers’ World titles in a row |
| 2006 | The exclusive XX programme, designed to deliver extreme performance to top clients, debuts |
| 2007 | Kimi Räikkönen and the Scuderia Ferrari are World Champions |
| 2013 | The Cavallino Rampante’s first hybrid model, the LaFerrari, goes into production |
| 2015 | Ferrari is listed on the New York stock exchange |
| 2016 | The LaFerrari Aperta, an iconic model celebrating the marque’s 70th anniversary, is launched at the Paris Motor Show |
| 2017 | The latest addition to the Ferrari family, the 812 Superfast, debuts at Geneva |
—
The above video, ’ 70 Years of Emotion ’, re-enacts the V12-powered 125 S driving through the factory gates, despite the model remaining a unbodied steel rolling chassis until shortly before its on-track debut at Piacenza just two months later. At the wheel was Italian Franco Cortese, runner-up at the 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans and a close ally of Enzo Ferrari who would go on to win the 1951 Targa Florio as well as set a record for the most finishes ever on the fearsome Mille Miglia (14). His Ferrari debut would be a bittersweet occasion however, Cortese forfeiting the lead he’d built up after a fuel pump problem and ultimately retiring. The V12 though – designed by Gioacchino Colombo, who would go on to work with both Alfa Romeo and Bugatti – would prove a crucial part of Ferrari’s very brand new armoury, its grunt allowing Cortese to score Ferrari’s first ever victory just 9 days later at that year’s Rome Grand Prix, one of six wins for Ferrari in 1947. Who could have imagined what further celebration stretched out before them…
You’ll also want to check out a cameo appearance by the limited edition LaFerrari Aperta, part of Ferrari’s symbolic passing of the torch. This, alongside the bespoke ‘ 70 Years ‘ liveries unveiled at last year’s Paris Motor Show are surely just the start…
