What is the most historically significant Ferrari?

Bullfighter has a point on the 308 gtb but if it were not for the 246 Dino gt, it would never have happened.

The Dino showed the company could make non 12 cylinder cars with a lower cost and with mass production and people would buy them. Without that knowledge I doubt the 308 would ever be made.

Ferrari could have been Morgan instead of what it is today without Fiat's help. Scholars will argue forever if that's good or bad.

 

I could go with this, or the 4-cyl Formula cars that won the first World Championships for Ferrari in '52 and '53 w/ Ascari. If you havne't watched that great Shell commercial from a few years ago, it's the first car featured in that video. It was the beginning of Ferrari's role as the one to beat for the next 60 years. Without the Chinetti LeMans win in 0008M for sports racing and the back-to-back World Championships in the Ascari cars, who knows what would have become of Ferrari . . . .
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No, not really. But it depends on your view of what is and isn't significant.

The reason I say the 246 is because it was a major turning point in the company's way of doing business and who started to contribute to it in a way that still exists today. Before 246: go it alone. After 246: Fiat involved.

If Fiat never became involved (or Ford), Ferrari would never have the money and resources to be what they are today -- and they would never have made the 308 GTB which became their biggest seller to date.

That, to me, makes the 246 the most significant, even though it's not a Ferrari.

 

This.

 

Yup. Compare Ferrari's history to Aston Martin, or Lotus, or Lamborghaudi. Or Maserati. Ferrari came up with a workable business model after the Fiat takeover, and that allowed it continuity and profitability. I would call the 246 or 308 the best Ferrari ever made, but if you're writing the company's history it seems like it transitioned into the modern era with those cars.

 

Personally I believe that if 002 hadn't won The Turin GP in 1947 enabling it to become the first car Enzo was able to sell to keep his factory going as he said I'm not sure Ferrari would have made it.
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Those early post war years must have been an amazing time and difficult to do what they did under the circumstances.

Truly impressive.

 

It really was.

 

I found a Wiki page that lists nearly a hundred Italian car makers that did not survive the century. I do not count Maserati as a "survivor" since only their name got passed around as a commodity. Ferrari's early wins were absolutely critical.

 

My great grandfather came to this country and hand made Accordians in the basement of a walk up in Chicago. Every piece was cut by hand with only a small saw, a file, and some knives. He made his own glues and resins. He designed it by himself. Each one took six months to make. Each one was different. He spoke no English. He had no family here when he arrived.

I actually have one built in 1895 and it still functions and looks new. Someone sold it to my Uncle in the mid 60's.

What we forget is just what old world craftsmanship was like in Europe pre-war. When I see and hear about the early cars, I think about my great grandfather.

 

I'm glad you chimed in. To me, this thread is indicative of the Ferrari Chat world v the Dinosaurs, most of whom have never or rarely visit Ferrari Chat. Just as purely a guess, I'm thinking that most of the active posters on Ferrari Chat are Gen X, and thus it is not surprising that they would focus on the 308.

However, based on my experiences with the Dinosaurs (Please notice that I apologize for using the "T" word in public. It will never happen again. So can you please tell those black suburbans outside my home to leave?), they barely acknowledge that a 308 is a Ferrari. To them, by the time Fiat took over, Ferrari had already started to decline.

But trying to understand when the Ferrari brand really took off is interesting. To me, there are many parallels to Harley Davidson. There was, of course, the bad boy PR of the '50s and '60s. However, Harley built really awful motorcycles until the late '90s and that was when they really took off. I was offered a local HD dealership in '98 or so and turned it down because I thought $600k was ridiculous. Last I heard, the guy who brought it now wants $10 million. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

This is why I'm going to step out on a limb and say that the most important Ferrari ever made was the F360 and, more specifically, the F360 Spider. When the F360 came out in 1999, it was an instant hit with the Liar's Poker/Cocaine/Masters of the Universe crowd. All of a sudden, Ferrari dealers were seeing cars flip for 50% to 75% of MSRP. Waiting lists became the order of the day. Ferrari's production almost doubled overnight.

It didn't hurt that Schumacher was kicking ass in F1. And also it didn't hurt that there were NWO (New World Order) billionaires popping up left and right. And then there was this thing called the Internet. Let's see, what year did Ferrari Chat lift off?

In many ways, I think the F360 was Ferrari's 911.

Your thoughts?

Dale

 

I think a few:

246 Dino
308
F40
Testarossa

Those models had the biggest impact in their own special way, they are also the most common posters hanging on kids, teenagers and grown men's walls.

 

Not true. Ferrari never used lack or money to stop his progress. That comment has Maserati written all over it. In fact Enzo criticised Maserati for being weak because of this.

The 250 series is when Ferrari stopped producing close to one offs and became a manufacturer in my opinion. Plus the wins by the many variations of that engine really put Ferrari on the map as being a big player on the world stage.

Yes the F500 won them the F1 WC, but that in those days was a narrow field of racing. Sportscar championship wins against the Cobra brought Ferrari to the masses. That took the 250 series, which admittedly is just a revised 125 platform ...

The 246/308 was just the next phase of the production step they made first with the 250, ie. we are a road car manufacturer, not just a racing firm.
Pete

 

Historically significant? For me it comes down to which won the most races or is the most beautiful. Two very opposite poles w/ lots in between. As an artist I go w/ aesthetically the most perfect timeless lines ever displayed on this most perfect Italian creation: 250 GTO.

 

308. Deal with it.
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yep

yep

yep

yep

yep

you always talk a lot of commonsense .... so, yep

 

Ford? The Model T without question.

Porsche? The 911

The F355 teed it up. The F360 knocked it out of the park.

Dale

 

Damn, I always thought you Aussies were a disagreeable bunch. At least, that's what the Brits tell me.

Dale

 

That wouldn't happen to be your older brother would it?

Dale

 

Race cars....... 166mm put the company on the map.

Road cars...... 308 gave the company legs to make it in the modern world

 

~ I have a old "Motorweek" video I transferred to DVD years ago. The reason I kept this was the factory interviews. Old teaches young, and how the alloys were mixed by hand for the engine.

I'll give up Honda quality for the feel of a car that was built by someone who actually gives a damn.

IMHO

Joe

 

Fully agree with you on this, Pete. As far as I remember, the audience of Formula One, at least here in France, was limited to a very small circle of enthusiasts, until the mid-seventies, when under Bernie Ecclestone "guidance", it changed of dimension.
Sportscars had a much bigger audience, even among the "general public", and that's what has made Ferrari's reputation. As said before, the 330 P4 is still an icon here, even with young Ferraristis that cannot have a reminescence of the 1967 Sportscar championship, and have never seen one...(and the Porsche 917 too is a icon, for that matter).

 

I'm 55, so Ferrari meant magic to me as far back as the mid 60's, when I was a boy of 7-9. Therefore, I'm partial to the front engine V-12 sports cars. So, there are too many for me to choose between as, "historically significant." What I don't think, is that any mid-engine road car with less than 12 cylinders qualifies. Yes, including the F40.

I had a poster of a Dino 246 when I was in high school and loved the car. Bought a '74 X1/9 because that was as close as I could get. So, I can see the appeal just fine, but Ferrari history started so much farther back than that. Even today, the mid-engine V8's are Dinos to me, because of that unbroken line of heritage. I'm currently looking for a 360 so I can live my Dino 206 fantasy in a modern car, like I did my Daytona/365 GTB4 fantasy with the 456M.

I'm not going to cop out, so I'll say the 250's.

Cheers,

George