The Ferrari 312 was the designation of the 3 litre V-12 Formula One cars raced by the Italian team from 1966 to 1969. While most of the British teams, or “Garagists” as Enzo Ferrari used to call them, had to rely on their engine suppliers to get ready in time, Ferrari had the advantage of doing everything in house.
Unfortunately there was not enough time and/or money available for chief engineer Mauro Forghieri to start from scratch, so he used the 3.3 litre engine from the 275 P2 sports racer as a base for the new V12 F1 engine. Much of the engine block was carried over, but the single overhead camshaft head was replaced by a modern dual overhead camshaft unit.
Much work was carried out on the cylinder heads, which sported three valves per cylinder, with two for the intake. The intake trumpets were installed between the camshafts and a wild bunch of beautiful “spaghetti” exhausts were mounted inside the engine’s V. All these changes significantly increased the performance, peaking at 390 bhp at 10,000 rpm. Forghieri also drastically modified the chassis to shed over 50 kg, bringing the 1967 version of the 312 F1 considerably closer to the 500 kg limit."
Characteristics
Short, wide and almost as light as the Brabham and Lotus. Weight bias near the middle of the range of cars. The short wheelbase makes it nimble but relatively unstable. The engine is powerful but has a weak bottom end.
