 Ferrari 512 S | |
| Category | Group 5 sports car |
|---|---|
| Constructor | Ferrari |
| Designers | Mauro Forghieri Giacomo Caliri Gioacchino Colombo |
| Technical specifications[1] | |
| Chassis | Steel tubespace frame with rivetedaluminium panels |
| Suspension (front) | Double wishbone, outboardcoil spring/Konidamper,anti-roll bar |
| Suspension (rear) | Single top-link, reversed lowerwishbone, twinradius arms, outboardcoil spring/Konidamper,anti-roll bar |
| Axle track | 1,518 mm (59.8 in) front 1,511 mm (59.5 in) rear |
| Wheelbase | 2,400 mm (94.5 in) |
| Engine | Ferrari 4,993.53 cc (304.7 cu in)DOHC, 48-valve, 60°V12,naturally-aspirated,mid-mounted |
| Transmission | Ferrari 5-speedmanual |
| Power | 404 kW (550 hp) @ 8500 rpm (512 S),[2] 449 kW (610 hp) @ 9000 rpm (512 M)[3] |
| Weight | 815–840 kg (1,796.8–1,851.9 lb) |
| Brakes | Girlingdisc brakes |
| Tyres | Firestone 90-24-15 front 14.5-26.2-15 rear |
| Clutch | Borg & Beck dry twin-plate |
| Competition history | |
| Notable entrants |  Scuderia Ferrari Team Penske (512 M) |
| Debut | 1970 24 Hours of Daytona |
| First win | 1970 12 Hours of Sebring |
Ferrari 512 S was asports prototype car produced by Italian manufacturerFerrari from late 1969 to 1970. As it name suggests, the car had a 5.0LV12 engine, and was homologated as a Group 4 Sportscar of which a total number of 25 units had to be made. Porsche had already done the same in April 1969 with thePorsche 917, while other Sportscars in the 5-litre class,Ferrari 250 LM,Ford GT40 Mk.I,Lola T70, had been built mainly in 1964, 1965 or 1967.
Several 512S were entered in the1970 International Championship for Makes[4][5] by the factoryScuderia Ferrari and private teams. Later that year, modified versions resembling their main competitor, thePorsche 917, were calledFerrari 512 M (formodificata). In the1971 International Championship for Makes, the factory focused on the newFerrari 312 PB and abandoned the 512 which was only entered by privateers. From 1972 onwards, the 512 (as the 917) was withdrawn from the world championship following a change in the regulations; some 512s in private hands went on to compete in theCan-Am andInterserie races.
In the mid 1960s, Ferrari had competed in sports prototype racing with theFerrari P series of 4-litre V12 cars, winning the Le Mans consecutively until 1965. Only very few of the works cars, named 330P4 in 1967, had been handed over to customers teams, often with a simplified engine and named 412P. In 1966 and 1967, theFord GT40 Mk.II and Mk.IV won Le Mans, using a 7.0-litre engine, and achieving speeds considered too high by the rule makers of FIA/CSI. For 1968, the rules were changed limitingGroup 6 prototypes to a maximum engine capacity of 3.0 litres, as in Formula One. Despite having a suitable engine, Ferrari sat out the 1968 season, to return in 1969 with theFerrari 312 P. For that year, Porsche had taken full advantage of the Group 4 rules, like they already had done in 1966 with making at least 50Porsche 906 and later 25Porsche 910, as they were sure they could sell these 2-litre-cars to customers, while Ferrari had failed to built more than 18 of theDino 206 S which this never earned the S. In late 1968, Porsche made the risky investment of developing and building 25 examples of the 4.5-litrePorsche 917 to allow homologation into theFIA'sGroup 4 (5 in 1970) sports car category for 1969.
The Sportscar racing world was surprised by the 917. It surely would be a force until 1971, for three seasons. Already being in the process of selling half of his business toFiat,Enzo Ferrari diverted a part of these funds to match the Porsche investment. While Porsche already delivered 917, additional 512S cars were intended to be sold to racing customers, which meant 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 engine of the 512 S was a completely new 60° V12 with 560 PS (412 kW) output.[6] Compared to Porsche's air-cooled flat-12, it needed a maze of cooling pipes and a heavy radiator. Since the chassis was of 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 512 S and Porsche 917 seemed fairly evenly matched.
