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THE ORIGINS

When Enzo Ferrari couldn’t use his own name but was determined to continue racing, he created the Auto Avio 815. Seven years later, the first car to wear the Ferrari name appeared – 1947’ 125 S. Alonso and Massa dressed in the style of early drivers and drove the cars for us

Even if, deep down, we all harbour a nostalgia for the past, our nature constantly pushes us towards a future in which new technology continues to change our lives. When Enzo Ferrari, by lining up two engine blocks from the most popular Italian car of the time, the Fiat Balilla, made the first two examples of a car that was all his own, the 815 Auto Avio Costruzioni, the first tragic spark of World War II had yet to be ignited. A few years later, when the rather more sophisticated 125 S was launched, the war had just ended and the Ferrari name was about to become ‘a brand’. Looking at those two cars closely today – both red, both powered by a compact 1.5-litre engine, and both designed for racing but potentially useable on the road (to increase the potential market for such a courageous enterprise) – one can only imagine the sort of world that they were coming into. Going back to that world, and given that I am currently writing, the first thing that springs to mind is the typewriter.

At that time typewriters were monuments to technology: mechanical keys worked levers of different lengths that had to strike the sheet of paper with the same pressure to ensure the uniformity of the print. Complex movements regulated capitals and lower-case letters and the ink ribbon ran from one reel to the other. Now we type on a little box that processes everything and allows us to make mistakes and correct them without leaving any trace. In those days this would have seemed magical and impossible.

Just one example that helps us appreciate the enthusiasm and pleasure Alonso and Massa felt when they climbed up into the driver’s seats of the first two Ferraris. Yes, climbed. In those days you didn’t fall down into the driver’s seat, lowered as much as possible to optimise the centre of gravity. In those days there were no seat belts or roll bars and no one had ever heard of driver ergonomics. You simply got behind the wheel and may the best man win!

Back then drivers knew they belonged to a race of chosen ones harking back, with a change of weapons and arena, to the gladiators. In their style of dress, in the very fact that they didn’t wear a protective helmet, in the way they expressed the intensity of the race in their facial expressions and the muscularity of their driving, they represent a symbol of their time. A time in which enthusiasm for the race for progress was often at the expense of even the most basic safety measure.

Today, Alonso and Massa get into their red computers, fully protected and functionally seated, to compete in the search for thousandths of a second in a contest in which every detail is considered in terms of performance and safety. Then, with very different cars, the times could even be measured with manual stopwatches, given that the gaps were in the order of seconds. Only one thing has never changed: the irresistible urge that pushes them to compete in this extraordinary means of transport which has signified, more than any other, our era: the car. An urge that is thrilling when the car is called Ferrari. So thank you, 815 and 125 S for representing the start of a unique, different history. Our history.

Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 and Ferrari 125 S

The former represents the “preview”, as Enzo Ferrari himself would have defined it, of a powerful business future, which then got underway with the latter, the 125 S. Between the two cars there were seven years and a host of differences of a technical and incidental nature. In 1940 Enzo Ferrari could not use his own name as his factory trademark because of the agreement made with Alfa Romeo (which he had left the previous year), an agreement that was binding for four years. In other words, a “true Ferrari” wasn’t created until 1947.

And yet the two cars are not at all dissimilar, not only because they were both designed to be raced in the category for sports cars up to 1.5-litres, and later to be mass-produced albeit on a small scale. Enzo’s huge personality shines out in both, along with his ambition and desire set his sights high.

In the case of the 125 S, his calling card is found in the sophisticated 12-cylinder V-shaped engine, invented in the middle of the war, a dreadful period but one that represents the start of so many legendary Ferraris. Given the necessary differences due to the time available and the Company’s circumstances, the 815 distinguishes itself with equal sophistication.

‘The 815 offers, with its very individual features that are unmatched in any production car, the perfect opportunity to satisfy your sporting passion,’ said an illustrated brochure published by Auto Avio Costruzioni in 1940. Enzo was justly proud of his design, which highlighted the eight-cylinder inline engine, an ambitious choice even if it originated from the use of some existing mechanical parts. That impulse, which would lead to Enzo’s astounding design for the 12-cylinder 125 S, was already there. He was used to handling Alfa Romeos with eight-cylinder inline engines (a feature retained for the Alfetta 158), designed and mainly built at Modena in the 1930s, at the Scuderia Ferrari on Viale Trento e Trieste, and competitive enough to win the first two world championships in 1950 and 1951. Could he have taken a step backwards? Of course not. With the support of engineer Alberto Massimino and technicians Vittorio Bellentani and Enrico Nardi (the latter would become the renowned constructor of sports steering wheels, but in the design of the 815 was primarily the test driver), Enzo managed in a few short months to prepare two “Brescia-type two-seater Torpedoes” (definition from the illustrated leaflet) for the novice driver, Alberto Ascari, and for the Marquis of Modena, Lotario Rangoni Machiavelli. Plans were made for taking part in the First Brescia Grand Prix of the Mille Miglia, arranged for the 28 April 1940 on the Brescia-Cremona-Mantua- Brescia course.

