Ferrari 512S

The Ferrari 512 was a sports car, related to the Ferrari P series of sports prototypes. It was raced in 1970 and 1971, then withdrawn from competition following a change in the regulations.

Ferrari used to race with Prototypes (see Ferrari P) until the rules were changed for 1968. In 1969, Ferrari decided to do what Porsche did six months earlier with the Porsche 917, that is, building 25 5.0 L cars at once to be homologated as sports car prototypes. With the financial help of Fiat, that risky investment was made, and surplus cars were intended to be sold to racing customers.

The motor of the 512S was a total new V12 with 560 PS (412 kW) output. Compared to Porsche’s flat-12 monster, it had the disadvantage of not being air-cooled, so 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, the Ferrari 512S and Porsche 917 were theoretically fairly even 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 had already six months of equally mixed experience with its 917 in 1969 should be decisive for the rest of the season.

Contrary to Porsche, Ferrari did not organise an intramural competition. 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 candidate for a win. At Porsche, however, JWA Gulf, KG Salzburg and Martini Racing, received all direct factory support. All those cars were real works cars. And even the privateers like AAW Shell Racing and David Piper Racing received a much better support than Ferrari’s clients.