Top Gear's coolest racing cars: Ferrari 512 S (and M)

There are no hard and fast rules on this, and much depends on when you were born and what shaped your world during your formative years. But TG.com isn’t exactly sticking its neck out here if we nominate the five years that straddle the fag end of the 1960s and early ’70s as the greatest era in sports car racing. Quite simply, this was a time when the coolest drivers competed in the coolest cars, in an era for the sport when the big players – rule-makers and manufacturers alike – were really starting to get their shizzle together.

Which brings us to this week’s entry, a car whose ‘cool’ is out of all proportion to its achievements on the track. Not that this matters. Ferrari’s 512 S has at least three vital things going for it. Firstly, it’s a Ferrari. Secondly, it looks exactly like a long-haul competition Ferrari that arrived in 1970 should look – a semi-scientific, semi-improvised balance between beauty, function and madness. And, best of all, it was powered by a 5.0-litre V12, a screaming banshee of a thing that produced 550bhp at 8500rpm. 

Images copyright Ferrari SpA

At this point, I’d urge you to seek out footage of a 512 S doing its thing. Forget Kim Kardashian’s bottom or cats falling down holes, this is what the internet’s really for.

The 512 was one of Ferrari’s last big factory plays in the sports car arena before focusing its attention exclusively on Formula One. In 1969, Maranello had its plate full: that year’s F1 contender, the 312, was a donkey (it would be the back end of 1970 before the great Jacky Ickx would start winning with its successor, the 312B), and there was also the ferocious 612 Can-Am car to worry about, too. (Not to mention the small matter of Fiat’s 50 per cent acquisition of the company – Ferrari needed to secure his often perilous finances.) But with Porsche on the case with the 917 – which exploited a loophole in the new rules that permitted Group 4 cars to use a 5.0-litre engine so long as at least 25 were manufactured – meant that Ferrari had to get cracking with the 512 S if it wanted to stay in the game. 

Images copyright Ferrari SpA

The resourceful, charismatic Mauro Forghieri was tasked with developing the car, which effectively reworked the 312P’s semi-monocoque, steel spaceframe chassis, and used double wishbones and coil-overs on all four corners. Some of the body panels were aluminium, while the ones at the rear of the car were in a lightweight and new-fangled polycarbonate – so new-fangled, in fact, that Ferrari and its usual suppliers lacked the expertise to make them, prompting them to sub-contract the work to a boat manufacturer called Cigala Bertinetti. All in all, the 512 S went from drawing board to its press presentation at a local Emilian restaurant in December 1969 in just over three months…

Images copyright Ferrari SpA

The following month, the 25 cars stipulated under the rules were presented to the FIA’s officials, in both Spider and Berlinetta form, and despite an almost total lack of testing, the car rocked up at Daytona about three weeks later. Amazing, when you think about it. More amazing still, Mario Andretti – the rising American hotshoe who would be an F1 world champion before the decade was out – would stick the 512 S on pole. Obviously a quick car, then. Less surprising was the failure of four of the five Ferraris entered to finish, although Andretti (co-driving with Jacky Ickx and Arturo Merzario – just about the coolest driver line-up you could imagine) still managed a podium finish (albeit a distant 48 laps behind the winning Porsche 917, and not that far ahead of the NART-run and much less powerful Ferrari 312P). Then there was the false dawn at the 12 Hours of Sebring, where Andretti (this time driving with Ignazio Giunti and Nino Vaccarella) won – Mario switched from his car when it retired with a broken transmission while leading. There were two non-championship wins, in Japan and South Africa, and though no fewer than 11 512 Ss contested Le Mans in 1970 – four works entries, seven in the hands of privateers, including a more aero-efficient Coda Lunga evolution – four of them were eliminated when they tripped over each other at Maison Blanche. Disaster. And a disaster compounded by virtue of Porsche locking out the podium – the 917 taking Porsche’s first overall win at Le Mans. (Steve McQueen was in town making his grand cinematic folly, Le Mans, coincidentally. An immolated 512 S would feature in the movie.)

Images copyright Ferrari SpA

A trip back to the drawing board resulted in the 512 M, a less attractive but more efficient car that was contested primarily by privateers throughout 1971. The best-known of these was run by Roger Penske, whose Sunoco-sponsored car – while not rosso corsa – is arguably the most celebrated of all Ferrari 512s, not least because US engine specialist Traco managed to ramp the power output up to 640bhp. It also featured a much bigger rear wing, and a rapid refuelling system. With Mark Donohue and David Hobbs driving, the Penske 512 M took pole at Daytona and finished third, pole again at Sebring and finished sixth, but had a DNF at Le Mans. Penske could have used some support from Ferrari, but none was forthcoming. Ferrari could be funny that way. 

Images copyright Ferrari SpA

The 512’s career was therefore abbreviated; in 1972, Ferrari fielded the 312PB, powered by a 3.0-litre flat-12, as a works-only effort. (Privateers raced competition versions of the 365 GTB/4.) And after 1973, that was that for Maranello as a front-line contender in endurance racing, at least until the 333SP appeared two decades later. For now, though, we wait.

Years: 1970-1971

Drivers: Mario Andretti, Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx, Arturo Merzario, Mark Donohue, Pedro Rodriguez, David Hobbs, Alain de Cadanet

Engine: 5.0-litre V12, 550bhp

Performance: 0-62mph 3.3 seconds, 195mph top speed

Weight: 840kg

Stand-out moment: pole position on its race debut at Daytona in 1970

Images copyright Ferrari SpA