Meet The Italian Racer Who Made Ferrari Big In The States

1954. Burger King opens their first restaurant in Miami, West Germany beats Hungary at the FIFA World Cup and Ferrari sells the first ever prancing horse in the United States. Things have never been the same ever since.

Enzo Ferrari - reportedly - never left the country, though he wanted to offer his race and road cars across the big pond. He appointed Luigi Chinetti as the American importer, and this is his story…

Meet Luigi Chinetti

If there’s one thing you should remember today, it’s this name: Luigi Chinetti. Chinetti was an Italian racing driver who immigrated to the United States during the Second World War. In total, he competed in twelve 24 hours of Le Mans, won three of them and took first price twice at the 24 hours of Spa Francorchamps. He also knew his way around the car selling business. The perfect resume to start working for and with Enzo Ferrari you’d say.

And, you’re right. They met each other during their time at Alfa Romeo and became good friends and business associates; Enzo eventually appointed Chinetti as the American Ferrari importer.

Chinetti was born in a small town north of Milan in 1901. He quickly became interested in cars and he got his first job in the automotive industry at the age of 16. He worked for Alfa Romeo as a mechanic and worked his way up to becoming a sales for the brand in their Parisian-based dealership.

Chinetti was interested in racing as well, so he practiced his skills on the side. His first big appearance was at the 1932 24 hours of Le Mans. Together with his co-driver Raymond Sommer, he managed to win the endurance race in an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM. In 1958, Chinetti founded the North American Racing Team (NART). We’ll save that story for another time, make sure you don’t miss out.

Ferrari importer

During the Second World War, Chinetti moved to the United States. In December 1946, Chinetti flew back to Modena to meet with Enzo Ferrari. At this time, Enzo was thinking about starting a company and Chinetti recommended to build race (and eventually road) cars. When Enzo asked how he would sell exclusive cars, Chinetti promised to take care of that. Enzo agreed and he could not have picked a better representative. His racing abilities were mega, his selling skills were even better.

Enzo and Chinetti sat down with a few other executives to set up a plan to sell race cars to privateers. To finance the production, they would eventually introduce road cars. Just a year after the introduction of the first Ferrari, Chinetti managed to sell a 166 MM Barchetta to Tommy Lee, a Californian radio executive in 1948.

In the early years of his importing career, most of the sales Chinetti made were kept secret to protect the privacy of his clients. In 1954, he officially started as the US-importer for Ferrari.

Winning Team

Chinetti opened his first dealership in Manhattan. He eventually moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. This business remains open, owned by Miller Motorcars, a Ferrari-Maserati dealership.

The American market was growing every year and offered great potential for Ferrari, so much so that they started producing Ferraris solely for the US-market. The first one in this range was the 340 America (1950 – 1952). This front-V12 grand tourer produced about 197 bhp. Ferrari only build 23 units with different types of bodyworks: 11 by Vignale, 8 by Touring and 4 by Ghia.

The America series also included the 342 (1952) and 375 America (1953 – 1954), the 410 (1955 – 1959) and 400 Superamerica (1959 – 1964), the 500 Superfast (1964 – 1966) and the 365 California (1966 – 1967). One of the most icon Ferraris, the 250 GT California Spyder, was the work of Chinetti and West-Coast representative John Von Neumann. Both thought there would be a big potential for an open top car for the wealthy Californian clients. The original price was around $13,000, though its current price is in the $15-$20 million range.

NART Spyder

Another icon was the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spyder. Chinetti talked to Sergio Scaglietti and Enzo about the idea of a successor to the 250 GT California Spyder. The NART name, referring to his racing team, was never part of the official name. Still, Ferrari fitted the cars with a NART badge as seen on the picture above. Throughout the years, several cars were produced with the US-market in mind: 333 SP, 575 Superamerica, California and the F60 America. The latter is the one that celebrates all of the successes Ferrari had since 1954.

There is so much more to talk and write about Chinetti, so stay tuned. The impact he had on Ferraris legacy is indescribable: the US-market remains their most profitable market to this date.

Written by Max Lammers.