By Matt Nelson
You'd be hard-pressed to come across someone who's never heard of Ferrari. Few carmakers have been able to capture the heart and soul of so many through their near-peerless dedication to beautifully engineered cars. You can even credit the gurus at Ferrari for kick-starting millions of gearheads' passion for cars in general. Not to mention, the Italian supercar maker has been responsible for creating some of the best performing - and sounding - engines to ever grace the world's roadways.
Ferrari has created loads of cars, engines, and other innovations that could be considered by some as sublime. One that comes to mind is Ferrari's now-defunct flat-12 engine. It wasn't necessarily a bad idea, but it surely was a strange one. Few have heard of the thing, and even fewer have driven one before. Bearing these facts in mind, CarBuzz decided to pay homage to the quirky motor and the few cars it was installed in.
The Innovative Ferrari Flat-12
A Few Flat-12 Facts
- Saw use in both racing and civilian applications.
- It was produced from 1963 to 1996.
- Ferrari is the only carmaker to produce a flat-12 engine.
Normally, when we think of horizontally-opposed engines, we think of the Subaru flat-four or the famous Porsche flat-six. We certainly don't think of the Ferrari flat-12, because, as we touched on earlier, many don't even know of its existence. Because Ferrari is so famous for creating several different V12 engines, the flat-12 is overlooked when it comes to the Italian supercar maker's history. But, because of its uniqueness and colorful history, it deserves to be recognized.
The flat-12's story begins in 1964, when Ferrari was designing a new engine for their then-upcoming Ferrari 1512 Formula 1 car. A man called Mauro Forghieri headed up the project, and was successful in designing the world's first flat-12 engine. It carried the denomination "Tipo 207", and sported a 1.5-liter displacement with a power output of 227 horsepower and a redline of 12,000 rpm. Interestingly, Ferrari used two different engines during the 1964 and 1965 seasons. The 158 (1.5-liter V8) was used on tracks where a slower, more nimble car was required. The 1512 was used on circuits where power would be the deciding factor, like Spa and Monza.
The Ferrari flat-12 saw use in both racing and road car applications over its 33-year tenure. In total, there were 11 variations of the flat-12, four of which were used in motorsport. Come 1973, the flat-12 saw its first road car application, having been shoehorned into Ferrari's largely forgotten-about 365 GT4 BB. This new road-going version wasn't derived from the Tipo 207, but the Tipo 001, a flat-12 which saw some racing success between the 1970 and 1974 racing seasons.
New and improved flat-12 iterations followed that first version, with Ferrari models such as the Testarossa and 512 BB receiving the motor, too. It was heralded for its lightweight design and eagerness to rev, but it lacked the torque seen in other supercar maker's models. 1996 saw the last application of a Ferrari flat-12 in the Ferrari F512 M, after which the engine was laid to rest.
It's worth noting that the world doesn't always know a good thing when it's available. Over the last five years, the Ferrari Testarossa's value has held steady at $150,000, but at the 2024 Monterey Car Week, a low-mileage unit sold for more than $200k.
The Ins And Outs Of The Flat-12
| Flat-12 Specs (1994 Ferrari F512 M) | |
|---|---|
| Displacement | 4.9-Liter |
| Horsepower | 440 hp @ 6,750 RPM |
| Torque | 369 lb-ft @ 5,500 RPM |
| 0-60 MPH | 4.6 Seconds |
| Top Speed | 196 mph |
It may not come as a surprise to learn the flat-12 was not a simple piece of engineering. In the beginning, Ferrari was looking for a way to revolutionize the engine, and reinvent the wheel in a way. This was no small task, but Ferrari was determined. The main advantage of the flat-12 engine is its flatness compared to the V-shape of a V8 or V12. This meant it could be mounted lower down in any car, leading to a lower center of gravity.
The first version of the flat-12, the Tipo 207, featured seven main bearings, three more than the usual four seen on most racing engines of the time, to help strengthen its bottom end. It also boasted four camshafts, and an aluminum crankcase to help keep engine weight down. Cast iron cylinder sleeves were also pressed into the motor to aid in heat mitigation. To help with race day maintenance, the alternator, fuel pump, and injection pumps were placed right on top of the engine. At the time of its introduction, the flat-12 was the most powerful F1 engine, but its torque band wasn't broad enough to actually provide any sort of meaningful gain over the competition.
As time went on and the flat-12 evolved, it became much larger, but to keep weight down, Ferrari used metals like titanium and magnesium. For example, as we mentioned previously, the first version was only a 1.5-liter. The second and third racing versions, the Tipo 232 and Tipo 001, were sized at 2.0 liters and 3.0 liters, respectively. The last racing version, the Tipo 015, was a 3.0-liter, used during the 1979 racing season, after which it was replaced by the Tipo 021 turbocharged V6. The turbocharged era of Formula 1 had begun and naturally aspirated engines were no longer cutting it.
Read the full article on CarBuzz
This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
