The Ferrari 312 PB was a
Group 6 Prototype-Sports Car introduced in 1971 by Italian carmaker
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
. It was officially designated the 312 P, but often known as the 312 PB to avoid confusion with a previous car of the same name.
It was part of the
Ferrari P
The Ferrari P was a series of Italian sports prototype racing cars produced by Ferrari during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Although Enzo Ferrari resisted the move even with Cooper dominating F1, Ferrari began producing mid-engined racing cars in th ...
series of Prototype-Sports Cars but was redesignated as a
Group 5 Sports Car for 1972.
Development
In 1970, a change in the regulations for sportscar racing for 1972 was announced. The loophole for the big 5-litre sports cars (such as the
Porsche 917
The Porsche 917 is a sports prototype race car developed by German manufacturer Porsche to exploit the regulations regarding the construction of 5-litre sports cars. Powered by a Type 912 flat-12 engine which was progressively enlarged from ...
and
Ferrari 512
Ferrari 512 S is the designation for 25 sports cars built in 1969–70, with five-litre 12-cylinder ("512") engines, related to the Ferrari P sports prototypes. The V12-powered cars were entered in the 1970 International Championship for Makes ...
) was closed, and the minimum weight of the 3-litre prototypes was raised to .
Porsche considered this too heavy as their
Porsche 908
The Porsche 908 was a racing car from Porsche, introduced in 1968 to continue the Porsche 906-Porsche 910-Porsche 907 series of models designed by Helmuth Bott (chassis) and Hans Mezger (engine) under the leadership of racing chief Ferdinand Piëc ...
/03 were lighter, and this advantage would have been lost . On the other hand, their air-cooled two-valve engine was low on power with , and the development of a new engine would have been necessary. Thus, Porsche did not enter world championship sports car races after 1971 and sold the 908s to customers who would have to add weight to them.
Matra
Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a French industrial conglomerate. During its years of operation, it was engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily focused around automobiles, bicycles, aeronautics and we ...
and
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...
were willing and able to compete, but only in selected seasons or events. Also, Ford's successful Formula 1
Cosworth
Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...
-V8 engine was available for independent chassis builders, but vibrations made it unreliable for
endurance racing.
After having been beaten by the Porsche 917 in 1970, Ferrari abandoned further development of the Ferrari 512M, leaving the 512 to customer teams like
Penske Racing
Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organiza ...
and NART.
Instead, in 1971, Ferrari focused on a new 3.0L prototype based on the
''Tipo'' 001 flat-12 engine from the 312B F1 car. Officially this design was known as 312P, the motorsports press appending the B to avoid confusion with the earlier 312P V12 cars. This design was similar to the traditional Porsche engine layout with its low center of gravity, but Ferrari used water-cooling and 4-valve heads. The car was promising, but did not win, while the similar
Alfa Romeo 33
The Alfa Romeo 33 (Type 905 and 907) is a small family car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1983 and 1995. From a mechanical standpoint it was essentially an evolution of its predecessor, the Alfasud, whose floorpan, chassi ...
scored two wins against Porsche's dominance. The 312PB's engine has many similarities in design to the F1 engine, but nearly every part is different and non-interchangeable with the F1 flat 12. This has led to problems for users of these cars in historic racing, as spare parts for these quite fragile engines, are, in comparison to the F1 flat 12 engine, very difficult to obtain.
Racing history
![1973-05-27 35 Carlos Pace, Ferrari, Hatzenbach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/1973-05-27_35_Carlos_Pace%2C_Ferrari%2C_Hatzenbach.jpg)
The car first appeared at the 1971 1000 km of Buenos Aires in Argentina at the hands of Italians Ignazio Giunti and Arturo Merzario. Its history started off tragically when Giunti was killed in this race after he hit Jean-Pierre Beltoise's Matra head-on while the Frenchman was pushing the stricken car back to the pits. The car did not win a race that season. In 1972, with only Alfa answering the challenge, the 312 PB was very successful and won all
World Sportscar Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.
The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...
races in which it was entered. Ferrari skipped
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
, though, as the F1-based engine had not lasted 24 hours in testing and would surely spoil their otherwise perfect record.
In 1973, Matra which had previously focused on Le Mans also challenged for the championship while Alfa was absent. As Matra won several races, Ferrari needed to enter in the
1973 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 41st Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on 9 and 10 June 1973. It was the eighth round of the 1973 World Sportscar Championship season, 1973 World Championship of Makes.
The race promised to be close, wit ...
, with an improved yet still doubtful engine. One car was used as a "hare" which supposed to lure the Matras into driving faster laps than they intended, to test their reliability. Ironically it was only the "hare" Ferrari which survived the 24 hours, finishing a respectable second behind a
Matra
Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a French industrial conglomerate. During its years of operation, it was engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily focused around automobiles, bicycles, aeronautics and we ...
. The championship saw the same order, with only two Italian wins compared to five French. In addition, despite the absence of the Matras, the 312 PB could not defend the 1972 win of the
Targa Florio
The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...
as the prototypes of Ferrari and Alfas failed and a
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...
collected a surprise win.
At the end of the 1973 season, Ferrari abandoned sports car racing to focus on F1 again, as the F1 team had even skipped GP races in 1973 due to lack of competitiveness.
References
*Cruickshank, G. 2006. ''Profile: Ferrari 312PB''. Motor Sport, LXXXII/11, p. 43
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External links
{{Scuderia Ferrari
312 PB
Sports prototypes
sv:Ferrari 312P