At the beginning of 1970 the Ferrari 512s were hampered by predictable early problems, including a weak suspension and transmission problems, 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 laterMartini Racing all received direct factory support, in the form of loaned cars. Thus, at least four cars were real works cars, without putting travelling strain on the factory itself, as racing personnel and funds were provided by these professional teams. And even the privateers like AAW Shell Racing andDavid 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 FerrariSEFAC". Having only a few Formula One drivers under contract in the previous years, with the sports car aces since 1966 driving in a fleet of Porsches, Ferrari could barely find qualified drivers for its entries. Besides the factory cars, there were the private cars ofScuderia 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.
Early in the 1970 season, Ferrari won the1970 12 Hours of Sebring, but the Porsche 917 and the additionalPorsche 908/03 at twisty tracks took the remaining nine wins of the championship season. At the1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Ferrari suffered from reliability problems, although it was considered to be equally fast to the 917.[citation needed] Four 512s were entered by Ferrari for that race, but the Vaccarella/Giunti car was out after seven laps, the Merzario/Regazzoni car was out after 38 laps and the Bell/Peterson car was out a lap later, and about five hours later the Ickx/Schetty car was out after 142 laps. For speed tracks such as Le Mans, Spa, Monza and theÖsterreichring, an extra long rear body panel was fitted on the car.
The modified 512 M had proven to be fast at the end of the season, and Ickx/Giunti also won[7] theKyalami 9 Hours non-championship Springbok nine-hours race. As the permit for the five litre sports cars expired after 1971, Ferrari decided to abandon factory entries of the 512 in favor of developing a new three litre prototype, theFerrari 312 PB.
In 1971, Penske entered an improved 512 M (No. 1040) inSunoco livery which was able to challenge the 917, taking pole position several times. The main competition for Porsche came fromAlfa Romeo Tipo 33, though.
Just in time for the 24h of Daytona, Ferrari in January 1970 presented the required number of 25 512 S, as 17 complete cars and eight assembly kits, to the homologation authorities. Of those cars, fitted with the traditional even chassis numbers, ranging from 1002[8] to 1050, 19 were raced in 1970, five of them beingspyders. Unlike Porsche, which built over 50 917s in total, Ferrari could not use up or sell off all cars.
The only 512 chassis winning major races in 1970 were No. 1026 (Sebring) and No. 1010 (Kyalami).
A number of the 25 cars manufactured for the 1970 season were not raced that year. Number 1020 was converted to 512 M specifications at the end of the season and sold to NART, which entered it in competition in 1971. Number 1024 remained unsold in 1970, was transformed into a 512 M and sold one year later to the Scuderia Brescia Corse. Car number 1036 was used as test car by the racing division of Ferrari; later it was sold to Solar Productions forSteve McQueen'sLe Mans, also known asFrench Kiss with Death. Lastly, number 1036 was converted to an open-top version and raced in Can-Am in 1974.
Car 1040, sold to Chris Cord and Steve Earle, was entered in 1971 by Penske at Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans and Watkins Glen, setting the pole positions at the American tracks. Number 1048 was sold as a test car to Scuderia Filipinetti and was not raced in 1970. Car number 1050 was sold to Corrado Manfredini (but only as chassis plus body); after it was combined with parts of Nos. 1022 and 1032, it was transformed into a 512 M and campaigned in 1971.
In total, the factory team used nine cars for international endurance racing. TheScuderia Filipinetti (Switzerland,Herbert Müller) and NART raced two cars each. Écurie Francorchamps (Belgian importer of Ferrari), Escuderia Montjuich (Spain), Gelo Racing Team (Germany) and Picchio Rosso raced one car each. After the 1022, bought by the last team, was destroyed at the24 Hours of Daytona, they would use the 1032.
During the 1970 race season several other Ferraris 512 Ss were destroyed. That was the case with the 1012 spyder after its crash at practice for theADAC1000km Nürburgring. Car number 1026, having been raced as factory car No. 7 byDerek Bell andRonnie Peterson at the 1970Le Mans 24 hours, was destroyed at the hands of Derek Bell during theLe Mans film production. Chassis number 1032 was subject of controversy in the 1980s, and evenChristie's was involved. On the reconversion of the 1032 into a 512 M parts were used to rebuild it on the 1050 chassis.
