Enzo was born in 1898 just outside the town of Modena, Italy to father Alfredo and mother Adalgisa. He also had an older brother named Alfredo but the family called him Dino so as to avoid confusion. The two brothers became very close as they grew up. 

An an engineer his father, was very interested in the automobile and bought their first family car when Enzo was five and his brother, Dino, was seven. Enzo was so captivated by this vehicle that he never forgot the feelings he had for it. 

Enzo showed an aptitude for speed when he and his brother organised track and field events with the other children in the town, and used a path around an adjacent farm to build a racing track, carefully measuring to the 100 metres and staked out with sticks pushed into the ground. 

In 1908, a ten-year-old Enzo was taken by his father to see his first automobile race. This would be the 'spark' that gave him a fanatical and passionate interest in motor racing. The race was run on the normal, unsealed, dirt roads between villages, closed off for the event. 

The competitors, including Vincento Lancia, who had just opened his first factory making cars that bore his name, would have to complete several circuits of these roads. The race would take several hours, sometimes too many for the cars and the stamina of the drivers.

As he attended more and more events, he was consumed by racing and his studies suffered at school, to the point where he had no interest in school whatsoever. 

In 1915, he saw a picture in a car magazine of Ralph DePalma, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 that year. He confided in his best friend, something he had been nurturing for some time. He was going to be a racing driver. 

Post WW1, in 1919, he decided to visit the motor car and motor racing manufacturer, Fiat, in Turin. He offered his services to become a driver with their racing team. Fiat rejected him. Feeling totally dejected, he went to a snow covered park bench and wept. 

His father had given him an engineering contact in Turin, where he started working transforming WW1 truck chassis into car chassis. He also drove the chassis to coach builders in Milan for the bodies to be fitted to the chassis. While he was in Milan a friend advised him to contact CMN because they were looking for engineers in Milan,

While in a Milan coffee shop he frequented, he learned that the first post-war race was scheduled for later in the year. He purchased a CMN from his employer, pledging 3 months salary, and entered his name in the race. Somehow, news spread to Modena that Ferrari has spent all his money on a racing car and he was labelled "mad", a nickname that would stick to him for many years. 

He won fourth place, earned some prize money and enough respect from his mother to spur him on to the next race.

This next race was held in Sicily on dirt roads around the island The Targa Florio, driven by Vincento Florio, Vincento and Enzo became life-long friends. This would be the first time Enzo encountered death on the race track, when a spectator crossed the road just as the winning Peugeot crossed the finish line. 

Death would be a constant companion to Enzo throughout his career and, as I was reading the book, I lost count of all the drivers whose lives ended prematurley. In fact, the drivers mentioned in the book who finished their careers by retiring, were in the minority.

The book follows his career as a champion motor racing driver, as a private entrant and as part of the racing team for Alfa Romeo. It also includes his stormy marriage with Laura and ten years later, the birth of their son, Dino, which made him decide to retire from driving. 

The revelation that he had been having an affair with Lina, who he met in the mid 1920s and who eventually produced a second son, Piero. The creator of Ferrari Scuderia (his racing team) contracted to supply racing drivers for Alfa Romeo.

Readers are taken on a journey through the era of Fascist Italy, when Alfa Romeo was taken over by the Fascist State. In 1938, Enzo had a huge argument with Alfa Romeo and decided to start his own manufacturing company. 

The biography also covers the WW2 era, when all racing had been stopped and Enzo had to change his factory from car manufacture to toolmaking and his clandestine assistance to the resistance movement.

Dal Monte then takes us, year by year, through the post war period. The trials and tribulations that Ferrari had with drivers, engineers and designers. The premature loss of his son, Dino, to muscular dystrophy at age 24, was a tragedy he would endure for the rest of his life.

The fights he had with the Racing Authorities, the Catholic Church, and the other manufacturers. The merger that never happened between Ford and Ferrari and the merger, in 1961, between Fiat and Ferrari that would last beyond his death.

Reading Luca Dal Monte's biography of Enzo Ferrariy is a total delight and throughly enjoyable reading. Each page brings to life the day-to-day events of Enzo, his many drivers, engineers, technicians, designers and advisers. It highlights the successes, the numerous tragedies and the accolades of a self-made man, and his company, that became world famous and synonymous with quality, reliability and speed.x

About the author

Luca Dal Monte, born in 1963 in Cremona, Italy, is an accomplished author and automotive industry veteran. After graduating with a degree in US history and political sciences, Luca served as the first Chief Press Officer for the Province of Cremona. He was enlisted for military service, and then worked for Cremona's La Provincia newspaper, before securing a job at the Italian branch of the French carmaker Peugeot in 1991. This initiated a fantastic journey into the automobile industry, and consequent roles with Toyota, Pirelli, Ferrari and Maserati. His automotive and writing experiences culminated in the publication of his debut novel La Scuderia in 2009. Today, Enzo Ferrari: The Definitive Biography of an Icon stands as Luca's long-cherished project, offering a unique angle on a towering 20th-century figure.

Reviewed by Ken C.

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