Ferrari is one of the most popular sports cars in the world. With its sleek style and ultimate performance capability, it's often the most sought after car by connoisseurs and anyone with a particular need for speed.

Ferrari is based in Maranello, Italy, and was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 as Scuderia Ferrari. Ferrari is also very well known in the Formula One racing world, where it has enjoyed phenomenal success on the track.

Today, Ferrari employs almost 3,000 people, and pulls in annual revenue of over €1,688. From the very beginning, something was different about Ferrari. No one ever expected the cars to be as popular as they are today, not even founder Enzo Ferrari.

Enzo Ferrari never intended to produce such a popular brand of sports cars. In fact, he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929 as a sponsor for amateur drivers headquartered in Modena. Enzo helped prepare and successfully raced various drivers in Alfa Romeo models until 1938, where he was then hired by Alfa Romeo to head their motor racing department.

Enzo excelled at the task, and for the next two years, he had developed some impressive technologies for the time. However, Alfa Romeo was absorbed by Italy's Fascist government of Benito Mussolini in 1940 as part of the Axis Powers' war effort. Luckily for Enzo, his division was too small to be directly affected by this.

Because Enzo Ferrari was prohibited by contract from racing for a span of four years, the Scuderia brieflyk became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which supposedly produced various machine tools and varieties of aircraft accessories. In that time, Ferrari did manage to produce one race car, the Tipo 815, though it was in the non-competition period.

It debuted at the Mille Miglia in 1940 as the first actual Ferrari, but due to WWII, it saw very little competition. The Ferrari factory moved to Maranello in 1943 and has remained there ever since. The Allies bombed the building in 1944, but a determined Ferrari rebuilt it in 1946 after the war had ended, and included a works-for-road car production.

The first Ferrari road car to be unleashed on the public was the 1947 125 S, which was powered by a 1.5L V12 engine. Enzo Ferrari was somewhat bitter about having to sell his automobiles to fund Scuderia Ferrari, but he reluctantly did so to keep it going. His beautiful and ultra-fast cars were an instant success among the general public.

Ferrari gained a reputation for excellence in the automotive world, but Enzo's distaste for his customers became a matter of public record. Enzo maintained his blatant disappointment, and insisted that most of the buyers were simply purchasing the prestige and not the performance.

Once Ferrari was let loose on the world, it never slowed down. From the 1950s to today, Ferrari has grown in each year of operation. Enzo Ferrari went from a race car driver, to the reluctant manufacturer of one of the world's finest sports cars.