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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
The Ferrari 212 E Montagna is unique, the only one of its type. It is powered by the only two liter Type 232 Ferrari flat-12 engine built. It was undefeated in the 1969 European Mountain Championship, winning all nine events entered.
For any Ferrari race car the 212 E Montagna’s attributes are enough to assure its importance, even among the many one-off, special-purpose racing cars which Ferrari has built over the years. But the 212 E Montagna has another important qualification which sets it apart: it was the chassis under Pininfarina’s trend-setting 1968 Ferrari 250 P5 show car.
And that is not all to this Ferrari’s remarkable history. Its chassis started out as a Dino 206 S, number 020, and it left Ferrari in 1971 bearing the first body designed by Piero Lardi Ferrari. That’s a whole lot of Ferrari history to be wrapped up in one single example.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
It is presented here in its original 1969 European Mountain Championship winning configuration, still with its unique, original nine-event winning, 300 horsepower, two liter flat twelve engine, a – literally – unique survivor.
The late sixties were a difficult period for Ferrari. Money was, to put it mildly, tight. Any project that carried a prospect of commercial benefit was high priority. In this environment Ferrari, reportedly, undertook to apply its expertise in lightweight, high output engines to a compact, small displacement performance aircraft engine for a commercial client. The chosen configuration was a flat twelve, Ferrari’s second Boxer (the first having been the Formula One 1512 of 1964), a layout that combined excellent power potential with the compact dimensions and low frontal area ideally suited to minimizing aerodynamic drag.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
At the same time, the end of 1967, the FIA’s Commission Sportive Internationale revised its regulations for sports car and prototype competition, reducing the displacement for prototypes (of which only one example was required to be built) to three liters while allowing sports cars (which had a minimum production requirement of 50 examples) up to five liters. Ferrari, whose four liter 330P4 had won the 1967 Constructor’s Championship, was incensed by what he saw as a capitulation to the interests of Ford and announced Maranello’s withdrawal from sports car competition.
Against this background, Ferrari tickled the motor sports world’s fancy by announcing a two liter prototype powered by a then-mythical flat-twelve engine still in development, the aircraft powerplant re-purposed following the end of its client-funded development. The chassis chosen for this “Sports 2000” was found within Maranello in the form of an unsold Dino 206 S believed to have been originally numbered 020 in the sequence. It became a Ferrari prototype with the unique chassis Tipo number 600 and was accordingly renumbered 0862 in the Ferrari prototype sequence. However, once announced, and possibly tested at Modena in November 1967 by Chris Amon, the “Sports 2000” disappeared from view, never to appear in a competitive event in 1968.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Instead, probably awaiting further development and testing of the new flat-twelve engine in Ferrari’s tightly restricted budgets, the chassis was fitted with a conventional mid-engine V12 drivetrain and lent to Pininfarina where it became the 250 P5 show car, debuting at the Geneva Motor Show on March 13, 1968.
The 250 P5 was an important transition for Pininfarina and Ferrari, blending elements of current design with important elements of the coming mid-engined aerodynamic revolution. Highlighted by scalloped wheel cutouts, the 250 P5’s exaggerated shape started with an elongated nose with pointed ovoid front fenders flanking the nose. Its leading edge consisted of a row of eight high intensity headlights under a clear aerodynamic cover. A gently-sloped windshield was complemented by a large clear rear window under which the engine was displayed in full while the roof hinged doors were completely clear from the beltline to the roof center. It was a design that was simply breathtaking and the existence of the 212 E/P5’s original chassis leaves so much to the imagination as to its importance on both an engineering and historical basis.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Radiator air was extracted through two large nose top vents in the low pressure area at the base of the windshield, but the 250 P5’s most notable aerodynamic aids were the first appearance on a Ferrari or Pininfarina design of airflow directing fins located in the rear fender top cooling intakes and, much more prominently, a stack of six horizontal fins across the 250 P5’s rear panel to manage air passing under the car and through the engine compartment. The importance of these elements would become apparent only a decade and a half later when they appeared on the Mondial and subsequently stunned the world when they became the signature design element of the Testarossa.
Pininfarina took the 250 P5, repainted in ivory, to the Los Angeles International Auto Show later in 1968. It ended its show career at Torino in November. Following that, the show car body was removed and the chassis returned to Ferrari.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Development of the two liter flat-twelve had now been completed, and a gem of an engine it was. With seven main bearings, dual overhead camshafts operating four valves per cylinder, Lucas fuel injection and 65x55mm bore and stroke the 1,991cc gem pushed 300 brake horsepower through its five-speed transaxle, also a unique Tipo 600 design. According to an interview given to author Marc Sonnery by Mauro Forghieri, only two of these Tipo 232 engines were built: one was used for development and dyno testing and apparently broken up following the test cycle, and only one competition engine, numbered 1, was built and used throughout the competition career of the new car, now designated 212 E. It is a tribute to both to the skills of Ferrari’s engine craftsmen and to the robust inherent design required for an aircraft engine that this single, unique Tipo 232 competition engine never once suffered a failure and amazingly, remains in chassis 0862 to this day.
