ENZO FERRARI:

POWER, POLITICS, AND THE MAKING OF AN AUTOMOTIVE EMPIRE

by Luca Dal Monte       Foreword by Luca di Montezemolo

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Until now, no biography has truly captured the entire scope of Enzo Ferrari’s remarkable life and its impact on automobiles, motor racing, and Italian industry and culture. Drawing on more than a decade of original research, author Luca Dal Monte uncovers a wealth of new facts about Ferrari’s origins, ambitions, business practices and private life.

The book revisits all the highlights of Ferrari’s rise to greatness: his driving career in the 1920s; his management of racing teams for Alfa Romeo in the 1930s; the launch of his own company and team in the late 1940s; and his unprecedented successes building cars for the road and race track in the following decades. But it also examines lesser-known and sometimes hidden aspects of Ferrari’s career, from his earliest failed business ventures to his political dealings with Italy’s Fascist government, Allied occupiers, and even Communist leaders. It also lays bare the internal politics of the Ferrari company and team, both led by a man who manipulated employees, drivers, competitors, and the media with a volatile mixture of brute force, paranoia, and guile. And it sheds new light on Ferrari’s personal relationships with women – most notably his wife Laura and longtime mistress Lina Lardi – as well as the tragic death of one son and the long-unacknowledged birthright of another.

The Ferrari that emerges from these pages is an extremely complex man – one who could be ruthless and unashamedly vulgar, but also unexpectedly vulnerable. But no matter what challenges he faced in business, at home, or on the race track, Ferrari never lost his essential optimism and unwavering faith in himself.

This is the definitive biography of Enzo Ferrari, one that makes previous accounts obsolete. As a native Italian and longtime Ferrari employee, Luca Dal Monte gained access to public and private archives and conducted scores of interviews with members of Ferrari’s inner circle, as well as reviewing the personal papers of Enzo Ferrari and many other insiders.

Hardbound | 954 pages | 100 b&w, 33 color photos