The First Fiberglass Ferrari

The aerodynamic 1971 512 M was the fastest car Ferrari had ever built, capable of speeds in excess of 235 mph

by Thor Thorson

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In 1968, the rules for sports car racing were changed, limiting Group 6 prototypes to a maximum 3-liter engine capacity. For the 1970 season, Ferrari decided to do what Porsche had done earlier with the 917; that is, build 25 examples of a 5-liter car to allow homologation into the FIA's Group 5 sports car category (renamed from Group 4 for 1970).

Ferrari's 512 S represented yet another attempt by a manufacturer to thwart the homologation rules laid down by the Commission Sportive Internationale. It was a practice the CSI tried hard to avoid: Manufacturers would build prototype racers, produce them in the required quantities, and then fit them with lights, horns, and spare wheels, ostensibly to look like a road car. In reality, the 512 was the fastest car Ferrari had ever built, capable of speeds in excess of 235 mph.

Assembly of the first 512s began at the end of 1969. The chassis was similar to the one used on the P4. The engine was a direct development of the 612 CanAm series unit, now fitted with twin overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, and Lucas indirect fuel injection. All of the completed chassis were originally built in berlinetta configuration, but then modified as open cars. The 512's competition debut took place when five identical cars lined up for the Daytona 24-Hour race on January 31, 1970. Mario Andretti put the 512 S on pole position, but in the race, the Porsche 917s led throughout. Only one 512 S survived the race, finishing a remarkable third.

After Le Mans, the Mauro Forghieri-led development team started to work on a slimmed-down and more powerful version of the 512 S. Called the 512 M (for Modificato), the revised car produced 620 hp and weighed 1,793 lb, compared to the 512 S Spyder's 1,883 lb. Bodywork revisions included a more aerodynamic nose and a large airbox mounted on top of the engine to force air into the intake trumpets. Further modifications included new rear bodywork, and no spyder version was available. Fifteen of the 25 512 Ss were converted to M-spec.

The SCM Analysis

This car sold for $3,234,275 at RM's Maranello sale on May 18, 2008.

It's all Porsche's fault. In 1967, the CSI was unhappy with how fast the cars were going under the existing unlimited engine size rule, so they changed the formula for Group 6 Prototypes to 3-liter engine displacement and no production requirement. This solved the speed problem but created another; now there weren't enough cars to fill the racing grid and put on a show. So they added Group 4 Competition Sports Cars—cars with 5-liter engines and a minimum of 50 produced.

This allowed the Ford GT40s, Lola T70 coupes, and Ferrari 250 LMs to continue filling the grids, but still excluded the lower-production racers. The following year, 1968, was disappointing, with few Group 6 entries and small grids comprised mostly of earlier Group 4 cars with 5-liter engines. Trying to expand the entry lists, CSI dropped Group 4 production requirements to 25 cars, primarily to accommodate Porsche's 910 and Alfa's T33. With these additional Group 4 cars filling out the grids and Ferrari's new 312P joining Porsche's 908 in Group 6, 1969 started out working pretty much the way the CSI had hoped.

As history knows well, though, Porsche had another plan. On April 20, 1969, Porsche publicly rolled out 25 Type 917s, fully legal Group 4 Competition Sports Cars (but effectively 4.5-liter Group 6 Prototypes). Nobody saw them coming. It was immediately apparent that the rules of engagement had been changed and success through 1971 was going to require a 5-liter car.

Ferrari had the resources to respond

Like the others, Ferrari was caught completely by surprise, but for once had the resources to respond. Fiat had just bought Ferrari, so there was some capital to work with, and what better use for it than to defend Italian glory against the Germans? The 512 project was immediately started so cars would be ready for the 1970 season.

The 312 P that Ferrari had fielded in 1969 for Group 6 was a jewel of a car, effectively a two-seat 3-liter Formula One car with an engine detuned for distance racing.