Did Enzo Ferrari ever visit America?

He rarely left Maranello at ALL.

His meetings with Pininfarina in Milan were a trek, for him.
I would be very suprised if the answer is not "no".....

 

Races being the exception, there are photos of him at various racing events, but only in the early days.

Eventually he relied on telephoned reports from his team manager, or even his wife was sent along with the team, allegedly to keep them from selling stuff for travel expense to get home.

 

Nope as far as I know.

I read an interview with Sergio Scaglietti where he said something like: "Enzo Ferrari had never been in the US but according to the descriptions I made of California he supposed that it was the perfect place to drive a Ferrari".

 

Not to hijack the thread but Scaglietti had dinner at my friends home in NJ
I think it was in the late 90's

 

Unless he did it under an assumed identity (which I very much doubt), no.

 

There is no published evidence that Enzo Ferrari left the European Main Land. I know one FCA member who stated with certainty that Enzo used to spend weeks on a yacht in Palm Beach... but that was clearly crazy talk.

From everything I have read - and people who actually knew him, his last outside Italy Trip was in the 20's to Lyon France - where he was trying to qualify for the French GP, but after first practice, packed up and left and never drove in competition again. the Legend is that he chickened out after comparison with Nouvalri's times.

Laura Ferrari his wife did accompany the team to many races & even the UK during the 50's and 60's - this pretty much ended in 61- 63, with the big walk out... however she was also noted as being very emotional and a bit unpredictable with her behavior with team members... yelling screaming etc... to the point where Enzo banned her from the factory. this was really the breaking point of the marriage in public. ( Enzo had a number of mistresses - Fiama Breschi, Lina Lardi ( Piero's mom) and a number of Italian actresses) its a real soap opera.

As published by Mauro Forghieri, Franco Gozzi, and Gianni Rancanti - Enzo stopped going out side of Modena - Milan - Rimini area after 1965, and stopped going to Monza in the early 1970's, but would go to Imola during practice up until the mid 80's.

 

Recently finished Brock Yate's biography on Enzo and so would say...no.

BTW...pretty damning documentary in many ways.

 

It's not the most flattering of works, in fact some accuse Yates of a lot of fabrication there....

 

Didn't Enzo go to Paris in the early 80s?

 

Will check my Alfa books as well because as Scuderia Ferrari and later Alfa Corse chiefs he may have visited the USA with the Alfa team for the Vanderbilt cup races in 1936 & 1937 or in later years Indianapolis in 1952 when they sent a team of modified 375 Grand Prix?

 

No, he did go to Indy with the 375.

 

full-blooded Italian, eh?

 

Categorically no. when he was negotiating with Leo Bebe and Ford, one of the questions was would he come to Detroit - Dearborn to meet Henry II - the duce, and his answer was that he has stopped all international travel since his son died. and that he did regret not going to the USA in the 20's. This comes from Leo's own story... its also in the book Go like Hell...

 

That's not "exactly exact", Alan...hid did leave Maranello quite often during the sixties and seventies, especially before he got ill in 1973, but...he never went very far!
He used to go often in the nearby "hills" or "mountains" at the north for lunch, because it is cooler up there in summer, driven by his driver "Peppino"; Chris Amon, notably, has told stories about this.
He also had a small house on the sea (Rimini?) where he used to go to R&R when he was tired.
But he never left Italy, that's a given; when asked about this, he used to answer: "here in Modena, I am a kind of king; but what would I be in the whole wide world?"

Rgds

 

That was tactics from a shrewd tactician, just not to let the other party believe that as you are coming to see them, you are the one acknowledging that you need to ask something and submit...

Rgds

 

No, if you remember the FIA, and FOCA came to him in Maranello.... both during the early FOCA/FISA wars and then again with the concorde agreement in 87.

 

Yes - he had a villa in Rimini - where he would visit Lina Lardi & Piero. its about 2 hours from Maranello... Pepino used to sit next to him and he would drive like a crazy man... usually in his Fiat or later in his Mini. he rarely drove a Ferrari.... if you remember in the 60's it was not good to show off wealth... it was the time of kidnapping etc... which is why in the later years you would see him with body guards standing in the background. There is a great story told by the guy who replaced Pepino Verdelli, as the driver... one day he goes to pick up Enzo at the house in Modena - Largo Garibaldi... Enzo gets into the drivers seat, they go to the barber, he gets a shave and gets all the gossip, then go to the Modena Office. then around 11 he calls for the car, drivers pulls it up, Enzo gets in the drives seat, and starts driving to Maranello... on the way, Enzo makes a banzi pass around a slow truck - that nearly kills them, the result is that the back bumper is pulled off the car and is dragging on the ground and finally drops off... 20 min later they pull in to the factory and Enzo has said nothing during the drive ... he gets out and looks at the car and says - Mama Mia, that idiot, do you see what he did to my car.... then tells him to go get the guys in the body shop to fix it. smiles and winks at the new guy... disappears into his office doorway.

 

I really think that Mr. Ferrari did want to sell up, but was indignant at the terms when finally he got the full translation. while he looked at the car company as a needed evil, the racing was what he was trying to preserve... and all he could spend with out going to Ford was $100K... which was next to nothing.

 

It's really difficult to know with him, as you know. He might (?) also have staged the whole epiosde, knowing full well at what end he would come. But he was in need of money at the time, no question. We will probably never know.

Rgds

 

It was well known that Yates did not like Enzo and his book proves it. He even went so far as to say that Enzo was a dope addict.

 

Re: the Yates book. I read it recently and I'm not expert enough to know if Brock was making things up, too, but as my dad used to say, "The first liar doesn't have a chance"!