Ferrari: From Failure to First Place

On Oct. 5, Enzo Ferrari climbed into the driver's seat and competed in his first race. He finished fourth. The would-be race driver won 13 of the 47 races he entered. Not bad, but hardly one for the record books.

In time, Ferrari would abandon race car driving and go to work for Alfa Romeo. A management clash led to his dismissal in 1939 and he spent World War 2 making machine tools. After the end of the war, Ferrari got his chance to make his own automobiles. The first Ferraris appeared in 1947, when his entry won the Rome Grand Prix. A couple of years later, Ferrari came in first at the Le Mans road race and by 1952, Alberto Ascari, one of his team's drivers, was crowned racing's world racing champion by winning each competition he entered that year.

Armchair historians may wonder how things might have ended up had Ferrari won that first competition. But for legions of auto design fans, Ferrari's subsequent mediocrity as a race car driver turned out to be an unalloyed blessing. Here's a look at some of his handicraft through the decades.