Of perhaps even more significance, Forghieri acknowledges the Tipo 232 two liter flat-twelve as the forebear of the 1970 three liter flat twelve Formula One engine and the powerplant of the 312 P sports cars.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
To begin its competition career the Ferrari 212 E Montagna was clothed in a wind tunnel to test the lightweight open body that was in many ways reminiscent of the 250 P5. These included front wheel wells with flared scalloped openings and ovoid front fenders. The nose now contained an oval air intake and was topped by extractor vents for the radiator, like the 250 P but farther forward since there no longer was a windshield of any consequence to generate low pressure. Initially the tail was rounded with a low-mounted spoiler, more suited to high speed track testing than to the tight bends of hillclimbs. And hillclimbs were the 212 E’s destiny.
The European Hillclimb Championship was an important series, with venues in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and even Switzerland, where circuit racing had been banned since 1955. Courses ranged from 6.9 km (4.3 miles) at Ampus to the arduous and famous 21.6 km (13.4 miles) Mont Ventoux climb outside Monaco. Unlike their American counterparts, the European Hillclimb Championship courses were paved although they shared the common dangers of sheer cliffs on both sides and spectators who seemingly delighted in getting as close to the competitors as possible. The format was rigorous. Each competitor made two timed runs and it was the sum of the times that determined the winner. There was no room for mistakes, and little time between runs for repairing either crash damage or mechanical failures. It was, as Marc Sonnery noted in his article on the 212 E Montagna, like determining the Formula 1 championship based solely upon cumulative times from two qualifying laps at each track. It required intense focus, superb car control, predictable handling and absolute reliability.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Ferrari found the man to lead its quest for the 1969 European Mountain Championship with the 212 E Montagna in Basel, Switzerland in the person of Peter Schetty, a scion of a highly successful textile family. Schetty had begun competing in hillclimbs early in his twenties, joining Scuderia Filipinetti’s Shelby Mustang team in 1965 and 1966 with wins at Rossfeld and Gaisberg. He moved to the Abarth team in 1967, finishing third in the championship. His reputation established, he was recruited to drive Ferrari’s 212 E Montagna in the 1969 European Mountain Championship.
Well before the alliance with Fiat was forged to resolve Ferrari’s financial problems, it is hard to describe what Schetty and the 212 E did as a fully supported factory effort. The team consisted of Schetty, an engineer and a couple of mechanics. There were no spares to speak of, just some engine parts, suspension components and the gears and aerodynamic tweaks that were used to adapt to the requirements of particular courses.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Yet Peter Schetty and the 212 E Montagna, supported by his elemental crew, won every event they entered. They set the course record at each of them but one (plagued by fog) and at the Côte de Cesana-Sestrière on August 3 set a record of 4 minutes 53.7 seconds for the 10.4 km course which was not broken for 13 years.
Over the course of the season the 212 E Montagna evolved. It quickly dispensed with the bodywork behind the rear wheels, grew a giant, nearly vertical, spoiler for maximum low speed downforce and acquired a massive scoop behind the driver to bring air to the engine and oil cooler.
The season consisted of 10 events, but Schetty and the Ferrari 212 E Montagna clinched the championship and ended its season after the ninth event, in Schetty’s home country of Switzerland at Ollon-Villars.
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| Ferrari 212 E Montagna 1967 |
Back in Maranello, Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi sought to buy the 212 E Montagna for the 1970 season but Ferrari was reluctant to sell the factory-raced and unbeaten car to a privateer of limited ability. Eventually, even with Fiat’s millions now in hand, Ferrari relented, putting the 212 E Montagna into Lualdi-Gabardi’s hands for the 1971 Italian season. Although to clearly distinguish it from the all-conquering European Mountain Champion, it acquired a new, more angular and straight sided, body with more radically scalloped wheel wells and a small wing mounted over the engine, reputedly designed by Ferrari’s son, Piero Lardi Ferrari. Lualdi-Gabardi fulfilled Ferrari’s expectations with a modestly successful season of Italian events.
Peter Schetty became part of Ferrari’s sports car team in 1970, driving the 512 to second place at Spa with Jacky Ickx and third at Monza with John Surtees. In 1971 he became development driver for the 312 and Ferrari’s team manager for both sports cars and Formula One, but in 1972 he left Ferrari, and racing, to devote his talent, attention and management skill to the family business in Basel.
At the completion of the 1971 season the 212 E Montagna was sold by Ferrari to noted collector Pierre Bardinon.
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