By Peter Darnall
The Italian word “mondiale” translates as “world” in the English language but in the Ferrari factory at Maranello, the name has special significance. Mondial (without the final “e”) is a Maranello trademark name which commemorates factory Grand Prix cars which won two successive World Championships in 1952 and 1953. The original Mondials were a group of 2 liter Ferrari 4-cylinder sports racing machines which challenged the motor racing world in the mid-1950s. They were known as “500 Mondials” (the cubic centimeter displacement of a single cylinder) to differentiate them from larger displacement versions of same engine which would follow.