Ferrari 512 - History

History

Until 1967, Ferrari raced four litre prototypes (see Ferrari P), but due to high speeds achieved in Le Mans also by the seven litre V8 Ford GT40, the rules were changed for 1968 limiting Group 6 Prototypes to a maximum engine capacity of 3.0 litres, as in Formula 1. Despite having a suitable engine, Ferrari sat out the 1968 season, to return in 1969 with the Ferrari 312P. In that year, Porsche had taken full advantage of a loop hole with the Porsche 917, making the risky investment of building 25 examples of a 5.0 L car to allow homologation into the FIA's Group 5 Sports Car category. Selling a part of his business to Fiat, Enzo Ferrari raised the funds to match that risky investment. Surplus cars were intended to be sold to racing customers, which means that several dozen high powered sports cars were available, and with each requiring two drivers in an endurance race, there was a shortage of experienced pilots.

The motor of the 512S was a total new 60° V12 with 560 PS (412 kW) output. Compared to Porsche's air-cooled flat-12, it needed a maze of cooling pipes and a heavy radiator. Since the chassis was of sturded steel, reinforced with aluminium sheet, weight was 100 kg more than that of the alloy-framed 917. Notwithstanding the weight difference and higher center of gravity, the Ferrari 512S and Porsche 917 were theoretically fairly evenly matched.

At the beginning of 1970 the Ferrari 512s were hampered by predictable teething problems, including a weak suspension and transmission bothers. But the fact that Porsche already had six months of equally mixed experiences with its 917 in 1969 would be decisive for the rest of the season.

Contrary to Porsche, Ferrari did not organise an intramural competition. At Porsche, JWA Gulf, KG Porsche Salzburg and later Martini Racing, all received direct factory support. Thus, at least four cars were real works cars, without putting strain on the factory itself, as personnel and funds were provided by these professional teams. And even the privateers like AAW Shell Racing and David Piper Racing received much better support than Ferrari's clients. Ferrari did not adopt this modern scheme, but entered cars themselves in the traditional manner, as Spa Ferrari SEFAC. Having only a few Formula 1 drivers under contract in the previous years, with the sports car aces driving for Porsche, Ferrari could barely find qualified drivers for its entries. Besides the factory cars, there were the private cars of Scuderia Filipinetti, NART, Écurie Francorchamps, Scuderia Picchio Rosso, Gelo Racing Team and Escuderia Montjuich. Those private cars never received the same support from the factory. They were considered as field fillers, never as candidates for a win.

At the end of the 1970 season, Ferrari had won the 12 hours of Sebring, while the Porsche 917 and 908 took the remaining nine wins of the championship season. At Le Mans, the Ferrari suffered from reliability problems, although it was considered to be equally fast as the 917. Four 512s were entered by Ferrari for that race, but the Vaccarella/Giunti car was out after 7 laps, the Merzario/Regazzoni car was out after 38 laps and the Bell/Peterson car was out a lap later, and about 5 hours later the Ickx/Schetty car was out after 142 laps. For speed tracks such as Le Mans, Spa, Monza and the Osterrichring, an extra rear body panel designed to suit the 512 better for fast tracks was fitted on the car. The modified 512M had proven to be fast at the end of the season, and Ickx/Giunti also won the Kyalami non-championship Springbok 9 hours race. As the loop hole for the five litre sports cars would become obsolete after 1971, Ferrari decided to abandon factory entries of the 512 in favor of developing a new three litre prototype. In 1971, Penske entered an improved 512M (#1040) in Sunoco livery which was able to challenge the 917, taking pole position several times.