Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898 in Modena, Italy. At the age of 10, Enzo's father brought him and his brother, Alfredo, to an automobile race in Bologna. Enzo was brought to a number of other races and soon decided that he wanted to become a racing driver. Enzo had little formal education and spent World War I shoeing mules in the Italian Army.

In 1916 tragedy struck when his father and brother died from flu epidemic that was rampant throughout Italy. Enzo Ferrari himself contracted the flu and was discharged from the Italian Army. Ferrari recovered and applied for a job with Fiat, but was turned down. Enzo eventually secured a position in CMN, a small car manufactuer. One of his duties was to test drive cars and he so began racing them, finishing ninth at the Targa Florio in 1919 and second in 1920. Enzo got a job with Alfa Romeo in 1920 with the help of his friend Ugo Sivocci. In 1923, Enzo displayed, on his car, for the first time the Prancing Horse badge that was to become the emblem of his company. The Prancing Horse badge had decorated the airplane of the famous World War I Italian ace, Francesco Baracca. The badge had been given to Enzo by the war ace's father who was impressed by Ferrari's bravery and courage at the Circuit of Sivocci at Ravenna.

In 1924, Enzo won the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara. The win inspired Alfa to offer him a place in the more prestigious races, which Ferrari turned down. He continued to work for Alfa and in 1929 he started his own company Scuderia Ferrari which became the Alfa racing team. Enzo Ferrari built up a team of forty drivers, which included Tazio Nuvolari and Guiseppe Campari. Alfa pulled their support for Ferrari's company in 1933, but with the help of Pirelli, they still got cars to race with. Unfortuantely, this era of motor racing was dominated by the German teams of Auto Union and Mercedes. Ferrari's win's where few and far between, with the greatest victory being that of Tazio Nuvolari's epic 1935 German GrandPrix win.

In 1936, Alfa took the reigns of thir racing wing once again, reducing Enzo Ferrari to an employee once more and his contract with Alfa forbade him from racing or design. This situation was unacceptable to Enzo and he quit. Ferrari set up a racing car parts supply company called Auto-Avio Costruzioni S.p.A. In 1940, he produced two small sportscar labeled AAC 815s. These were the very first Ferrari race cars and were driven by Alberto Ascari and Lotario Rangoni.

During the war, Ferrari's company was involved in war production and after bombing in Modena the company was re-located to Maranello. After the war, Ferrari founded today's Ferrari S.p. A. and set about making Grand Prix cars. Ferrari's first Grand Prix win came in the 1951 Great British Grand Prix, drove by the Argentine Froilan Gonzalez. At this time, Ferrari started production of sports cars to aid with their racing finances. The Ferrari team's greatest successes came in events like the Mille Miglia and Le Mans. They won Le Mans six times in a row between 1960-65.

In the 1960's, the Italian carmaker Fiat took a stake in the company and secured it's financial future. Enzo Ferrari remained as managing director until 1971, put worked promentially in the firm until his death. Ferrari won there first Grand Prix championship in 1975 with Niki Lauda.

Enzo Ferrari died in his home town of Modena in 1988.