The organisation of the Scuderia Ferrari made it possible to construct two cars in record time; commencement of the work can be traced back to the autumn of 1939. On 6 November Enzo sent a letter to Commendatore Castagneto, patron of the Brescia race: ‘Has the Mille Miglia got a superb new edition in the pipeline? I am sure of it, so much so that, if you pass through Modena, you will be able to see just how convinced I am…!’

Nevertheless, time was short, so materials from production cars were partly used. Moreover, regulations for sports cars stipulated that the chassis had to be derived from a model on standard sale, which explains the use of the structure with independent front wheels of the Fiat 508 C, the famous Balilla. The engine still amazes engineers today. It starts with two cylinder heads from the 508 C, with four cylinders arranged inline, but the rest was designed from scratch in-house: engine block, sump and valve cap in aluminium; the steel drive shaft with five supports and camshaft with 16 eccentric supports.The latter two details are entirely the work of the mechanical department of the Scuderia. Also interesting was the choice of a short stroke (60mm) compared to the value of the bore (63mm). So this eight-cylinder, with an effective capacity of 1.49-litres, delivers 72bhp at 5500rpm, meaning the car could reach speeds of more than 170km/h.

During the race the cars recorded speeds of over 172km/h. It was a little jewel, for which Enzo chose the best in terms of bodywork: Milan’s Carrozzeria Touring. The engineer Anderloni, son of the famous trademark’s founder, told how Enzo asked for ‘a car that can be recognised at a glance, not just a racing car but a luxury model.’ Touring kept the weight to 535kg, even though the 815 design anticipated the construction of a cabriolet, to be manufactured in a small production run.

In competition the cars behaved like “true Ferraris”. Despite the short preparation time and gruelling nature of the Mille Miglia, Ascari and his cousin Giovanni Minozzi took the lead and recorded the fastest lap at an average speed of 143.771 km/h. An engine rocker arm broke, forcing him to retire, but Rangoni, together with Enrico Nardi, kept in front until the penultimate lap. Enzo had shown he had character as a constructor, and only the outbreak of World War II prevented further successes. By 1945, however, Enzo could throw himself into the construction of the first car with the Cavallino logo. Travelling from Milan to Modena that summer was an adventure, with infrastructures completely destroyed.

It was a journey taken by Gioachino Colombo, the engineer who dreamt up the Alfetta 158 and whom Enzo entrusted with the planning of a new vehicle; one which had to be at the top of its game, particularly when it came to the engine: ‘Dear Colombo, you can read my mind! I’ve dreamt for years of doing a 12-cylinder… Get to work straightaway!’

Such was Colombo’s enthusiasm that the designer even worked on the August public holiday at his sister’s house in Castellanza: ‘in the garden, under a tree… I sketched out in one go the design for the cylinder head: two tilted valves, controlled partly by a rocker arm and by a single camshaft.’ Word spread; many were puzzled by the choice of a V12 engine with a cubic capacity of only 1.5-litres. Enzo later admitted he had been considered a madman: ‘I was the subject of a great deal of criticism; they predicted I would be the orchestrator of my own ruin, because the experiment was too reckless and overreached itself.’ Franco Cortese, the first driver at the wheel of the 125 S in a race, added: ‘Many people said: “He’s mad. He will waste all his money and be ruined.” But if he had made a four, six or even eightcylinder engine, Ferrari would not have achieved the great successes he enjoyed.’

The 125 S was Enzo’s statement of intent; the basis for all that followed.

Without any bodywork, it was tested for the first time by the great constructor himself on 13 March 1947: the 1.49-litre engine (55mm bore, 52.5mm stroke) reached a full 7,000rpm, an incredible achievement at the time. It yielded a remarkable 118bhp, with the weight limited to 650kg. It made its debut on the Piacenza city track on 11 May and Cortese was forced to retire only because of a problem with the electric fuel pump. But on 26 May he easily won on another city track, the Terme di Caracalla in Rome. The season continued with such success that Tazio Nuvolari was even asked to drive the car. The “Champion of Champions” lived up to his and Ferrari’s name. Despite the physical problems he was suffering from, he won at Forlì on 6 July and on the 13th won again at Parma. These were Tazio’s last victories. How significant it was that he won them in the first Ferrari.