The 512 World Championship based engine and Production Numbers BB v. Dino

I was wondering if these totals are accurate and if so, valuation?

Total Boxer production (365/BB/BBi) -- ----2,323
Total Dino production (206/246/ S & B) ----3,913

If this is so, then the Boxer is nearly twice as rare as the Dino.....and with a true race engine from the 312.

The 312 engine, a version of which is found in the Boxer, was truly a dominant, world beating F1 engine and was very much unlike the Fiat -derived V6 in the Dino....or for that matter, the lovely but race-history success-less Miura engine.

Given the much lower production numbers and a true race engine pedigree the likes of which Ferrari will likely never see again, I wonder why Boxer values remain so low. E.g., Two Miuras sold for over $1 million each this past weekend in Monterey and Dinos routinely sell over 1/2 a million.

This was an engine Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia raced with great success. The winning car of Niki Lauda and Gilles Villeneuve and featured in the Ron Howard film Rush. In fact, it was only the advent of underbody areo aids that led to the engine's demise. It had the power and reliability to forge on for years more if not for aerodynamic changes. In fact, it was said to still be "the most powerful motor" in Formula 1. Thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s9JK-tE4xhc

The 312 History

The 312 was Mauro Forghieri's creation. Turned loose by Enzo Ferrari wîth a 'clean sheet of paper,' Forghieri created the flat-12 3-liter engine to implement his goal of lowering Ferrari's GP cars' center of gravity and concentrating its masses within the wheelbase for the quickest possible directional response. Forghieri noted later that the 312 was a flat-12, not a 'boxer.' The distinction was important to Forghieri because he'd considered a boxer layout in conceiving the 312 engine.

The first 312 took to the track in 1970, designated the 312 B. Forghieri's flat-12 was easily the most powerful engine, and subsequent developments focused on building chassis and developing aerodynamics that would harness the 312's nearly 500 horsepower. In 1974, the 312 B3 brought Clay Regazzoni second in drivers' points - only three behind Emerson Fittipaldi - and Ferrari just eight points behind McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.

Forghieri made another dramatic change in 1975 wîth the 312 T, or transversal. The 312 T employed a transversally mounted gearbox between the engine and the rear wheels' centerline, along wîth center-mounted coolant and oil radiators to further consolidate the important masses within the 312's wheelbase. Tapered sidepods effectively acted as downforce-generation airfoils which the flat-12 engine's low profile complemented perfectly. With it, Niki Lauda captured the Drivers' title and Ferrari once again won the Constructors' Championship wîth Lauda and Regazzoni taking six wins in 14 races. The next-generation 312 T2 narrowly missed the 1976 Drivers' Championship after Lauda's fiery accident at the Nurburgring, but Ferrari captured the Constructors' title. Both Ferrari and Lauda recovered to take both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 1977.

The handwriting appeared on the wall in 1978, however, when Lotus introduced the ground-effects Lotus 79 and put it in the hands of Mario Andretti and Ronnie Petersen. Not even the addition of a young, French-Canadian talent named Gilles Villeneuve to Ferrari's driver team could overcome the advantages of Colin Chapman's innovative employment of under-car airflow to suck his cars to the track.

Ground effects posed another challenge to drivers. When, through mechanical failure of the side skirts or disruption of the seal over curbs, the side seal to the racing surface was disrupted and the inflow of air into the under-car low-pressure area robbed downforce and destroyed the tires' lateral traction. It took immense talent and blindingly quick reaction compensate. Gilles Villeneuve had them.

Ferrari responded wîth the 312 T4 in 1979. The 312 flat-twelve was still the most powerful engine on the Formula One Grid, but the advantages which had contributed to its success early in the decade - a low, wide section that reduced aerodynamics - impinged upon the developing science of ground-effects aerodynamics. Only the 312 engine's power advantage, flexibility and a concerted effort by Ferrari to test and develop new aerodynamic packages - wîth help from Fiat and the Pininfarina wind tunnel - allowed Forghieri's team to create another champion.

And, to be sure, that bright talent from Canada, Gilles Villeneuve, who displayed brilliance during the season. At the Frend GP at Dijon-Prenois, he challenged Rene Arnoux's Renautl - clearly the dominant car of the race - in a wheel-to-wheel duel during the closing laps. Their contest let Jabouille, in the other Renault, escape to the win, but the battle between Villeneuve and Arnoux was pass and re-pass for laps where, as Adriano Cimarosti describes it, 'they Polished the sides of each other's car wîth their wheels in the middle of corners.' At the flag it was Villeneuve in front by 14-hundreths of a second. At the end of the season Jody Scheckter earned the Drivers' Championship for Ferrari wîth Villeneuve only four points behind and Ferrari again earned the Constructors' title.

 

Nice! What colors do you have?