Friday 23rd February 2018

Ferrari 312PB: Pic of the Week

A stunning and successful Ferrari race car, and not a halo device in sight...

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This week saw the unveiling of Ferrari's latest track-focussed road car, the aptly named 488 Pista - or Track, to you and and me. It also saw the opening of applications for places on our Le Mans Classic campsite, the biennial event already precipitating a great deal of giddy excitement in PH Towers, with much daydreaming of warm summer evenings, cold, tasty beverages and beautiful, sonorous machines.

So what could be a better candidate for Pic of the Week than a track-based Ferrari, of the vintage that might well be on display at La Sarthe this July, stretching its legs on that very same circuit. This particular car is a 312PB, featuring an aluminium monocoque with a steel spaceframe front and rear and powered by a 3.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-12. It was incredibly successful, winning every World Sportscar Championship race in which it was entered in 1972 and claiming the championship for the prancing horse.

Having been driven by such luminaries as Ronnie Peterson, Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni and Mario Andretti, it was a beloved car. "I have great memories of driving it," recalled Andretti. "You could throw it around like a Formula 1 car. It was small and nimble and we won a bunch of races in that car." Unfortunately the end of the 1973 season saw the car mothballed, as Ferrari reaffirmed its focus on Formula One and left sports car racing altogether - but the 312PB's legend had already been cemented.

16:10
16:9
Quad HD
4K

[Source: Motorsport Magazine, LAT Photo]

 

[CDP]

I love this style of racing car. Light and relatively simple with a form derived entirely from function.

These and the simply mad CanAm cars are sorely missed.

[castex]

Fabulous!

[BVB]

Ferrari may abandon F1 with all it's limitations, and return a full works team to WEC..... I personally think that would be pretty cool.

[ggdrew]

Then, just for the record, this shot is the 1973 Le Mans 24h, car #16 driven by Arturo Merzario and Carlos Pace to 2nd place overall, Pace driving at this point.

Long-tail LM bodywork was unique for the race.

The pic location looks like the end of the Mulsanne straight just about to turn-in to Mulsanne Corner, or .. could it be turning in to the slow 90deg at Arnage?... LowDrag?

Edited by ggdrew on Friday 2nd March 18:37

[Dinoboy]

Love it!

[ggdrew]

I think you'll love it even more if you listen the first 25 seconds of this P@trolicious film about the 312PB..

312PB awesome sound ... it's hard-core F1 engine sound

This was the end of privateers like David Piper being able to afford to race a Ferrari prototype. A spare set of the 12 titanium rods was $10,000 .. in 1972.

Edited by ggdrew on Friday 2nd March 19:04

[anonymous-user]

What a glorious racket!

[Dinoboy]

ggdrew said:

I think you'll love it even more if you listen the first 25 seconds of this P@trolicious film about the 312PB..

312PB awesome sound ... it's hard-core F1 engine sound

This was the end of privateers like David Piper being able to afford to race a Ferrari prototype. A spare set of the 12 titanium rods was $10,000 .. in 1972.

Edited by ggdrew on Friday 2nd March 19:04

They do sound epic!

[Rocket.]

Peak 'Ferrari' era for me, they will always be known by most as an F1 team but sportsracing cars as per the 312, 512m and later on the 333 SP are where it's at.

[coppice]

My biggest regret is never having seen the Targa Florio - can you imagine one of these (and a Porsche 908 or two , an Alfa T33 (not the stty hatchback) and sundry Lolas and Abarths ) screaming through a sleepy Sicilian hamlet , cheered on by the locals ?

[CanAm]

Not to mention this beast