Leo Turini on two Ferrari brothers and a Fiat 750

Italian journalist Leo Turini is known for his close ties with Ferrari, he knows the history of this company and the people directly associated with it. In his blog, he shared a touching story about the two sons of Enzo Ferrari, who were not destined to meet, yet they are connected not only by blood relationship …

This is the story of a car and two brothers who have never met and never will. But it happens that the invisible connection between people is never interrupted, despite the fact that sometimes life incredibly goes full circle and takes us back to a certain starting point.

Alfredo Ferrari, whom everyone called Dino, was the eldest son of the Commendatore. Dino was born in 1932 from the union of Enzo Ferrari and his wife Laura Garello, and from his father he inherited a passionate love for cars and motorcycles. Even when he was stricken with an incurable disease, muscular dystrophy, he kept thinking about cars.

He loved them so much that a few months before his death he bought a Fiat 750 Abarth, an original compact car produced by the company of the brilliant designer Carlo Abarth.

On June 30, 1956, Dino died at the age of 24. His loss most dramatically affected Enzo, who cherished the memory of his son to the end of his days. He even set up a fund to fund research that helped fight the terrible disease.

Dino had a younger brother, whom he knew and even wanted to meet, but did not have time.

Piero, Enzo’s second son, was born to Lina Lardi, the schoolteacher who struck the heart of the legendary Commendatore. But Ferrari lived by the laws of his time: in the 1950s, adultery was actually equated with a crime.

“I found out I had a brother when Dino was gone,” Piero Ferrari, now vice president of the company from Maranello, told me. And I found that out quite by accident. When I was 11 years old, my mother and I came back from the beach one day. I fell asleep in the backseat of the car and when I woke up I heard my mother telling the woman traveling with us how worried my father was about losing his son.

This struck me and the next day I asked my mother for an explanation. And she did.”

After that, Piero felt an inexplicable bond with his brother, which was stronger than the customs of the time. When Enzo Ferrari left this world in 1988, his heir continued to support medical research to combat muscular dystrophy.

In 2003, the TV company Mediaset released the TV series “Ferrari” dedicated to Enzo, where he was played by the great actor Sergio Castellitto. And Piero insisted that the series be dedicated to Dino’s memory.

And many still remember one of his rare appearances on television in the show of the popular host Maurizio Constanzo, where Piero spoke with love and sadness about his brother, whom he was not destined to meet. And he came to the studio in a Fiat 750.

“Growing up, I heard about this car from family friends – it was Dino’s last car,” Piero recalls. I was lucky to find her. I bought it, restored it and now it is one of the most expensive things for me.”

The car with the number MO 35317 is now parked in a large garage in the private residence of the Ferrari vice president in Castelvetro. This magical corner of the province of Modena is located ten kilometers from Maranello. The little Fiat stands there among the great Ferrari sports cars and can be seen as a kind of proof that love can be stronger than time and prejudice.

This is the story that connects this car to two brothers who never met. And yet they are inseparable.