Ferrari: How Enzo Ferrari Built the Prancing Horse from a Modena Workshop Dream

A 1940s-era open racing car inspired by the Ferrari 125 S on a dawn road in the Modena countryside

Artistic depiction of an early Ferrari-inspired racing car in the Modena countryside.

Welcome to the first installment of CIAP’s Italian Sports Cars heritage series. We’re beginning in Modena, where a boy’s fascination with racing grew into one of Italy’s most enduring automotive stories. For Italian-American professionals, it’s a tale with familiar ingredients: family roots, practical skill, ambition, and the determination to build something that lasts.

This is not a story about lap times. It’s about how Enzo Ferrari moved from his father’s workshop to a racing stable, then to the first car carrying his name, and the emblem that became inseparable from it.

A Modena workshop and a boy with big dreams

Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena on February 18, 1898. His father, Alfredo, ran a metal engineering workshop in the city. It was a practical setting for a young Enzo to grow up around tools, machinery, and the work of making things.

But as a boy, he imagined several possible futures. He dreamed of becoming an operetta tenor, a sports journalist, or a racing driver. Racing took hold after he watched Felice Nazzaro win the 1908 Circuito di Bologna. The experience gave a lasting direction to his interest in motor racing.

That early fascination did not take him straight to the track. During World War I, Ferrari served in the 3rd Mountain Artillery Regiment and was discharged because of illness. After the war, he began to find his way into the automotive world: first as a racer, then as a builder and organizer.

From racing driver to Alfa Romeo

Ferrari’s racing career began in 1919 with C.M.N., or Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali. He made his debut at the Parma–Poggio di Berceto race. The following year, driving for Alfa Romeo, he finished second at the Targa Florio.

That result marked the beginning of a roughly 20-year association with Alfa Romeo. Ferrari’s work there developed over time: first as a driver, and later as the manager of Alfa Corse, the company’s racing division. His years with Alfa gave him experience not only behind the wheel, but also in the organization and management of a racing operation.

Ferrari’s competitive outlook is often summed up in one documented line: “The second is the first of the losers” (Il secondo è il primo dei perdenti). Whether on the track or in a workshop, that fierce drive to improve would become part of the story people associated with his name.

Scuderia Ferrari: a racing stable in Modena

On November 16, 1929, Ferrari founded Scuderia Ferrari in Modena, with its headquarters at Viale Trento e Trieste. At first, it was a racing stable: a team that prepared Alfa Romeo cars for amateur and professional drivers. The Scuderia was not yet making Ferrari-branded automobiles, but it gave Ferrari a base from which to build his place in the sport.

The distinction matters. The Scuderia brought drivers, cars, and racing expertise together under Ferrari’s leadership. It was an organization built around competition and preparation, while the carmaker most people recognize today came later.

One remarkable example of the Scuderia’s early impact came in 1935. Tazio Nuvolari, driving a Scuderia Ferrari-entered Alfa Romeo Tipo B, won the German Grand Prix against the German factory teams. The achievement belonged to the Scuderia and Alfa Romeo effort, not yet to a Ferrari-built car, and it showed what careful preparation and determined competition could accomplish.

A period-inspired racing workshop in Modena, with mechanics shown only as distant silhouettes

Artistic depiction of a Scuderia-era Modena workshop; no historical individual is portrayed.

A new company, and a car without the Ferrari name

Ferrari’s long association with Alfa Romeo ended in September 1939. After leaving, he founded Auto Avio Costruzioni. The name Ferrari could not yet appear on the cars he built, but the work continued.

In 1940, Auto Avio Costruzioni built the 815. It was Ferrari’s first car, even though it could not carry his own name. That detail makes the 815 an important bridge in the story: a first step toward building his own automobiles, created during the transition from the Alfa years to the Ferrari marque.

The path from workshop ambition to carmaker was not a single leap. Ferrari had spent years learning the demands of racing, from driving and preparing cars to managing a team. Now he was putting that experience toward creating a car under his own direction.

The first car to bear the Ferrari name

The next milestone came with the 125 S. On March 12, 1947, the car was test-driven. It was the first car to bear the Ferrari name.

Then came a result that turned a new name into a racing presence. On May 25, 1947, Franco Cortese drove the 125 S to Ferrari’s first victory at the Rome Grand Prix. After years of work, the name Ferrari had moved from a racing stable and a workshop project onto a car that could compete and win.

A compact early racing car inspired by the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 outside a country workshop

Artistic depiction inspired by the Auto Avio Costruzioni era.

The prancing horse and the story behind it

Ferrari’s emblem, the prancing horse, or Cavallino Rampante, has its own connection to Italian history. The symbol came from Francesco Baracca, an Italian World War I fighter ace. At the suggestion of Baracca’s mother, Ferrari adopted the horse for his cars.

The emblem brought together a personal choice and a wider heritage. It linked the emerging marque to a figure remembered in Italy, while giving Ferrari’s cars a distinctive symbol. In time, that horse would be recognized around the world, but its story begins with a connection between people, memory, and a young company taking shape.

A painterly prancing horse motif above a workbench in a historic Italian garage

Artistic depiction of a prancing horse motif; it is not a portrait of any historical person.

A legacy built step by step

From Alfredo Ferrari’s metal engineering workshop to Scuderia Ferrari, from the 815 to the 125 S, Enzo Ferrari’s story unfolded through a series of connected steps. The boy who watched Nazzaro race became a driver, an Alfa Romeo manager, a founder, and a carmaker.

For those of us who take pride in Italian heritage, it’s a story worth revisiting, not because every dream becomes a famous marque, but because craft, persistence, and relationships can help turn an idea into something others carry forward. And in Emilia-Romagna’s Motor Valley, that heritage still feels close to the road.

Further reading

Connect with CIAP

CIAP welcomes Italian-American professionals, entrepreneurs, organizations, and businesses across Chicagoland. If this story brought back a family memory, or simply made you want to meet more people who value Italian heritage and professional community, we’d be happy to connect.

We hope you’ll stay in touch and join us for more stories in this Italian Sports Cars heritage series.