Ford Owns Ferrari?

Ferrari is owned by FIAT. Ford did try to buy Ferrari back in the 60s when Ferrari was independent, but was refused by Enzo

 

Fiat owns Ferrari, it's an Italian car company. Welcome.

 

Welcome to Ferrarichat! The guy you're talking to is completely out-of-touch. If he buys and reads any Ferrari book with history of Ferrari, he will learn that Fiat owns Ferrari (and Maserati, and Alfa Romeo).

 

Ford owns Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Volvo (last time I looked). GM owns Saab.

Ford tried to buy Ferrari, but, as said, the deal with Enzo fell through. Ford went off in a huff and built the GT-40 (the original) specifically to beat Ferrari at racing. (The GT-40 may have won LeMans, but the 330P3 was much prettier. )

Enzo then worked out a deal with Fiat SpA (corporation) where Ferrari would remain an independent entity. So Ferrari is owned by Fiat SpA, but is *not* a part of Fiat Auto Group (which owns Fiat and Lancia).

Ford later tried to buy Alfa Romeo, but Fiat bought it instead. Alfa is now part of Fiat Auto Group.

Lamborghini is owned by Audi.

Maserati was owned by a whole bunch of companies, before it was purchased by Fiat SpA. It was part of Ferrari for a while, but it was recently transferred to Fiat Auto Group.

So, while Fiat Auto Group now owns most of the traditional Italian marques, the exceptions are Lambo, owned by Audi, and Ferrari, owned by Fiat SpA, but operating independently.

But don't sneer too much at Ford. Ford's European operation makes some pretty good cars. But they don't get sold in the US.
(Irony: in '88, the only world rallye car that you *couldn't* buy in the US was the Ford: the Euro-Ford Sierra RS.)

The Jaguar X-type sold in the US is actually a Euro-Ford, under the skin.

 

Jaguar and Land Rover are owned by Tata. Aston is not owned by Ford either.

 

Owned by an investment firm in Kuwait.

 

.....and Audi is owned by VW, and VW is about to be owned by Porsche, .....and Ford and GM are about to be owned by the US gvt.

 

Welcome to Fchat. I think Ford is lucky to own Ford right now.

 

In those '60's-era LeMans wins by Ford GT-40's, the heavy rains came in First, and Ford GT-40's came in Second. It's an excuse, but very good one. During dry races, Ferrari beat the pants off those GT-40's.

 

+1 if things dont get better!

 

Ford no longer owns Jaguar or Landrover. Those are owned by Tata of India as was stated.

Absolute waste of taxpayer $!

 

And I had heard that it was not quite refused by Enzo, in fact Enzo went back to Ford and said we'll do the deal with certain conditions, and Ford simpley wrote on a business card "NOT INTERESTED"... And then sent that back to Enzo, or so as I have heard!

But to the OP, the guy is not too far off, but it was GM not Ford...I have been told that some Ferrari share parts with GM's? Like the automatic transmission on 456, and the ash tray???

 

That is actually quite funny!! I am thinking the early this year Ford sold everything but Mercury and Volvo...

 

The auto trannies are GM products. The "sky hook" suspension which I believe is used on the 599 is a Delco product normally associated with GM parts.

DAve

 

It must have rained a great deal at LeMans and a lot of other race events as well! The Ford GT-40 won LeMans in 66, 67, 68, and 69. The 1969 LeMans illustrates how great the GT-40 platform was considering it defeated the great Porsche 917 and Ferrari 312 with a six year old design (enough said)!

 

The auto Tranny in the 456 GTA was supplied by GM. So, I cant figure out why Ferrari charges $25k for a new tranny!!!
I've also heard that the tire rods from a Ford Taurus X fits a 456.

Separately, the US taxpayer will soon own Ford and GM...Sad

 

Yes and no------Ford does produce some parts for Ferrari----the CS mirrors? Yes, tooled and made in Dearborn for Ferrari....

 

Ford tried to steal the company out from under Ferrari by some fine print in the contract. The plan was Ferrari would sell the road car division and retain control of the racing organization. Ford wrote it up so as Enzo would have so little money to work with there would be no racing. Enzo walked away from the table and as far as I have ever heard, that was the last of discussions. I saw an interview by Carrol Shelby where he spoke about the GT-40 project. Ford was so infuriated by Enzo they commited almost unlimited funds to the GT-40 project in an attempt to destroy Ferrari. Carrol Shelby said that he had inside knowledge and claimed Ford spent as much as $2 Billion on the project. The funny part is, Ford USA couldnt make the car work, they finally gave up and farmed it out to England where it finally bore fruit.

Meanwhile, tiny lil Ferrari was in dire straights. They were teetering on the edge, totally broke. The P3 needed to win to keep Ferrari breathing. They built all of 4 cars (to Fords 134 GT40's), and were so broke they knocked the liners out of running engines to alter displacement for next weekends race. A motor that was 4 liters one day, was transformed into a 3.3 liter the following weekend, and vice versa. And to my knowledge, Ford only beat Ferrari at LeMans, nowhere else. Regardless, Ferrari went on to win the contractors Championship. And then, like Mercedes and other manufactures through the years, Ford left endurance racing as quickly as they had entered.

Its one thing to show up with a boat load of cash, buy the best minds and companies and copy as much of the competition as you can and score some wins. Its an entirely different matter to keep coming back decade after decade through thick and thin. So yeah, Ford kicked Ferrari's a$$ at Lemans. And if that makes you proud to drive a Ford, more power to ya. But Ford probably outspent Ferrari by over 100:1, and anyone would expect some results from that kind of expenditure. Had the two teams had equal resources available the outcome would have been very different. Given the odds against them, Ferrari did pretty darn well considering.

 

I love the 917 is the greatest race car ever. The privateer 917 crashed causing the driver to die, and the factory car was leading for four hours but broke down. The 917 was the quickest car during practice.

 

I know those guys!



Mike in Kuwait

 

Oops: I guess I'm so psyched about the beginning of the F1 season that I miss noticing the other auto news in March. Aston gone in Mar '07, Jag gone in Mar '08.

I saw the rumors that Ford might be selling Volvo. I guess that's for Mar '09.

I did say, "last time I looked".

 

Paul,

Much of what you stated regarding the money that Ford spent on the GT-40 is very true. Moreover, you are correct that Ferrari at time was lucky to have the funds to field a car in a given race at times. Ford had several teams (Shelby America, Holman-Moody, JW Automotive and others) working on the project and sometimes there were to many "too many cooks in the kitchen" which causing there own set of issues. Frankly, if you look at the GT-40 records from 64 to 69 it was quite impressive with wins at LeMans, Sebring, Daytona, and Spa. They won the world championship several times (I am at work and don't the records in front of me), but it was the most dominant car of that period. BTW, the only Ford I drive is a 200K mile Ford Expedition that is used to haul my Ferrari to car shows.

After the GT-40 the Porsche 917 was the most dominant car and I have a great deal of respect for that car. If someone would have challenged the Porsche 917 versa say the Ferrari 512 M, I would have stood up for the 917. I was the best car of that period!

If we were to compare the apples to apples ($$$), Ferrari most likely would have won many more races. However, if stop and think about it both Ford and Porsche were making their own statements to Ferrari, and money was not an object.

Regards,
Alan

 

$2 Billion to beat Ferrari. I think not. That was huge money in the mid-sixties, when you were prosperous if you made $10,000 a year. Public reports put the budget around $9 million as I recall, and that amount was mind-blowing at the time.

For the record, Ford DID own Ferrari in the sense that they beat them at their own game, and Napolis has one of the cars that did it.