In the 60’s there was already a rollercoaster in Team Ferrari, both in the boardroom and in the Formula 1. Ferrari had been bought out by Fiat and the British teams like Brabham, Lotus and McLaren as well as the French Matra regularly were better than the red Ferrari.
At the end of the 1968 season, chief engineer Mauro Forghieri walked away from the F1 team with the blessing of Enzo Ferrari. He wanted to create a Research and Development department near the Ferrari factory. He stayed in close contact with Enzo. The reason was obvious. The Ferrari V12 was not strong anymore, the 1969 season became a disaster, their top driver Chris Amon would leave the team and Fiat owned 50% of the shares.
Together with six colleagues, he constructed a new engine: the flat 12 cylinder engine “boxer”. This was a beautiful piece of architecture, directly derived from the v12 and the strong 2L engine that dominated the European hill Climb championship in the Ferrari 212E ( Peter Schetty). The engine delivered 450 bhp at 11.000 t and had 4 valves per cylinder. The engine would be upgraded during the 1970 season. Forghieri designed two oil radiators next to the gearbox.
The light and compact engine had a massive influence on the centre of gravity of any future F1 Ferrari. So it was easy to come up with a real star : the Ferrari 312B, still a very beautiful F1 car. The car featured in-board suspension geometry and a shorter wheelbase.
In the team came again Jacky Ickx. He was joined by Ignazio Giunti and Clay Regazzoni. In 1970, the Ferrari 312B came 2nd in both the drivers’ and constructors’, only behind the revolutionary Lotus Type 72. They just missed the title !
For the 1972 season, the team came up with a new chassis, new suspension geometry: the 312B2. However, Ferrari lost a potentially huge number of points in 1971 due to retirements and slipped to 3rd in the championship, scoring 19 points. It took some time to adapt the suspension to the new tyres. Only Jacky Ickx won the F1 race in Germany.
And again some changes in the team. Peter Schetty became the sporting director and Alessandro Colombo was the Fiat representative in the F1 team. Mauro Forghieri was forced to change and rethink everything in order to keep Fiat satisfied.
So, on the 28th of august 1972 he came up with a revolutionary car: the 312B3.
The car had a very short wheelbase, 2250 m, a bit inspired on the Lotus 72. The centre of gravity was very low and in between the front and rear axl in order to create maximum downforce. The B3 had a short, wide wheelbase which would have given the car an agile handling characteristic, perfect for twisty tracks as well as riding bumps and curbs. The car featured a very large nose with two large NACA- ducts t which feed air inside the car, through past the suspension arms and radiator intakes, then out the side of the car, creating a massive venturi o create a large surface underneath to help the downforce. Forghieri had used the windtunnel at Stuttgart. The fuel cell was created behind the drive. All this was possible, because he used the concept of two watercoolers in the sides of the car next to the diver, as already seen in a Lotus. This had two key advantages; firstly, it brought the mass of the car closer to the centre, improving handling dynamics, and also, it meant a full sized wing could be mounted to the front of the car without impeding the air going to the radiators. It looked like he invented a sort of central fin, that you see in the endurance car from today. Anyway, this car has everything that you find in a modern F1 car!
Arturo Merzario and Jacky Ickx did the testing at Fiorano. They found the car very difficult to drive especially in the tight corners.
The car was presented September 10th at the GP at Monza. Because of the large nose, the journalists gave it the nickname “Spazzaneve” (or snowplough). Ferrari was under such pressure that it entered the car for the race. However, it was withdrawn at the last minute due to complaints from the mechanics, who claimed that its atypical shape would take more than eight hours to change the engine if necessary.
A few weeks later, the Spazzaneve project was shelved. Sadly, the Spazzaneve would never get the chance to show its potential. Fiat and Ferrari decided to move Forghieri again from the main design team to his experimental department and he was replaced by Sandro Colombo. He decided to use the B3 base for 1973, but with a more conservative appearance and a monocoque manufactured in England by TC Prototypes. But even Colombo could do nothing to reverse the bad situation at Ferrari.
Forghieri returned to team management in 1974, dusted off the plans for the 312 B3 Spazzaneve, adopted some of the concepts he had applied to it, and created the legendary T series and opened the door to a world champion title.
"The Spazzaneve was a very important car for me and for Ferrari. But it was always meant to be an experimental car. For me, it was a basis for studying aerodynamics. It represented a major change in my mind," Forghieri later confessed about his creation.
Ferrari's experimental vehicles are usually left in a corner of the factory to catch dust, but the 'Spazzaneve' was sold to a customer. It changed hands two times more before being offered in the 2002 Bonham's The Ferrari Sale in Gstaad Switzerland. The car's current owner has an a keen interest in the more unusual Formula 1 racers, which is obvious as the Spazzaneve is a regular vistor at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
