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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."