McLaren vs Ferrari

Car manufacturer rivalries usually arise from decades of competing in the same market with similarly specced and similarly priced car models, vying for market shares. When it comes to prestigious sports car manufacturers, their rivalries' roots can, in most instances, be traced back to the race track.
Ferrari is a company built on motorsport heritage. In the early 1930's, Ferrari served as the racing stable for Alfa Romeo, using Alfa's funds to build and race cars. Enzo Ferrari was an uncompromising engineer and methodical driver with his own way of doing things, and when Ferrari started making road going production cars after World War II, his ideology for race cars were fueled into his production cars.
Over the history of F1 to present day, Ferrari has always been the team to beat, like a Formula One equivalent of Real Madrid. Even in their dips in performance, Ferrari was always a force to be reckoned with, with every other team judged according to what Ferrari put out there on the track. The first Ferrari car was constructed in 1947, and it was entered in its first Grand Prix in 1948. Ferrari happens to be the only team to have competed in every single season of the Formula One World Championship.
In the early 60's, when New Zealander Bruce McLaren floated his own race team, McLaren Racing, he probably never thought his team would go on to be Ferrari's chief rival for the next five decades, and even to present day. The team debuted in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix and won its first Grand Prix in 1968 in Belgium.
When it came to road cars, McLaren started late, although their first road-going car more than made up for the lack of models in their past: the legendary 1992 McLaren F1. Since then, McLaren has been dormant, only recently taking the fight to Ferrari road cars with the heavyweights in the form of the MP4-12C and the P1.
Ferrari's road cars need no introduction, since they are at the top of everyone's dream life list, often heralded as the ultimate automobile manufacturer.
The McLaren-Ferrari rivalry shows no sign of dying down. In fact, things are only intensifying both on and off the track, and it can only get more interesting.