Ferrari Story, 1998 issue
Engines from 1 to 18 cylinders
On the cover: The single known photograph of the P3C three cylinder W engine is show here having for background the drawing this experimental power unit that should have given origin to the first 18 cylinder of automotive history.
Ferrari is the marque that in only fifty years has become the most famous of them all, with its cars being the touchstone in terms of desire compared to those made by factories almost all of them born before the turn of the nineteenth century.
The credit goes to Enzo Ferrari who knew how to create technological objects of the highest level, and at the same time choose a Master coachbuilder as Pininfarina to give them a shape that aestetically would reflect the qualities of power, swiftness and safety implicit in the car design.
This disproves the clichè that sometimes says that Ferrari did privilege the engine: surely as a former race driver he kenw its importance, but the engine alone could not have made the Ferrari cars what they are today. For this reason it's all the more astonishing the number of different engines developed in 50 years.
And credit also goes to Fiat which took over from Ferrari and continued to expand the Company not only with money but with its best managers.
Gianni Rogliatti | 
