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Enzo lost his own name
The Ban
The fight with Alfa Romeo management got him fired just as Hitler invaded Poland and European racing went on hold. The separation agreement forbade him from building cars to race them for four years and from using the name Ferrari on a racing team or a car builder.
A Disguised Company
During the war he created a new company to feed the Italian war effort and named it Auto Avio Costruzioni, Auto and Aviation Construction, with auto tucked in because he was not supposed to be building cars. It made machine tools in his workshops in Modena, and he had the prancing horse and the words Scuderia Ferrari Modena stamped on each tool.
Moving to Maranello
As the Allies pushed into Europe, he feared bombing and in 1943 moved all operations about 15 kilometers south to the small town of Maranello. That is why Ferrari is in Maranello and not in the bigger city of Modena. The factory was bombed twice anyway in the last days of the war. The company is now Ferrari S.p.A., traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RACE.
How did Enzo build cars during the ban?
In 1940, Auto Avio Costruzioni built two cars called the Tipo 815 for the Mille Miglia. They used Fiat-derived parts and carried no Ferrari name. Both cars retired from the race.
When did the Ferrari name return to racing?
The first car to carry the Ferrari name was the 125 S, which raced in 1947. Its first outing, at Piacenza in May, ended in retirement. It won a race in Rome a couple of weeks later, driven by Franco Cortese. Its 1.5-liter V12 engine was designed by Gioacchino Colombo.
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