512 BB/LM

The Berlinetta Boxer was Ferrari's first mid-engined road car and it spawned one of the most spectacular endurance racers of the late-'70s. We look under its skin

- ADAM TOWLER

IT TOOK A LITTLE WHILE FOR THE MEN FROM Maranello to get their first mid-engined supercar into production; time-served Il Commendatore folklore has it that Enzo preferred his prancing horses pulling the cart, not pushing them. Nevertheless, the dazzling appeal, drama and commercial threat of the Lamborghini Miura could not be ignored, and in 1973, seven years after the emergence of the mid-engined Lambo, Ferrari launched its new road car flagship, the 365 GT4 BB.

The 'Berlinetta Boxer' had been first seen at the Turin motor show of 1971 and took plenty of inspiration from Pininfarina's P6 concept of 1968. An elegant, dart-like form, what it lacked of the pioneering bravado possessed by both the Miura and its Countach successor it made up for with a timeless beauty that hasn't faded with the passing decades.

The flat 12-cylinder engine really did have a direct link to Ferrari's competition machines of the 1960s and '70s, though in fact the name 'Boxer' is a misnomer. The engine is actually a 180-degree V12, not technically a 'boxer' engine at all, as opposing pistons use the same crankpin and hence move together in the same direction and not independently punching towards each other as in, say, a Porsche flat-six.

In spite of its fashionable layout, the BB was otherwise largely conventional and 'classic Ferrari'. It featured a spaceframe chassis of oval and rectangular tubing, over which sheet steel was welded in to create a central 'tub-like' structure. On top of this was placed an inner glassfibre skin, with the metal body panels over the top of that.