Living in Italy, only three things regularly makes the news, soccer, the pope, and Ferrari, leaving individuals to discern who or what comes first.
Ferrari is like a national treasure. In a Ferrari, speeding tickets don't exist, especially around the Modena factory. Law enforcement offices passing it off as just a new car on a test run. Throughout its history, Ferrari has placed its racing team before road cars, the latter financed Enzo Ferrari's early racing successes.
Despite a preference for racing over road cars, Ferrari has produced a staggering number of production cars since 1947, with over 50 separate model variants from the earliest 125 S racers through to the current crop of Ferrari 812 Superfast models, the variety is truly mind-boggling.
10 Ferrari 125 S
Although Enzo Ferrari himself had a successful racing career that later led to the founding of Ferrari in 1939, it would be another eight years before Ferrari produced their first racing car bearing the famous name. Launched in 1947, only two examples of the 125 S were produced, making it one of the rarest and most important cars in the brand's history. The 125 S was very much the genesis of the sports car maker we know today.
The resulting effort of Italian designer and engineer Gioacchino Colombo, Ferrari's 125S went on to claim six wins during 1947 cementing the arrival of Enzo Ferrari and his team. Beneath the exquisite handcrafted body, a relatively small 1.5-liter V12 produced just 118 HP in a chassis weighing 1430 lbs.
9 Ferrari 330 P3/P4
At Ferrari, racing is taken very seriously, after all, it's the oldest surviving team in Formula 1, with a string of championship-winning cars and drivers to its name. However, the prancing horse badge has adorned dozens of prototype and GT cars since its foundation in 1939. Most famously contesting the Le Man's 24-hour race throughout the '60s with the 330 P3/P4 cars.
After winning the prestigious event five years in a row, 1966 presented a serious challenge from Ford, the Italian carmaker's response was the stunning 330 P3. Ditching aluminum wherever possible resulted in a lighter body shell, which when equipped with a revised 4-liter V12 produced 410 hp. Ultimately, Ferrari lost out, Ford taking the honors that year set a long-running feud between the two rivals.
8 Dino 246 GT
Ferrari's first mass-produced sports car curiously didn't come with a Ferrari badge or the famous prancing horse logo, instead, the Italian carmaker adopted the Dino name tag in recognition of Enzo Ferrari's son.
Penned by Pininfarina, the Dino 246 GTS bears an uncanny resemblance to Ferrari's more famous 250 GTO, only smaller, and many purists claim better looking too. Ferrari had done the unthinkable, the Dino 246 GTS from the very beginning was designed for road use rather than the track.
7 Ferrari 365 GTB/4
Sticking with a traditional front-engined rear-wheel-drive chassis for the 365 GTB/4 at the time was both a masterstroke and a case of Ferrari playing it safe. The Daytona, as it became commonly known, arguably better for its grand tourer pedigree rather than outright supercar, is one of the best in Ferrari's history.
The Daytona, despite its GT form, was no slough, equipped with a variant of Ferrari's legendary Colombo V12 engine punched out 347 hp, making it one of the test production cars at the time recording a top speed over 170 mph.
6 Ferrari F355
A much-needed return to form after the dismal 348, Ferrari pulled out all the stops for the successor cramming in as much race-proven technology as they could for the 1995 launch of the F355, the first production car to make use of F1 style paddle operated transmissions.
Despite wearing a much improved Pininfarina body, the F355 owed a lot of its chassis design to the 348, Ferrari adopting a heavily revised platform and engine line-up. Where the 348 was lacking in performance, the newer car with a slightly enlarged 3.5-liter V8 was a different beast altogether, boasting a new five-valve cylinder layout pumping out 375 HP at a heady 8250 rpm limiter.
5 Ferrari F40
In 1986 Porsche's 959 was the fastest production car money could buy, a stunning achievement of engineering perfection, however, its glory would be short-lived, Ferrari with their F40 was not only faster but the first production car to break the magic 200 mph barrier.
In direct contrast to its German rival, Ferrari took a different direction, believing weight and power would be equally important in the F40's design. Its bodyshell largely consisting of light-weight composite materials, plastics in place of glass, and a bare minimum of interior fitments. The results speak for themselves, with 477 hp from a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V8, resulting in a top speed of 201 mph, supercars had changed forever.
4 Enzo
Unveiled at the 2002 Paris Motor Show the latest in a series of Ferrari Hypercars, many of the show's visitors incorrectly assumed production cars would bear the F60 tag, instead, Ferrari chose to honor its founder adopting the Enzo name.
While previous hypercar efforts had been all about power, the Enzo combined power with clever electronics to control not only its F1-style automatic transmission but also a full complement of active aerodynamic aids, all in the pursuit of ultimate performance. However, the headline figures for any gearhead are how much power and how fast, the Enzo with a 651 hp 6-liter V12 can reach an impressive top speed of 218 mph.
3 Ferrari 250 GTO
No other model in Ferrari's history has quite such a hold over collectors as the 250 GTO, a limited production run of 36 road-going racers represents the very finest in Italian styling and engineering that commands huge prices today.
Designed to race, production cars only existing to meet FIA homologation rules, Enzo Ferrari famously was never interested in road cars, only his beloved racing team. A thoroughbred from the ground up, borrowing heavily from earlier racers, its tubular chassis and tub strengthened to cope with Ferrari's 3-liter Colombo series V12, fed by six Weber DCN carburetors delivering 296 hp.
2 Scuderia Ferrari F2002
A familiar sight to any gearhead during the 2002 season, Ferrari's F2002 was the dominant force all season claiming 14 wins out of 15 race starts, securing the constructor's title, with Michael Schumacher claiming a fifth driver's title with four races to spare.
For many F1 fans, the 2002 season represents a pinnacle in race car development, even Ferrari's follow-up couldn't match the F2002's astonishing performance capabilities. During testing, it was clear the F2002 with as much as 0.8-seconds advantage per lap over its predecessor had championship potential, later born out by its first race and win in Brazil. A large part of the success is due to a revolutionary design, but Ferrari's 3-liter V10 played a major role also, faultlessly delivering 835 hp in race trim.
1 Ferrari SF90 Stradale
Ninety years after Ferrari's foundation, the Italian carmaker unveiled the SF90, a new breed of Ferrari that embraces PHEV technology, the first production Ferrari ever to not rely solely on internal combustion.
Constructed from an exotic mix of aluminum and carbon fiber minimizes the effect of added weight, the three electric motors and battery pack accounting for 595 lbs of the SF90s dry weight of 3463 lbs. Despite the gains, this is one seriously quicker car, rocketing to 62 mph in 2.5-seconds, flat out recording a top speed of 211 mph.