Enzo Ferrari formed Scuderia Ferrari ('Team Ferrari') to race cars, usually Alfas, and he was very succesful. In 1938 Alfa Romeo hired Enzo to head up their competition department. The Second World War all but dissolved this Alfa Romeo partnership and Enzo started to make his own cars, the first one being launched as the Type 125 S in 1947. Production cars were only ever a way of funding the Ferrari racing team. In 1969 Fiat acquired a 50per cent stake in Ferrari after an approach by Ford of America was succesfully rebuffed. The rest of Ferrari went to Fiat in 1988 upon the death of Enzo Ferrari.