Ferrari 250 P5 Berlinetta Speciale s/n 0862(1968)
In the 1960s Ferrari's Prototipo 'P series' sports car racers proved highly successful in terms of races won and imaginations captured. Of course speed rather than beauty was the goal of these cars, yet the two were seemingly inexorable at a time when intuition was a guiding principle. The P4, designed by Mauro Forghieri and William Casoli was both a zenith and nadir of the genre – perhaps the most beautiful, yet also increasingly outdated at a time when aerodynamics were coming to the fore.
And so Ferrari commissioned Pininfarina to explore advanced aerodynamics for the 250 P5. Young recruit Leonardo Fioravanti was chosen to design the car because of his mechanical engineering education at the Politecnico di Milano where his studies focused on aerodynamics and car body design.
Revealed at the 1968 Geneva motor show, the P5 won immediate acclaim for its futuristic design, even if some Ferrari purists grumbled at its perceived departure from Ferrari design orthodoxy. Built on P4 chassis number 0862, the two-seat coupe featured a three-litre V12 engine mounted in its tail. A walk around the brilliant white car (later repainted red) revealed a design composed of intersecting convex and concave volumes, its ovoid masses contrasting with deeply scalloped recesses for vents and wheel wells.
Revealed at the 1968 Geneva motor show, the P5 won immediate acclaim for its futuristic design, even if some Ferrari purists grumbled at its perceived departure from Ferrari design orthodoxy. Built on P4 chassis number 0862, the two-seat coupe featured a three-litre V12 engine mounted in its tail. A walk around the brilliant white car (later repainted red) revealed a design composed of intersecting convex and concave volumes, its ovoid masses contrasting with deeply scalloped recesses for vents and wheel wells.
The design featured a low, concave front fascia with a narrow slot for ventilation for the radiator. Just above this, integrated into the hood, was a bank of headlamps. Flanking this front assembly were pontoon-like fairings for the front wheels. It seems Enzo Ferrari was not overly impressed with this, referring to it as the “suppository”.
More successful were the Dino-like ventilation scoops with flow vanes integrated into the openings while at the rear a strong character line outlines the top of the wheel opening and then ascends and curves across the deck lid. Underneath this somewhat duck-tailed assembly, a strong composition of horizontal vanes covers the tail-lights and engine ventilation openings. It's clearly a theme Fioravanti was proud of as it was to reappear on his later Testarossa.
The upper body was almost entirely formed of a transparent teardrop canopy, its gullwing doors revealing a spartan composition of two seats, driving controls and little else. Seats were minimally ergonomic and the headrests are built into the firewall that separates the cabin from the engine compartment.
A Gentlemen’s Agreement
As popular as the P5 was on the car show circuit, changing racing rules and the complex and ever-developing programmes at Ferrari soon meant the P5 would not be developed further. Indeed, Fioravanti and his team were already working on a successor, the P6.
As it slowly became public knowledge that P5 was not to be a part of Modena’s future, an unusual request came to Enzo Ferrari from his longtime friend and associate, Dr. Giuseppe Luraghi, Chairman of Alfa Romeo. If Ferrari was not to continue the development of the P5, would he cede the project to his company to develop further? In a move that would be unheard of today, Il Commendatore granted the request.
[Text from CarDesignNews.com]
cardesignnews.com/articles/concept-car-of-the-week/2016/0...
Ferrari 250 P5 Berlinetta Speciale s/n 0862(1968)
In the 1960s Ferrari's Prototipo 'P series' sports car racers proved highly successful in terms of races won and imaginations captured. Of course speed rather than beauty was the goal of these cars, yet the two were seemingly inexorable at a time when intuition was a guiding principle. The P4, designed by Mauro Forghieri and William Casoli was both a zenith and nadir of the genre – perhaps the most beautiful, yet also increasingly outdated at a time when aerodynamics were coming to the fore.
And so Ferrari commissioned Pininfarina to explore advanced aerodynamics for the 250 P5. Young recruit Leonardo Fioravanti was chosen to design the car because of his mechanical engineering education at the Politecnico di Milano where his studies focused on aerodynamics and car body design.
Revealed at the 1968 Geneva motor show, the P5 won immediate acclaim for its futuristic design, even if some Ferrari purists grumbled at its perceived departure from Ferrari design orthodoxy. Built on P4 chassis number 0862, the two-seat coupe featured a three-litre V12 engine mounted in its tail. A walk around the brilliant white car (later repainted red) revealed a design composed of intersecting convex and concave volumes, its ovoid masses contrasting with deeply scalloped recesses for vents and wheel wells.
Revealed at the 1968 Geneva motor show, the P5 won immediate acclaim for its futuristic design, even if some Ferrari purists grumbled at its perceived departure from Ferrari design orthodoxy. Built on P4 chassis number 0862, the two-seat coupe featured a three-litre V12 engine mounted in its tail. A walk around the brilliant white car (later repainted red) revealed a design composed of intersecting convex and concave volumes, its ovoid masses contrasting with deeply scalloped recesses for vents and wheel wells.
The design featured a low, concave front fascia with a narrow slot for ventilation for the radiator. Just above this, integrated into the hood, was a bank of headlamps. Flanking this front assembly were pontoon-like fairings for the front wheels. It seems Enzo Ferrari was not overly impressed with this, referring to it as the “suppository”.
More successful were the Dino-like ventilation scoops with flow vanes integrated into the openings while at the rear a strong character line outlines the top of the wheel opening and then ascends and curves across the deck lid. Underneath this somewhat duck-tailed assembly, a strong composition of horizontal vanes covers the tail-lights and engine ventilation openings. It's clearly a theme Fioravanti was proud of as it was to reappear on his later Testarossa.
The upper body was almost entirely formed of a transparent teardrop canopy, its gullwing doors revealing a spartan composition of two seats, driving controls and little else. Seats were minimally ergonomic and the headrests are built into the firewall that separates the cabin from the engine compartment.
A Gentlemen’s Agreement
As popular as the P5 was on the car show circuit, changing racing rules and the complex and ever-developing programmes at Ferrari soon meant the P5 would not be developed further. Indeed, Fioravanti and his team were already working on a successor, the P6.
As it slowly became public knowledge that P5 was not to be a part of Modena’s future, an unusual request came to Enzo Ferrari from his longtime friend and associate, Dr. Giuseppe Luraghi, Chairman of Alfa Romeo. If Ferrari was not to continue the development of the P5, would he cede the project to his company to develop further? In a move that would be unheard of today, Il Commendatore granted the request.
[Text from CarDesignNews.com]
cardesignnews.com/articles/concept-car-of-the-week/2016/0...