A Ferrari is a ???? Cylinder Car

    I ran across an article the other day and thought “Is it still true?”

    Having access to all the Ferrari information in the world at my fingertips, in file cabinets, from the files and magazines I’ve scanned into the computer on my desk and, of course, the internet, I thought this cannot still be true.

    So, what was it that started this quest to determine if the information was still correct?

    Founder Gerald Roush wrote the article for the April 4th, 1981, issue of the Ferrari Market Letter, Volume 6, Number 7, “A Ferrari is a ???? Cylinder Car”.

    It was the title that caught my eye. Ferrari has made engines in quite a variety of cylinders and configurations. I am familiar with almost all of them. What bit of knowledge could I learn from this ancient history?

    I’ll let you decide.

    I bring you the original article as written forty-four years ago:

    Supposedly it was Enzo Ferrari himself who made the remark (to Ferrari development engineer and race driver Michael Parkes) that “a Ferrari is a twelve-cylinder automobile.”

    Another perhaps apocryphal story concerns the American automotive journalist who, upon seeing the then new Dino 308 GT4, humorously chided a Ferrari engineer for building a V-8 engined car “just like the Americans”.

    The factory employee supposedly had the scribe carefully examine the car from all angles and then retorted “show me where it says Ferrari on this car.”

    The argument can go on to all hours at any gathering of the Ferrari faithful. Are the only “real” Ferraris the V-12 engined examples?

    In the beginning there were only V-12 Ferraris (if the pre-Ferrari Vettura 815 is not considered), and the fabulous V-12 engine is still in production today, in the 400i, some 35 years after the first Ferrari V-12 was built.

    Over those 35 years the V-12 has come in a wide variety of sizes, from 1.5-litre to 7-litre, and complexities, from two-stage supercharged with dual overhead camshafts to single carburetted single overhead camshaft.

    There is no disputing the fact that prior to 1973 and the advent of the 365 GT4/BB all production Ferraris (i.e. those with odd serial numbers) were equipped with V-12 engines.

    Despite all of this experience with the V-12, Ferrari has never won the World Championship of Drivers nor the companion Formula One Manufacturer Championship with a V-12 engined car!

    The first World Champion Driver for Ferrari was Alberto Ascari, who won the title in 1952 and again in 1953 using an in-line four-cylinder Ferrari.

    Juan Manuel Fangio won it in 1956 in the V-8 Lancia-Ferrari; Mike Hawthorn in 1958 in a front engine V-6 Dino; Phil Hill in 1961 in a rear engine V-6; John Surtees in 1964 in a rear-engined V-8; Niki Lauda in 1975 and 1977 in a Boxer 12; and Jody Scheckter in 1979 again in a Boxer 12.

    The V-12 engined Formula One Ferraris—and there have been quite a few of them over the years—were never of championship quality.

    But before writing off the V-12 as a championship engine, in favor of the in-line four/V-6/V-8 engines, lets look at the International Championship for Makes.

    When this was known as the “Sports Car Championship”, from 1953 through 1961, Ferrari won it no less than seven times—1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, and 1961.

    In 1956 the championship was won by victories in both the V-12 and in-line four engine cars, while in 1960 and 1961 a V-6 Ferrari was the best finisher from Maranello in the rugged Targa Florio.

    All of the other championship points were won by V-12 engined Ferraris. When the championship was split in 1962 into a Prototype and Grand Touring category, Ferrari won the latter championship the first three years with V-12s.

    In the Prototype category Ferrari won in 1962, 1963, 1965, and 1967. Again V-12 engined cars accounted for most of the wins, with the V-6s taking two first places in the 1962 campaign and first Ferrari home in the 1963 Targa Florio.

    In 1972 Ferrari came back to dominate the “Manufacturers Championship” with the 312 P Boxer 12-cylinder.

    The argument could be continued, in favor of either the V-12 or the non V-12, by looking at other less prestigious championships—Hillclimbs, the Tasman and Temporada series, SCCA racing in the U.S.A.

    Then there are the production figures. True, Ferrari may not have produced any production cars without V-12s in the early years, but of late they have been making up for lost time.

    Some quick calculations using serial number ranges will show that total production V-8s now easily exceeds total production V-12s, with over 4,000 production V-6s thrown in for good measure—and don’t forget the few but mighty Boxer 12s!

    How many cylinders in a Ferrari engine? Take your pick—four, six, eight, or twelve. And don’t forget the experimental engines, from a two cylinder to a trial W-18!

 

Comments: 

    Surely things must have changed in the intervening forty years.

    Since 1981, Ferrari won the 1982 and 1983 Constructors’ Championship, but that was using a turbocharged V-6, the 126C2 and 126C2B respectively.

    While not a V-12, this engine did have a configuration that is very familiar today. The engine was a 120 degree V-6 with two turbos. It produced about 600 HP and with further development nearly 800 HP. 

    You only have to look at the 296 GTB of today and see the similarities between the 1982 F1 technology and the 2021 production car.

    A long dry spell in championships was finally broken in 1999 when Michael Schumacher helped to win six Constructors’ Championships in a row.

    In the between years the V-6 became less and less competitive and in 1988 the turbocharged engine was banned. Ferrari developed a normally aspirated 3.5-liter V-12.

    The next several years saw Honda and then Renault come out on top with a V-10 configuration. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

    By 1996 Ferrari had hired Japanese engineers to develop their own V-10 engine. It would be this V-10 that would finally bring the Constructors’ Championship back to Ferrari.

    It was this engine that propelled the Schumacher years, but it was no V-12.

    In 2006 the engine formula was changed and had to be a 2.4-liter V-8. Ferrari developed the engine, and it was good enough to win back-to-back Constructors’ Championships in 2007 and 2008.

    But, again, it was no V-12. Today the engines used in Formula One are a 1.6-liter V-6 and chances are there will never be another V-12 engine in a Formula One chassis.

    To add to Gerald Roush’s article from 1981, Ferrari has won the Constructors’ Championship with a wide variety of engine designs: an in-line 4-cylinder, front V-6 and rear engine V-6, V8 (twice in different eras), a V-10 and a flat-12, but never with the engine Ferrari is famous for.

    Ferrari had built more V-6 and V-8 production cars by 1981 than all the V-12 cars that came before. Today the numbers are even greater. The majority of Ferraris manufactured in the last four decades have been of the V-8 variety.

    Will we see even more of the V-6 as used in the 296? I would think so.

    Just as a 60-degree V-12 is perfectly balanced, so is a 120-degree V-6. From an engineering standpoint it doesn’t get better than that when attempting to create a smooth running engine.

    The engine Ferrari is famous for, the V-12? The one that created the Ferrari legend? The one that won so many sports car races? That heritage is still alive and well.

    While the non 12-cylinder cars may make up the bulk of production, Ferrari has never strayed away from it’s roots.

    The 550 Maranello through the 599 GTB all carried the V-12. More recently the F12berlinetta and 812 Superfast have led the way to the 12Cilindri.

    The V-12 engine still is the pinnacle of Ferrari ownership. There is, and aways has been, something special about a twelve-cylinder engine, whether it is in a 166 Barchetta or the newest 12Cilindri.

    Long live the V-12!

 

 

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    As I was developing this issue I did not realize it has been fifteen years since Gerald Roush left us.

    Cathy sent me a note to remind me of this sad anniversary.

    Maybe Gerald was guiding my thoughts as I was brain-storming this week’s article.

    Gerald passed away in 2010 at the age of 68 and I am soon to reach 70 myself.

    There would not be a Ferrari Market Letter if not for Gerald Roush and I am proud to carry the torch forward.

        FerrariMarketLetter.com