The beauty of 1046 at Monterey 2004. Marcel Massini Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
True art has no value other than appreciation, and these are as pretty as your previous photos and comments. Thank you so much for sharing.
Derek Bell in the Ecurie Francorchamps 512 S at the 1000 km of Spa. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
At the official unveiling of the 512 S, on November 6th 1969 @ Ristorante Gatto Verde, the men behind the machine: Engineers Walter Salvarani (gearbox), Giacomo Caliri (chassis), Franco Rocchi, Giancarlo Bussi (engine), Giovanni Marelli, Giuseppe Dondo and Mauro Forghieri. Image Unavailable, Please Login Still at the official unveiling, Engineer Giovanni Marelli with drivers Clay Regazzoni, Arturo Merzario, Vittorio Brambilla and Peter Schetty. Image Unavailable, Please Login Rare picture of Ronnie Peterson and Mauro Forghieri, at a test with a 512 S. (He never drove the car in a race.) Image Unavailable, Please Login
512 S Official Owners Manual: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Shared with Derek Bell, Ronnie qualified 7th. Retired on lap 39 with a broken valve (?) Seen here followed by Jo Bonnier/Reine Wisell's Scuderia Filipinetti entered similar car, that car retired on lap 36 after a collision. http://www.ointres.se/rp_70_ferrari_le_mans.JPG
Image Unavailable, Please Login The car was eliminated indirectly by a multi car pile up that cost our side FOUR 512S Coda Lunga, the biggest disaster that Ferrari ever had at Le Mans. It happened around 18h, 18h30 a couple of hours after the start when Regazzoni was disturbed by another car (IIRC an Alfa driven by de Adamich or Wisell in another 512) at the very narrow, fast and dangerous original maison blanche section (cancelled after 71 by the entirely new Porsche curves circuit portion elevated above a local road) one of them had oil on his windshield, slowed down abruptly which caused a chain reaction. This caused three 512's to wreck including two Filipinetti cars, one driven entirely by Swedes: Bonnier/Wisell, one by Muller/Parkes and eliminated two factory Ferraris: Bell/Peterson and Regazzoni/Merzario. Derek in the middle of all this managed not to touch or be hit by anyone but buzzed his engine (over revved it) in the panic and it failed minutes later. He confirmed that himself. A total disaster. When I visited David Piper in Bagshot UK in 1982 at the ripe old age of 18 he showed me a 512S and then he said let me show you a video, it was the bits of film not used in the movie Le Mans, fantastic footage and in it was in car camera of the 908 the production company used in the real race, the Porsche driving through the aftermath of the carnage...so sad...I have urged David to share that never before seen footage but he can't be bothered. Here is a rare photo of Ronnie Peterson in the factory 512 braking for Arnage corner I assume. It is the only time he did Le Mans apart I think of some practice in a Corvette the year before. Meanwhile totally unrelated if not for underlining a really bad day for Maranello, Vaccarella/ Giunti's factory 512 had lasted SEVEN laps before engine failure....Ickx Schetty's factory entry still had a chance to win but then tragically there was the Ickx aquaplaning crash at 1h30 in the morning in which a marshall was killed...
Janos Wimpffen in Time and Two Seats (Arguably the greatest book on the sport ever written) states drizzle had been falling and it was Wisell that had a greasy windscreen that started the chain reaction by suddenly slowing. You have to wonder why Ferrari team management would have allowed their drivers to race that closely at that point in the race, with what 20+ hours to go. Spontaneous mass team collisions might be rare elsewhere but were common at Le Mans, the Bentleys in the 1920s were the first and there has been many cases since so again you might have thought Ferrari would have taken a more prudent approach to stop four of their cars taking each other out? Perhaps team orders were ignored?
Hi Timmy, actually there were zero team orders, Derek, for whom I ghostwrote a newsletter column 1995-2000 said so, Ferrari had zero strategy for that race... which really surprised him, remember this was half a century ago...
A couple 512 gearbox numbers for the number guys. Marcel Massini Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login