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The Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer (BB) is a sports car that was manufactured by Ferrari in Italy between 1973 and 1984. It was the first of the Ferrari series to use a medium-mount flat 12V motor. The boxer was designed by Leonardo Fioravanti and was the first road car with an engine in the middle to bear the Ferrari name and the Cavallino Rampante logo (prancing horse). He was replaced by Testarossa, who continued to use a flat twelve-engine.
365 GT4 BB was updated as 512 BB in 1976, thus resurrecting the name of the former Ferrari 512. The name 512 referred to a 5-liter, 12-cylinder engine; a departure from Ferrari's established practice of naming 12-cylinder road cars (as 365 BB) according to their individual displacement. Power dropped slightly to 360 hp (265 kW; 355 hp), while the double-disc clutch handled added torque and relieved pedal strain.
In 1974, Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team (Nart) developed a racing variant of the 365 GT4 BB to replace the Daytonas team for use in sports car racing. The NART made its Daytona 24 Hours debut in 1975 and six months later took sixth place at 12 hours in Sebring. NART continued to use the car until 1978, when Ferrari began its own development of the updated 512 BB racing variant. In 1978, Ferrari's customer support department extensively modified four 512s, added wider wheel arches, a roof profile and reused the rear fenders of the Ferrari 312T2 Formula 1 car. Power from the flat-12 was increased to 440 hp (324 kW), while the weight of the cars was reduced to approximately 1,200 kg (2,646 lb). Four cars, a Ferrari called the BB LM, entered Charles Pozzi, Ecurie Francorchamps and NART in the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours, but none were able to finish the race.
After the failure of the first batch, Ferrari worked on repairing the BB LM with a second development program at the end of 1978. Flat-12 carburetors were replaced by an electronic fuel injection system to increase power to 470 hp (346 kW), a system later adapted to 512 BBi. The production body of the first BB / LM was replaced by a new design developed by Pininfarina, which was 16 inches (41 cm) longer and did not carry any of the original styling elements. The retractable headlights have now been replaced by fixed units integrated into the dashboard, while the rear section has been extended to the maximum permitted regulations. Nine of these revised BB LMs were built by Ferrari in 1979, while between 1980 and 1982 another improved series of sixteen was produced. BB LM was fifth and first overall in the GTX 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981.
