Ferrari Supercar Logo

Ferrari Supercars

The most evocative name in motoring history, and the world’s most prestigious brand, Ferrari has always leant heavily on its motor racing roots to produce the ultimate road-going supercars.

Enzo Ferrari showed little interest in producing road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, buying, preparing and fielding Alfa Romeo racing cars for wealthy gentlemen drivers.

Indeed, he went to work for Alfa until 1939 when he formed Auto Avio Costruzioni, which initially made machine tools and aircraft accessories during the war, as well as the Tipo 815 race car.

In 1943, the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since and from where the first Ferrari-badged car – the 1947 125 S – was produced.

Enzo reluctantly started to sell cars to customers to fund his Scuderia Ferrari racing ambitions, and the rest is history: the most successful F1 team on the planet allied to a glorious legacy of road-going supercars.

Here are some of the greatest Ferrari supercars, in pictures, words, and video.

Fastest. Most powerful. Best handling. Understated beauty. Engine of the year.

These are just a few of the superlatives that greeted the F12 Berlinetta following its launch in 2012, as it blew away the car it replaced - the 599 GTB - in just about every department.
There are fast cars, and then there are very fast cars. The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano can reach 100mph faster than the vast majority of cars can get to 60mph: in just 7.4 seconds.

Crashing through 60mph in just 3.7 seconds on the way, thrust forward by a 612bhp Tipo F140 C 5999cc engine, all in a civilised coupe body, and you can see why Autocar called the Fiorano "the most complete GT ever conceived".
Ferrari made perhaps its boldest move for a quarter of a century with the 550 Maranello; they once again decided to put the horse before the cart, placing the car's 5.5-litre V-12 where Enzo always thought it should be - in front of the driver.

The sheer ostentation, as well as the mid-engine layout, of the 80s Testarossa was also cast aside in favour of a more understated GT sports car look designed by Pininfarina.
If any supercar could define a decade, it was the flamboyant Testarossa and the 1980s. The favourite of Thatchers bonus-laden deregulated bankers and celebrities alike, the Testarossa (literally "red head" in Italian) was a wide, wedged-shaped icon of the decade of excess.

Instantly recognisable from its "cheese grater" side strakes, the car was launched as a replacement for the BB 512 at the 1984 Paris Motor Show
Enzo Ferrari always believed that the carriage follows the horse, and so the car must follow the engine.

But it was seeing his front-engined cars being bested on the track by mid-engined rivals that, along with the persuasion of his engineers, finally convinced Ferrari to follow suit - first with the Dino racing cars, and eventually with the road-going 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer (BB).
All Ferraris are special, but the 250 LM holds an exalted place in the pantheon of Prancing Horse legends.

Not only is it viscerally beautiful, with a spine-tingling V-12 engine producing 320bhp, but it remains the last Ferrari to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 1965.