With acquisition of the Scuderia Lancia, Vittorio Jano came to Ferrari. The new development team ended the era of the Lampredi engines.

Indeed some elements of the Lampredi engines found their place, but already while looking at the engine you will see the difference as it is shorter, but wide.
The 290MM is named after the 290ccm displacement per cylinder. They were a result of the new bore and stroke dimensions of 72x96,5mm. The process of cylinder charging and discharging has been optimized in contrast to the predecessor engine and due to the new engine design, the engeneers were able to place two spark plugs per cylinder, wich caused a better ignition.

The up to 320 hp strong engine came into a Pininfarina-designed body, which has been produced by Scaglietti. Almost the same body has been used for the 4-cylinder Ferrari 860 Monza, a distinctive difference is the square bump on the bonnet.

Castellotti won the 1956 Mille Miglia on the works-Ferrari 290MM, Fangio raced his 290MM to fifth place. Not much later Fangio became third at the 1000kms at the Nuerburgring and Castellotti had another victory at the 1000kms of Buenos Aires.

After the modified version, the Ferrari 290 S, not much late the successor Ferrari 315 S has been launched.