Clever Obtuseness

Ferrari’s engine of change.

The 296 GTB’S 120-degree V-6 represents a novel solution to powering a sports car. It’s the first production street car in history to use that engine configuration. But this isn’t the first time Ferrari has produced such an engine. In fact, the oddball 120-degree V-6 seems to pop up at Ferrari when the company

(or the industry) is at the precipice of fundamental technological change.

A. Tipo 178

At the dawn of the Sixties, Ferrari was behind the curve in Formula 1. Enzo’s conservatism meant that the company only briefly experimented with a mid-engine race car. That changed for 1961 with the 156 Sharknose. Ferrari’s first full-season mid-engine entry, the 156 also benefited from a novel Dino-branded engine. The 1.5-liter V-6 carried a bank angle of 120 degrees to lower the car’s center of gravity. Its greater width compared with a conventional V-6 was no penalty in a race car, particularly when the engine was mounted behind the driver. With two Weber triple-barrel carbs, double-overhead cams, a twin-plug ignition system, and a compression ratio of 9.8:1, the little Tipo 178 engine made 190 hp at 9500 rpm. Phil Hill piloted the 156 to the 1961 World Championship.

B. Tipo 021/1

Twenty years after the Sharknose, Ferrari F1 found itself in the middle of technical revolution again. In the early Eighties, Formula 1’s turbocharged era was just beginning. In 1981, Ferrari swapped out its reliable but large naturally aspirated flat-12 for the company’s first turbocharged F1 engine, the Tipo 021/1. As with the Sharknose’s Tipo 178, the new engine was a 1.5-liter six-cylinder with a 120-degree vee angle. But the conceptual similarities between the 021/1 and the engine that powers the new 296 GTB are astonishing. Both have twin-cam, four-valveper-cylinder heads. Both package twin turbochargers in the wide engine valley. And both use a “hot vee” setup with exhaust to the inside and the intake on the outside. This is done to shorten the distance between the exhaust ports and the turbos. With about 540 hp at 11,000 rpm in race trim (more in qualifying spec), the radically oversquare 021/1 provided drivers Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi with a power advantage over much of the field.

But the car in which it was mounted was an ill-handling beast, and Villeneuve’s two wins in 1981 spoke more of his abilities than the car’s.

C. One might think that a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 feasting on 34.6 psi of boost and kicking out 654 hp would provide sufficient motivation for the 296. Ferrari would disagree. D. The roof-mounted wing directs airflow down toward the radiator intakes and the rear spoiler.