One chassis and V12 engine was used by Pininfarina for theFerrari Modulo.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ferrari 512" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Compared which Porsche which, from the mid-1960s, strived to align with the top sports car drivers of that era, Ferrari's Mauro Forghieri could not count exclusively on top racers in their quest to win the1970 International Championship for Makes, as Ferrari had abandoned sports car racing after 1967, save for few entries in 1969.Clay Regazzoni andJacky Ickx, who had returned fromBrabham, were Ferrari's F1 men for 1970, but as endurance racing typically requires two drivers per car, at least six more drivers were needed to enter four cars, to match the four or more Porsche factory-backed entries. Also, Alfa Romeo entered factory prototype cars, and competed for drivers and other personnel.
Starting the season, former Ferrari works driverPedro Rodríguez had been lost to Porsche's JWA Gulf Racing ofJohn Wyer, and to BRM in F1, while another former works racer,Chris Amon was now involved in F1 withMarch, just likeMario Andretti.
It was scheduled that Regazzoni, Ickx,Ignazio Giunti, Peter Schetty,Nino Vaccarella andArturo Merzario should race as many rounds as possible. Only Vaccarella and Schetty were free from F1 obligations. Although fast, they were not such typical all-rounders asJo Siffert,Brian Redman,Vic Elford,Hans Herrmann and Pedro Rodriguez (of them Siffert raced in F1 for March and Rodriguez raced F1 for BRM, but had not the same heavy testing duties as most other F1 racers), who all could drive, for example, the ultra-fastSpa-Francorchamps in a 917K just as competently as they could drive the twisty, winding Targa Florio course in a 908/03. Ferrari only entered one car in the Targa Florio, driven by Giunti and Vaccarella, whereas Porsche entered 4 cars in the event and won it easily in 1970. Although all of the Ferrari drivers were just as capable, they were not as available as the Porsche drivers. Vaccarella was "the man of the rocky mountains" at theTarga Florio and Schetty was the specialist ofhillclimbing racing where Porsche was also a dominant factor until discontinuing factory efforts in the late 1970s. Derek Bell andJackie Oliver were also unavailable at most endurance races, since they drove F1 forBrabham andBRM.John Surtees, who had quit Ferrari in 1966 after an argument with Eugenio Dragoni, returned for the races inMonza, Spa and at theNürburgring.
Whilst JWA Gulf, KG Salzburg and Martini Racing could count on stable pairings for the whole season, Ferrari's race directorMauro Forghieri had to change his pairings over and over. Eventually his top racer Mario Andretti could only be present for the three American rounds (Daytona,Sebring andWatkins Glen). In total 12 different drivers were seen in 1970 at the wheel of a factory 512 S. Of them the promising Ignazio Giunti did nine of the ten rounds, being only absent at the BOAC 1000 km. Merzario and Vaccarella made seven entries, Ickx and Schetty six of the ten. Only Vaccarella and Surtees were 35 years old or older. Except for Clay Regazzoni (31), all others were younger than 30 years, with Ickx (25), Peterson (26), Merzario (27) and Bell (28). Peterson was only hired for Le Mans, a serious mistake by Forghieri who should have offered him a full year contract.
Another handicap for Ferrari was its full season commitment to F1 racing, so that the 512 S cars did not receive full technical help at all times. Ickx finished second in the F1 World Championship and won three races, while Regazzoni finished third and won once. Both failed to surpass the points tally of lateJochen Rindt, who had a fatal accident during practice for the1970 Italian Grand Prix.
Of the 12 works racers on Ferrari 512 S in 1970, nine were still alive in the 2000s.Ignazio Giunti was killed inBuenos Aires in January 1971, driving the brand new Ferrari 312PB. He was leading the 19711000 km Buenos Aires race when he collided with theMatra whichJean-Pierre Beltoise was attempting to push back to the pits after running out of fuel. Giunti sustained injuries from which he would not survive.Ronnie Peterson, who started his F1 career in 1971, died from injuries that occurred during the1978 Italian Grand Prix start. Regazzoni, having been paralyzed from the waist down following an accident at the1980 United States Grand Prix West, died in a car accident in Italy on 15 December 2006.
