Ferrari: What happens when you staple a luxury brand to a sports team? (Audio)

Ferrari is the pinnacle of luxury scarcity — across its entire 79-year history, the company has sold just 330,000 cars at an average price today of $500,000. For context, Hermes sells that many Birkins and Kellys roughly every 2 years, and Rolex moves that many watches every 3 months. And yet this ultimate luxury product also lives under the same roof with a widely-beloved professional sports team… one with 400 million rabid fans from all walks of life who live and die by the Scuderia’s performance every F1 race weekend! How is it possible that these two seemingly contradictory customer bases can coexist within the same company? And far from destroying each other’s value, only reinforce it? The answer, it turns out, is a beautiful, bloody, tragic and romantic opera that spans two families and three generations — and just might be one of the best tales we’ve ever told on Acquired. Buckle up for the story of Ferrari. *Sponsors:* Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: - J.P. Morgan Payments https://bit.ly/acquiredJPMPferrariyt - Vercel https://bit.ly/acquiredvercel26 - ServiceNow https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 - Statsig https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 *Links:* - Sign up for email updates https://www.acquired.fm/email get out takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics! - Our Ferrari "episode preview" in WSJ! https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ferrari-acquired-podcast-luca-di-montezemolo-6d2ee2cb?mod=hp_lead_pos10 - _Enzo Ferrari_ by Luca Dal Monte https://www.amazon.com/Enzo-Ferrari-Definitive-Biography/dp/1788404718 - _Seeing Red_ on IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33256963/ - _Go Like Hell_ by A.J. Baime https://www.amazon.com/Go-Like-Hell-Ferrari-Battle/dp/0547336055 - Stephen Wilmot's great WSJ piece on Ferrari https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wild-economics-behind-ferraris-domination-of-the-luxury-car-market-8427dff0 - Ferrari factory tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKiCbk_4qyI - Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Ferrari Study https://worldlypartners.com/businesshistory - All episode sources https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/ferrari#sources *Carve Outs:* - _Ford v Ferrari_ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/ - Maison Wheat sweaters https://maisonwheat.com/collections/mens?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22696090715&gbraid=0AAAAAp9Ya75ijeZKDNsuwXGfYz1rqHTvQ&gclid=CjwKCAjw1tLOBhAMEiwAiPkRHpvxw79MOGInML2jOvTqpaB1QkPsGpsbgjFdcnbCLO1MIgjCo_65yhoCjV4QAvD_BwE - Craighill scissors https://craighill.co/products/chroma-scissors?tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=23202298246&tw_kwdid=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23192830497&gbraid=0AAAAACwaZstAWFYio9lIB0Y2DzeAM6SYm&gclid=CjwKCAjw1tLOBhAMEiwAiPkRHofpCCxg2cWH9q3JjNIKjnWh0A8ydjVpHl5xXSGkgnZKdaBimSPkURoCIE8QAvD_BwE - Amazon grocery service https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states - Travelpro Altitude backpack https://travelpro.com/products/altitude-medium-expandable-laptop-backpack-25-30l *More Acquired:* - Get email updates https://www.acquired.fm/email and vote on future episodes! - Join the Slack http://acquired.fm/slack - Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store https://www.acquired.fm/store! 00:00:00 Beginning 00:06:11 Enzo Ferrari's Early Life & Tragedies (1898-1919) 00:12:39 Scuderia Ferrari: Enzo's…