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It started with a letter. In February 1963, a letter arrived at Ford's German headquarters saying that a small but prestigious Italian sports-car maker was for sale. Enzo Ferrari had made the overture. He chose Ford, he said, because he had always been an admirer of Henry Ford. What he did not say was that he was being vilified in the Italian press over the bloodshed among Ferrari drivers, particularly after the 1961 Grand Prix at Monza. At that race, Ferrari's Phil Hill clinched the Formula 1 championship, but his teammate Count Wolfgang Von Trips crashed, killing himself and fourteen spectators. The race was televised, so millions saw the carnage.

A giddy air of defiance pervaded ceremonies before the United States 500 on Memorial Day weekend in 1996, a race that challenged open-wheel racing's doctrine of papal infallibility. Tony George had formed the Indy Racing League and excluded the unfaithful, who rejected his new formula, from participating in the sacred ritual of the Indianapolis 500. The disfellowshipped directors of Championship Auto Racing Teams sent their star drivers to the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway and revived the Vanderbilt Cup as a simulacrum of Indy's Borg-Warner. For his "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," George was left with a scab workforce.