Ferrari Auto Avio Costruzioni 815

Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 - the "secret" first Ferrari

Every Ferrari enthusiast knows, of course, that the first model with the jumping horse was the 125 S from 1947. But Enzo Ferrari had designed the Avio 815 car seven years earlier. Although it never bore the glamorous name, it is still the very first Ferrari.

Auto Avio Costruzioni (AAC) was an Italian company founded by Enzo Ferrari in Modena around 1938, which was concerned with the construction of machine tools and the manufacture of parts for aircraft engines.

Ferrari, which until 1938 had taken over Alfa Romeo's plant operations with its Scuderia Ferrari, was contractually prohibited from building competing racing cars for a period of four years.

Nevertheless, Alberto Massimino at AAC designed an open sports two-seater for the Mille Miglia of 1940, the AAC 815 with one and a half liter inline eight-cylinder engine (54 kW / 73 hp), box frame and body from the Carrozzeria Touring. The 625 kg Spider was around 170 km / h fast. Two copies were built and used at the 1940 Brescia Grand Prix, but without success, both vehicles failed with engine damage. One of them still exists today.