“I have never sold a car to someone I liked. The cars are too good for most people who buy them.”
— Энцо Феррари
Widely attributed to Ferrari in interviews throughout the 1960s-1970s. Reflects his well-documented disdain for customers whom he viewed as necessary funding for his racing team.
I built cars to win races, not to make rich men feel important. Every car that left Maranello carried my name, my reputation, and the blood of every mechanic who built it. When a customer complained, I told him the problem was not the car. The car was perfect. The problem was him.
“What is behind us does not matter. The only race that counts is the one we have not yet run.”
— Энцо Феррари
From an interview in the Italian press in the late 1970s, when asked to reflect on Ferrari's decades of racing success.
People asked me about my greatest victory. I never answered. Because the greatest race is always the next one. The trophies collect dust. The records get broken. But tomorrow morning the engineers will be at their desks and the engines will be on the dyno. That is all that matters.
“I do not sell engines. I sell dreams with an engine inside them, and the dream must be faster than reality.”
— Энцо Феррари
Composite of several Enzo Ferrari statements from the 1960s about the relationship between road car sales and racing, widely cited in Ferrari corporate histories.
People thought I was in the car business. I was never in the car business. I was in the racing business. Every road car existed only to fund the next race car. The customer paid for the dream. I used the money to chase something no customer could buy — the next tenth of a second.
