<< Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >> Rejoining Alfa Romeo, Colombo did not stay long enough for the designs to materialize and Ferrari was on the lookout again for a new chief engineer. In the meantime draughtsmen turned the designs into usable drawings and the first engine parts were cast halfway through 1946. Construction of the chassis frames was outsourced to Gilco, who completed two similar frames in September of 1946. A month later Aurelio Lampredi joined the engineering team to help develop the engines, which suffered from various teething problems. In November Enzo Ferrari officially announced a range of three production cars all sharing the 1.5 litre V12 engine. It was referred to as the '125', as a reference to the unitary displacement; a naming policy that was to be used for many decades to come.
It was not until March of 1947 that the first car was ready to drive around on its own power. Two weeks after the testing commenced, Lampredi left to leave the team of young engineers without a leader once more. By May two distinctively different Ferraris were ready to make their competition debut. The first car featured a fully enclosed roadster design, while the second was equipped with a rather ugly cycle fender body. Two accidents for the cycle fender car and a heavily smoking engine in the roadster disguised the potential of the Ferrari 125 at its debut in Piacenza on May 11th. A fortnight later Franco Cortese drove the roadster to the manufacturer's maiden victory in only their second race!
Throughout the season the racing efforts were combined with the continuous development of the two cars. To take on more powerful cars, the V12 engine's bore and stroke were increased to yield a displacement of 1908 cc and the cars were renamed accordingly as 159. A third car was constructed in the summer and equipped with a newly designed cycle fender body. Colombo returned as a consultant and immediately set out to alter the 159 engine with a significant increase in performance as a result. Raymond Sommer scored the company's first major victory in the Turin Grand Prix with the new cycle fender car, equipped with the Colombo modified version of the 159 engine. << Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >>
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Rejoining Alfa Romeo, Colombo did not stay long enough for the designs to materialize and Ferrari was on the lookout again for a new chief engineer. In the meantime draughtsmen turned the designs into usable drawings and the first engine parts were cast halfway through 1946. Construction of the chassis frames was outsourced to Gilco, who completed two similar frames in September of 1946. A month later Aurelio Lampredi joined the engineering team to help develop the engines, which suffered from various teething problems. In November Enzo Ferrari officially announced a range of three production cars all sharing the 1.5 litre V12 engine. It was referred to as the '125', as a reference to the unitary displacement; a naming policy that was to be used for many decades to come.