A superb and rare photo of the magnificent Enzo Ferrari, photographed behind the steering wheel of his Alfa Romeo factory racing car with which he finished a magnificent 2ND during the extraordinary heavy Targa Florio roadrace of 1920. It is a very early early image of a racing Enzo Ferrari!

Ferrari served in World War I but returned home to find that his family's business had collapsed. He initially sought work at FIAT but without success. He then took a job at a smaller car company called CMN redesigning used truck bodies into small passenger cars. He took up racing in 1919 on the CMN team. He later left CMN in 1920 to work at Alfa Romeo and raced their cars in local races, finishing a brilliant second in the 1920 Targa Florio (SEE PHOTO!). Enzo Ferrari would continue to race cars with increasing success under Alfa Romeo, founding the Scuderia as the company's racing team in 1939. Ferrari would go into business as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947. He remained managing director of the firm until 1971.

The Targa Florio was an open road endurance automobile race held near the Italian city of Palermo on the isle of Sicily. The race was created in 1906 by the wealthy pioneer race driver and automobile enthusiast, Vincenzo Florio, who had started the Coppa Florio race in Brescia, Lombardy in 1900. Always one of the toughest competitions in Europe, the first Targa Florio covered 277 miles (446 km) through multiple hairpin curves on treacherous mountain roads, at heights where severe changes in climate frequently occurred. Alessandro Cagno won the inaugural 1906 race in nine hours, averaging 30 miles per hour (50 km/h). By the mid-1920s, the Targa Florio had become one of Europe's most important races, as neither the 24 Hours of Le Mans nor the Mille Miglia had been established yet. Grand Prix races were still isolated events, not a series like today's F1.

This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Alfa Romeo ‘s and (Enzo) Ferrari ’s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 10" (ca. 20 x 26 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.