Ferrari P5 in 1969?

[Riain]

Straight after the (June) 1967 race, the FIA’s regulatory body convened to discuss ways to limit the increasingly dangerous speeds in Sports car racing. It was decided to impose a 3-litre (120-litre fuel tank) on Group 6 Prototypes and a 5-litre limit (160-litre fuel tank) on Group 4 Sports Cars to be implemented for the 1968 season starting in February. Group 4 Sports cars had to have 50 units built, this meant the Ford GT40 MkII/IV, Ferrari P4/412 and Chapparal were obsolete, but the Ferrari 250LM and Ford GT40 MkI/III were homologated as Group 4 cars in 1966 and by counting the CanAm cars the Lola T70 MkIII was homolgated in February 1968.

Ferrari sat out the 1968 season in protest, mainly due to the short notice given their huge investment in the big V12s and knowing that the 5 litre Sports cars would be faster than the 3 litre Prototypes.

However the FIA saw the fields were too thin so in April, 9 months after their earlier decision, dropped the number of Sports Cars required for homologation from 50 to 25. In June 1968 Porsche decided to build 25 917s, while Ferrari built the 3 litre Prototype 312, but in July 1969 decided to build their own 25 5 litre sports cars the 512S for 1970.

However from 1964 to 1967 Ferrari built 24 big bore Sports Racing cars starting with the 330P to the beautiful 330P4 and customer cars. However what if Ferrari was able to pull from April 1968 what was done for the Lola T70 in 1967 and get the 24 or some slightly smaller combination of the big engined Ps homologated for 1969?

Here's a table of the 'bigger than 3 litre' sports cars built by Ferrari 1963-67.

Model	#	year	Model	#	year
330p	3​	64​	275p	3​	64​
365p	4​	65​	275p2	5​	65​
330p2	5​	65​	250lm	32​	63-66
330p3	3​	66​
365p2/3	1​	66​
330p3	3​	66​
412p	2​	67​
330p4	3​	67​

 

[YYJ]

I think this thread needs some photos. These are all beautiful cars you are writing about.

 

[Riain]

Chaparral 2F leading the Ferrari P4, the Chaparral won the BOAC 1000 at Brands Hatch in July 1967, the FIA announced the rule change immediately after.

The GT40 MkIV, 1967 Le Mans winner.

 

[Riain]

These are the Ford cars for 1968, the 1965 GT40 MkI and the brand new 3 litre P68.

 

[Riain]

Ferrari sat out the 1968 Sports car Championship, but the 1965 250LM was homologated as a Group 4 car so people raced those. Ferrari built the amazing 6.2 litre 612 for the final Can Am race of 1968 and the 3 litre 312P for the 1969 Sports Car Championship.

 

[Riain]

The other 2 contenders in 1968 were the 3 litre Porsche 908 prototype and the 5 litre Lola T70 Group 4 which was homologated in February 1968 by counting open top Can Am cars as well as closed roof Sports Cars.

 

[Riain]

I've done a bit of reading today and learned a couple of things.

Ferrari built 12 312 3 litre cars between 1969 and 1972, as well as 25 512s in 1970-71, no wonder they were broke!

Once the 25 512s were built they filled out Can Am grids in 1970-71 and 74. 4 512s raced at Watkins Glen in 1970 and 5 in 1971 including the one converted to the 7 litre 712 Can Am.

Given one P3 and two P4s raced Cam Am in 1967, with a P4 coming back for 2 races in 1968 if Ferrari did build a batch of evolved P4s for 1969 they would fill out grids in the 69 Can Am season like they did in 1970-71.

How long would an evolved P4 remain competitve for? I imagine it would dominate 1969 but when the Porsche 917 got sorted it would dominate the P4? Could Ferrari fit a 5 litre engine, given Porsche went from a 4.5 to 4.9 litre?