alternatehistory.com

In the early 60s, Henry Ford II came very close to buying Ferrari. But Ford's insistence that Enzo had to get permission for any racing budget over 450 million lire (equal to the entire racing budget for 1963) caused the Italian to throw out a bunch of curse words and walk away. Ford got revenge with the GT40 which curbstomped Ferrari several times at Le Mans. Then in 1969 Fiat bought 50% of Ferrari and bought the other 50% in 1988 before divesting in 2016. The prospect of this deal going through would make many car enthusiasts puke up blood but let's entertain it.

The good things:
Ford, the company that invented modern mass production would certainly bring the Modena factory up to scratch with automated stamping and welding. This would mean much lower costs and higher quality.

Ferrari may be a famous brand but by any objective standard, their cars were quite awful and wouldn't have sold a single model if they didn't have a prancing horse. They had heavy clutches, gearshifts, and steering. If Ford took over, it would probably mean power steering and automatic transmissions as well as air conditioning and power windows.

The bad things:
Ford has not shown itself very good at managing its acquired brands. They did crappily with Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo. They would struggle with how to place Ferrari in the marketplace.

Ford could end up wiping out the company's prestige through bad brand decisions. They might think it's a good idea to offer a "Mustang by Ferrari". If the company ran into financial troubles, we could find big block V8s under the hood of the Daytona. It's almost certain that Ferrari would be a much less exotic brand today, closer to Porsche in price. They'd almost certainly be selling an SUV.
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