F512M added to our stable

F512M


In the UK recently there was a well publicised auction on a relatively new-concept auction website that is becoming popular. It created quite a bit of interest and some eye-watering hammer prices, especially for the rare and, some of them unique, Porsches that headlined the collection.


For example, a 164km 964 RS and a 6,000 mile 930 Clubsport. It was a fascinating auction to compare the effect of mileage on rare cars - there was the aforementioned 164km RS, another one at 40,000km and yet another at about 100,000km. Their prices were something like £385k, £230k and £165k plus £6k commission. An unbelievable premium for the unused car, whose owner probably found plenty of consolation for the internet ire reserved for those who don’t use their cars. I always think “it’s your car, do what you like with it”. His wallet wouldn’t disagree I guess.


The reason for my mentioning this (and this is my first post in the TR forum) is that there were two F512Ms in the collection. I did a bit of research and found that years can pass without a single F512M changing hands at auction, yet here were two in the same one - a left-hooker and a ‘proper’ one


The fact that I know how little comment there is here about the F512M these days will probably tell you that I ended up buying one of them. I’m a Ferrari owner more familiar with the newer models (and forums) and am privileged to have a number of really lovely examples, all of which I have owned from new - Speciale, Pista Spider, both 812s, SF90 arriving and numerous predating them.


I wasn’t in the market for a 512M but I knew about this model from before I started owning Ferraris, just over 10 years ago. I’ve always loved the prancing horse, from being a starry-eyed kid, and I noticed about 15 years ago a car that had been crash-repaired, at a low price. The car looked straight and I figured “low in, low out” would work - man maths can always be relied on! I didn’t quite have the courage though and never went for it. The right decision I guess. It wasn’t that I thought the 512M was a car I absolutely needed to have, it was a Ferrari, and it was not so expensive! Anyhow, I moved on and bought a 996 to get me started on this journey.


Back to the auction. 15 or so years had elapsed. The first Ferrari I ever drove was a 355 GTS. I didn’t buy it. Instead I chose a 360 Spider, mainly because it had the more modern aluminium tub rather than a space-frame chassis, it had the F1 gearbox (ok, ok) and it was similar price and less ‘leggy’. I love driving, I love speed and exhilaration. The manual gearbox, although tickling that ‘emotional’ nerve, was slow. The newer car, while not quite so pretty, ticked a lot of boxes for me. It worked too - my first Ferrari opened a new world of car ownership to me and I have not owned an Aston since. Don’t meet your heroes? That didn’t apply to me where the Ferrari brand was concerned. As the years rolled on, I began to wonder about owning an older car with a manual box, complete with it’s beautiful, metallic, open gate. Just needed an opportunity that fitted how I like to buy cars. Sure, I could just go out and buy one, or select a model and get someone to source a good one. But that didn’t really feel right. This auction felt like it might be right though. The owner clearly kept his cars well, searched for and bought only good examples. In short, he probably knew more than me and if the price was right, I could end up with a car that someone who knows what he’s doing has spent his own money on. With so much focus on the dominant Porsche side of the collection, and there only being two Ferraris - both 512Ms - might one of them go for sensible money? That was my logic. I started bidding and a few thousand short of where I was going to stop, everybody else did. This car looked good value (there was even a Hagerty report that seemed to suggest something similar). The car was now mine, like it or not!


There is something about a Testarossa. Of course the side-strakes and the flat 12, and that wide rear that was not so much designed but more forced onto the designers because of the relocation of the radiators. But the sheer ‘preposterousness’ of it. And the fact that from behind on the road, it seems like two cars made into one with both tracking round a bend in a different way. I absolutely love that ultra-wide rear track and narrow front look. And Outrun, let’s not forget that.


I know the 512M is considered the ugly sister of the three variants, and I can see why. But I’m going to defend it, something I would have done if I hadn’t suddenly become an owner. I have, and have had, other models in my garage that are considered beautiful, particularly 458 Speciale and 488 Pista, but also 360 CS, various Aston V12s and some lovely Porsches. So I have no need to defend its honour for any kind of self-gratification, just that I always like progress. The titanium internals and other components on the flat 12 engine rendered the 512M’s motor the best of the three, the look is still unmistakably Testarossa but with LdM’s new family 355-look updating its appearance. The engine is sited lower, the driving dynamics are better - progress. I have no issue with that. Sure, the flip-up headlights are kinda cool and very 1980’s and this is, let’s not deny it, a 1980’s car from the 1990’s. But I can’t object to twin round rear lights or the car losing it’s characteristic-but-dated front lights in the name of better running gear.


My brother-in-law owns an immaculate 355 GTS and we went for a drive, swapping cars. In the rear view mirror, the comparatively narrow front of the M didn’t look particularly arresting, I’ll grant that, at least considering it’s a bright red Ferrari. But when he overtook me and I followed, my jaw dropped - at my own car! It has sensational presence on the road this thing and in that moment, I couldn’t think of another car in my expensively-assembled garage that would have given me a moment quite like that. It is spectacular. Others can conclude it is ugly, but I just can’t reach that conclusion for a car that can spark so much emotion. Controversial, certainly, but that’s as far as I can see, especially where the sides and the rear are concerned. This car is a remarkable thing that demands a response from owner, driver, fellow road-user and passer-by alike. It is Supercar.


