A year ago, Fiat Chrysler announced it would be spinning Ferrari off as its own company, offering around 10 percent of outstanding shares to the public. Today, Ferrari filed IPO paperwork to offer 17,175,000 shares on the NYSE, valuing the company around nearly $10 billion, at $48-$52 per share.

In today's startup bubble, that valuation makes Ferrari—which will trade under the ticker symbol RACE—a "decacorn," along with the likes of Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

Founded in 1947, the company has been making some amazing cars in recent years and its Formula One team (the original reason for Ferrari's existence) is very close to challenging dominant Mercedes.

It's unclear how an independent Ferrari would operate, but meeting federal fuel efficiency standards could prove tricky, without lots of Fiat 500s to pull the average MPGs up.

There's also chatter that Ferrari will face increased pressure from shareholders to generate more profit. That could mean increasing sales volume from the 7,000 cars a year, likely with more profitable but less racetrack-friendly vehicles, like SUVs. Porsche has done just that, with lots of success, in the past decade. But that won't ease the sting of seeing a Prancing Horse seven-seater for the Ferrari purists.

For Fiat Chrysler, spinning off Ferrari is a way to finance a $54 billion investment program to improve and expand its Jeep, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati brands, Bloomberg reports.