Shell Oil Advertisement

     Once again while flipping through the pages of old magazines I ran across an advertisement. It shows Mr. Ferrari standing amongst several 250 GTE.

 

 

     The ad states “Enzo Ferrari puts his soul - and Shell oil - into every car he builds”

     It goes on to say, “Ask Ferrari why he makes only two cars a day, and he will tell you that if he made any more they would not be Ferraris.”

     Since this is an ad for Shell oil it goes on to show the relationship between Shell and Ferrari goes back to 1929 when Ferrari was director of Scuderia Ferrari.

     Clearly the collaboration between the demands of racing and quality lubrication was good for both companies.

     For many years the Ferraris came with a data plate in the engine compartment that identified the proper Shell products required to keep your Ferrari serviced.

     This part of the ad was interesting, but it was the picture of Enzo standing among the cars that caught my attention.

     The ad was in a 1966 Car & Driver magazine and the cars were clearly GTE bodies. The last 250 GTE rolled off the assembly line in September of 1963.

     The cars shown were late Series III cars, or they could have been 330 America. The 330 America usually had an emblem on the trunk stating “330 America” that identified them as something different.

     The 330 America lasted but fifty cars, probably to close out a contract with Pininfarina for 1,000 bodies, as 950 GTEs and fifty 330 Americas were built. The 330 America production ended in November 1963.

     From the cars shown I think we can assume they were GTEs. The photo must have been taken some time in 1963 either early in the year or late in the year as Ferrari is wearing a heavy overcoat.

     The cars shown in the black and white ad are various colors. It would be difficult to identify a black car from red, but it was the quantity of cars I found interesting.

     It appears to have eighteen to twenty cars parked in a row. The ad states Ferrari was building two cars per day and there is two weeks production sitting right here on the factory floor.

      Possibly more than two weeks as Ferrari was also building the 250 GT/L Lusso, 400 Superamerica and 250 GTO.

      Clearly the Superamerica and GTO production was very small but the 250 Lusso production would have been in full swing in 1963 and not even one of those appear in the ad.

      In reviewing importation paperwork from Chinetti, it can be seen there was a wide range of serial numbers when Chinetti received cars.

      It would not be unusual for numbers to be one hundred or more apart listed on the invoice. One hundred serial numbers is fifty cars. So, it is now easy to see why there was so much disparity of cars received.

     Cars being held until a batch could be sent to America would account for the range. As orders came in from many different places and serial numbers assigned, when they got finished the serial numbers could have quite a wide range.

     So, was Ferrari building only two cars per day?

     If the work week was six days and fifty weeks each year that makes 300 working days in a year. Multiply by two and you get 600 cars.

     So how many Ferraris are really being built? Research on perfect production is difficult to determine but I found several sources that tended to agree.

    1950 = 26          1971 = 1,246
    1960 = 306        1980 = 2,470
    1965 = 740        1990 = 4,309
    1966 = 665        1993 = 2,353
    1967 = 706        2000 = 4,072
    1968 = 729        2010 = 6,573
    1969 = 619        2011 = 7,195
    1970 = 928        2012 = 7,405

     You can see from these numbers it does make sense that Ferrari was making the aforementioned two cars per day.

     You can also see the stagnation of Ferrari production during the years of Ford vs Ferrari and why Ferrari struggled so hard and why Ferrari might have been interested in selling to Ford with its manufacturing capabilities.

      It is also possible to see the improvement when Fiat bought into the company in 1969. Economic downturns are also revealed in those production numbers in 1980 and 1993.

     In 2015 Ferrari became a publicly traded company and production has steadily risen.

    2014 = 7,255        2019 = 10,131
    2015 = 7,664        2020 =   9,119
    2016 = 8,014        2021 = 11,155
    2017 = 8,398        2022 = 13,221
    2018 = 9,251        2023 = 13,663

     Production for 2024 was the best yet with 13,752 Ferraris rolling off the assembly line.

      What would Enzo Ferrari have to say about the direction his company has evolved?

      In 1966, the company’s future must have looked bleak. The racing was taking so much cash, and the production cars were not able to keep up with the needs of the company.

     I believe he would approve as the company he nurtured and desperately kept alive is very profitable today.

      Ferrari is still racing at the top level in Formula One and World Endurance Championship, in addition to building some of the most desirable cars on the planet.

     Every Ferrari made still has the soul of its founder, Enzo Ferrari.