1965 Ferrari 1512

Ferrari built three of these cars 40 years ago and never used the engine again. If you blew it up, it would be a very long walk home

by Thor Thorson

In an attempt to curb the ever-increasing speeds of Formula One, engine regulations were changed in 1961 to a maximum capacity of 1.5 liters. By the time more generous three-liter rules were established for 1966, manufacturers had designed some wonderful and potent small-capacity engines, which were mated to incredibly nimble chassis. Ferrari’s 1512 is regarded as technically without compare. It was the first flat-12 engine produced by Ferrari’s engineer Mauro Fogheiri, an incredible exotic with 24 spark plugs, four distributors, four ignition coils, and fuel injection. Whilst power initially was not immense, the flat twelve had an incredibly low center of gravity, which made for significantly improved handling. As the Coventry-Climax V8s of Jim Clark and others were gaining in horsepower over the 1964–65 seasons, what the 1512 really needed was more power. By the Grand Prix at Monza in September 1965, Ferrari introduced a significantly improved 1512...