A few weeks back Tom came across a very rare car in Francois garage. Just thought id fill you in with a bit of the history surrounding the car. Officially called the 365 Guida Centrale it was designed as a prototype with the blessings of Giovanni Agnelli who was head of Ferrari and Fiat at the time. The car was then exibited at the Paris Salon in 1966 by Pininfarina.
The car was never intended to be sold, but two were made and sold for vast sums presumably! The first went to Agnelli himself, whilst the second was purchased by your very own Luigi Chinetti for a customer.
Chassis 8815 was Agnelli's car and was fitted with a rather ugly rear spoiler for improved stability. It was later sold on to a customer in Texas and resrayed from its original silver to red. The car was resold back into europe back in the 80's or 90's after which i have no information of its ownership.
The second car is the car Tom saw and is Chassis 8971, sold in white. It was unspoilered and had a slghtly longer nose. Chinetti added it to his collection in the 80's. Froncois can tell us who owns it now!
There was the talk of a third car, but it is likely that this was the car on the Paris show stand, and was broken up to become Agnelli's car. The Paris car was a non runner.
Leonardo Fiorovanti (Head of Prototype at Pininfarina at the time) says that the seating position was intended to make the car more practicle. However whilst testing near Mont Blanc he discovered that because the car is very wide, the passengers feel very unprotected. Another problem not related to the seat was that with the glass sunroof, on a hot day the passengers would fry! Above the waistline its almost entirely glazed.
He says that above 170mph the car's stability was not good, which is why the now Red car has a big spoiler on the back. It resulted in a decrease in top speed, but improved stability.
The car was really a forerunner to the Boxer and Testarossa. But Fiorovanti says that there was never a question on using the seat layout in production models. It was designed by Pininfarina's Aldo Brovarone (Lancia Gamma Coupe & 1967 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2). The tubular chassis was similar to that of the 250LM except the wheelbase was 8in longer. Suspension was independent all round, brakes by disc, and the steering column needed two universal joints to align with the rack!
The engine fitted was a 320bhp 4.4litre V12 with single cam per bank! Wow! This was coupled up to a ZF transaxle from the 330P3 sports racer. The power unit also appeared in the 365 California and in Brovarone's 365 GT 2+2.
The 365P was never intended to be more than a styling prototype, which is a pity. Just think if it had been put into production with two sensible seats and the same road refinement, Ferrari would have had the equivelent of a Boxer years before it actually appeared, and with those lovely Dino lines. With the central seat it was a Maclaren F1 26 years ahead of its time!
Hope you've found it interesting. If you want any pictures let me know and i'll email them through.
Adnaan