Views

Back in the early-1960s, Ferrari – with great reluctance – was weaned
away from traditional front-engined racing car configurations, and developed
instead a new range of ‘mid’ or ‘rear-engined’ designs. Always wary
of the technically conservative attitudes of their boss, Enzo, the Maranello
engineers began cautiously. To avoid creating a rear-engined car which
pushed its driver too far forward into the front suspension bay, they began
with ‘three-cylinders-long’ V6 engines in 1960-61. Maserati perhaps
shamed Maranello by biting the bullet, and immediately launching a
3-litre V12-cylinder rear-engined sports-prototype, the Tipo 63, in 1961.
In contrast to the powerful, nimble-handling Ferrari Dino 246SP V6, the rival
Maserati with its ‘six-cylinders-long’ V12 engine confirmed much of Mr
Ferrari’s prejudice: tail-heavy, oversteering and pretty much a pendulum
looking for somewhere to have an accident.
But for 1963, the Old Man of Maranello signed up two new British recruits
for his works racing team. Both had considerable experience of taming
rear-engined car designs. One was driver/engineer John Surtees – the
former seven-times motorcycling World Champion – and the other was
engineer/driver Michael Parkes. They had no fears of developing a rear-engined
V12 sports-prototype, and through the winter of 1962-63 they did
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just that with the Maranello factory’s chief engineer Mauro Forghieri and
his colleagues. The result was the 3-litre Ferrari 250P sports-prototype –
with a V12 engine behind its driver – and this model immediately proved
totally dominant in 1963 Sports Car World Championship racing.
But meanwhile, Ford of Detroit had been negotiating feverishly to
buy Ferrari, eager to pocket ready-made racing credibility to impress and
attract the moneyed new youth market freshly identified by America’s
marketeers. Old Man Ferrari strung them along just long enough to win
alternative patriotic funding from Fiat of Turin. Ford, rebuffed, then opted
to beat Ferrari at his own game – in the endurance racing arena up to and
including the most prestigious sports car race of each year, the Le Mans
24-Hours. Their Ford GT sports-prototype programme was launched initially
to confront Ferrari’s 3-litre-plus V12s with American 4.2 and 4.7-litre
V8s. In support, American company Shelby was encouraged to confront
Ferrari in what The Old Man always regarded as the important Grand
Touring Car Championship – developing 4.7-litre V8-engined Coupes
to crush the established – and thus far dominant – line of 3-litre front-
engined GTO Berlinettas.