Ferrari 512 BB: An Interview with John Amette

Well my name is John Amette I spent my working lifetime initially as a mechanic or technician as we refer to them today working in motor racing and also in road cars my introduction to Ferrari was in 1968 I started to work for a team an English team that raced Ferraris and it's been a substantial primary part of my working lifetime has been involved with Ferrari The 512 BB arrived after its predecessor the 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer which was 1974 and that car arrived after one of the iconic Ferrari road cars the Daytona 365 GTB/4 and it was Ferrari's first mid-engined 12 cylinder road car It's engineering was very different very advanced it was a very difficult project because making a mid-engined 12 cylinder car is very difficult in terms of the wheelbase the length of the car the proportions as well as obviously appearance the engine which is a horizontally opposed 12 cylinder actually sits on top of the transmission the gearbox and that allowed for a much much more balanced wheelbase and so in that engineering sense it was very unique and a very interesting and substantial project It was so different from its preceding road cars and obviously driving it the experience was very different Obviously faster as was the case to the predecessors but a different experience and what a learning curve to adapt to its characteristics the first 512 Boxer I drove must have been approximately 1976 it was probably one of the first generations of cars and fortunately where I was working were literally just open roads so it was possible to go on road tests and get pretty carried away the sensation the driving the physical aspect of it was still very very by the seat of your pants so to speak you really could feel that in those cars and it was certainly very eye-opening and I've had the opportunity to drive very many cars at that point in time but yeah it certainly left a huge impression it's a Pininfarina design and Pininfarina’s body designs are simply iconic they are timeless you could look at a Boxer today and it has an impact as if it was brand-new

Channel: Ferrari of Newport Beach

Views: 5,182

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Ferrari, 512 BB, Ferrari of Newport Beach

Id: lAqZkRTgotM

Length: 3min 43sec (223 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 27 2018