Compared with his 355 - both of them 1995 cars - the M belies its age. No power steering is an obvious thing that makes the larger car feel older but there’s more. The subtlety in the braking and suspension and also the gearbox. The 355 dances a bit, the 512M is more brutal, despite having very feelsome and communicative steering from that unassisted rack. Not that brutal is a good word to describe it. You need a Countach for that. Or perhaps a Sherman tank. Rather think of the 512M as the archetypal 80’s supercar, adapted somewhat for the 1990’s. It requires much more precision to drive well than the 355. Heel and toe comes much more easily in the 355, you have to slow your pace down in the notchier Testarossa - is it a Testarossa? It is to me! That heel-and-toe thing remains a struggle after a few hundred kilometres in this car. I might even give up on it because if you get the timing wrong there follows a very unpleasant and expensive-sounding crunch. My nature is to persevere but I have nothing to prove and I feel the need to protect this car a bit, it can do it and so can I but is the risk necessary, and is it an intrinsic part of the pleasure of driving a car this old today? Haven’t made up my mind about that yet.


From inside the car the engine sounds sweet. Travelling behind it is a different matter. The Tubi-equipped exhaust bellows loudly - 2020’s in noise-averse Europe? “Yeah, and?” seems to be its attitude. It’s loud. But very, very sonorous. I love this engine. It has plenty of torque, is powerful, tractable, has the smoothness of a flat engine and is a really inspiring partner for a spirited drive.


I have long read posts from other owners who bemoan the newer cars in favour of the older ones. In my first month of ownership I am finding that I both understand that and don’t agree with it. There is something very special about owning a beautiful example of an older car, from a period when you were growing up and when a car such as this was literally a pipe dream. There is plenty of emotion in driving and owning something like this. I’m actually a little bit surprised at how much I am enjoying it, and in particular ‘what’ I am enjoying about it. Owning and using some automotive history. Having to be precise with my inputs, not worrying too much about speed and on-the-limit feel but instead enjoying piloting a car that has plenty of flaws but plenty of personality too. Getting to know each other seems fun. And did I mention what this car looks and sounds like on the road?


But there is absolutely a place in the modern world for the modern Ferrari. They all offer something different. Our electronically sophisticated Speciale is even more intimate and nuanced as a driving experience than the almost completely unassisted Testarossa. Its noise is not as sweet but it is more insistent, its suspension moves with a finesse and subtlety completely beyond the 1995 car and on a late-night dash to a holiday home for the weekend, there is no doubt which car would be more fun. The Pista has less subtlety but immense capability and up an alpine pass can give you more fun than you can believe with its turbo torque - and speed limits don’t really come into play on tight mountain curves either. Even the 812 GTS, an unbelievable monster of a car, with open roof, still stiff chassis, incredible responses considering its weight and layout and a soundtrack that is so sweet and cultured, even with the factory standard exhaust (which I understand sounds horrible on a 512). I’m obviously new to the TR line. Any advice, help, recommendations from those further into ownership are gratefully received.


So my take? It’s a new and different experience. We do long road trips in our Ferraris and they all get used properly. After a period of storage and relatively few miles in the last few years, once I knew the 512 was good to be driven, I drove it. The morning after its arrival I drove it. It even rained. Yes, ok, I cleaned it and looked after it a bit more carefully than I would have the newer cars but it’s not there to be stared at for me (though I have no objection to those who love that) and I plan to use it a bit. It won’t go on many road trips though, and maybe it won’t see any multi-day long ones. But I love that it’s in my garage, that I have given context to the newer cars by adding a very rare, dramatic and accomplished ancestor, with manual shift, with the best example of the world’s only ever flat 12 engine and the last of its kind. I didn’t plan on it and I have also been looking for an old 911, which got me interested in this particular auction in the first place. But that’s how I like it; it just turned out this way and since it did, I can’t think why I hadn’t thought more seriously about the Ferraris in that sale in the first place. Here’s a final thought. I’m not planning to be a major collector, instead a collection of cars, most of which I will have owned from new, all covering a certain ‘base’ that I consider important and forming a part of our story. With an 812 Comp allocation being very gratefully received, I may end up with both the last n/a flat 12 and the last n/a V12 ever sold by the best purveyor of such engines the world has ever seen. Some thought that.
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Not sure if it has been through DK but I don’t think so. There is a huge history file with the car, even though there is a 10 year gap. The maintenance has been spot on since 2013 when a €10k overhaul was done in Italy. The car did most of its mileage in the first few years in Germany, autobahn I would guess featured a lot. It is very clean, a few small paint chips but extremely healthy paint and the interior is in great condition. I’m not sure how it came into the vendor’s possession and I suppose that could have involved DK but nothing definite in the file.

 

Thanks for the advice. What great pictures - the sun and the snow-capped mountains, and the road ahead... I’d love to be there. We usually go a few times per year but sadly cannot at the moment. I’m looking forward to discovering more of what you’re talking about with familiarity. The gearing does seem long, I omitted to mention that for some reason but it does influence heavily how the car drives. The driving position is almost a metaphor for the whole car. It is compromised, for a reason of course, but adapting yourself to it is part of the experience. It makes it possible for you to drive it but it’s not trying to make your life easy, you have to give a bit too!