Look closely at the tail of a Ferrari 312B Formula 1 car and you’ll notice a V12 skimming above the floor. But to call it a vee is a stretch, because the great Mauro Forghieri designed it with a 180º angle to aid weight distribution and compactness. A boxer engine, but distinctly different.
The Tipo 001, as the engine was known, powered Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni and Mario Andretti to Grand Prix wins and dominated the World Sportscar Championship in 1972 with the F1-derived 312PB, albeit in the face of limited competition.
Soon after, in 1971, a radically different Ferrari 365 prototype (above) was shown at Turin’s Motor Show with that ‘flat’ V12 reworked by Giuliano De Angelis and sitting in the middle of the car. Some five years after Lamborghini performed the same trick with the Miura.
This Ferrari, though, was the 365 GT4 BB – the latter for Berlinetta Boxer, the press was told, but it was a ruse. Ferrari’s designers thought it so beautiful it should be named after Brigitte Bardot, and the nickname BB stuck. It wasn’t even a Berlinetta or a true Boxer…
Such an overhaul of ethos took time to really come to fruition and it wasn’t until 1973 that the car officially arrived, with an extra pair of lights and two extra pairs of exhaust pipes.
The front-engined V12-powered 365 'Daytona' had a long farewell that just about crossed with it successor. Fewer than 400 BBs were made in Maranello, a handful more than the F50 and just a third of the number of F40s made, making it exceedingly rare.
Fewer than 60 came to the UK in right-hand drive, making that rarer still. Thanks to Car-Iconics, one of those will join the High Smileage Club at the Scramble on Sunday 7 January.
What makes it a High Smileage Club contender? That powerplant, for starters. Not only does it have its roots in F1 success, but it is remarkably usable with plenty of torque to play with. And, naturally, it comes with a sound that would never get tiresome.
This could be the only car in the High Smileage Club you don’t need to even drive to step out smiling: just switch it on, hear that evocative fire-up and think of Ickx screaming around the Österreichring to a 1-2 win.
It has the famous open gate, which ‘clacks’ you pleasingly into each gear, the perfect poise afforded by that new engine placement and this particular car was even seen on the cover of Autocar when it was the fastest car in the world.
See it for yourself at the Scramble on Sunday 7 January as part of the High Smileage Club display. Book now
