FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2025-34: 

A REWIND SPECIAL 

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (February 20, 2025) – In this special REWIND edition of  Fun with Maps from Steve Kovacs, we look back and are reminded a slow start won’t impede the destiny of a race car driver originally published 2/20/2023. 

The Fast Lane

Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18, 1898, but given a delayed birth registry at the local courthouse due to a snowstorm, his birth certificate shows February 20th as his day of birth.  

There was a somewhat backhanded sign in this fast-forwarded birthdate since Ferrari grew up to be a race car driver who was consistently ahead of his competitors on the car racing circuit in the late 1920s.  He raced for Alfa Romeo.

Eventually Ferrari founded his own racing and luxury car company in 1940.   Being a rather strong and rugged personality, it isn’t surprising that the company bears his name.   But Enzo had a softer, sentimental side.   The Ferrari Company’s prancing horse emblem is in memory of a dear friend who gave Enzo a necklace with a prancing horse just before heading to serve in World War I.  The friend was an Italian pilot and he was shot down and killed in action. 

The young Ferrari Company’s factory was bombed by the Allied forces in 1943 and it was rebuilt after the war only a few miles from where Enzo was born in Modena, northern Italy.  The World Wars were not kind to many, Ferrari included.  Enzo lived to be 90 years old.

Colton’s map of northern Italy is presented here from 1855.  Modena is in the center of the map.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.