Ferrari – 512 BB LM (1981)

During the 1970s, Ferrari increasingly focused all its motor-sport attention on making a commit- ment to the darling of the public – Formula 1. For this reason, the marque hailing from Maranello only featured in later sports-car races with privateer teams. From 1978 onwards, they favoured the 512 BB, which Ferrari had presented as a street-legal road car in 1976. The Maranello-based Motor Sport Department worked together with Pininfarina to develop a long, lightweight and aerodynamically streamlined body fashioned in glass-fibre reinforced plastic, tuned the sports car for endurance racing and augmented the model name with the letters LM – short for Le Mans.

This Ferrari 512 BB LM has the reputation of being one of the best-preserved automobiles of this type and it also possesses a unique, flat, tapering front-end. In 1981 and 1984, the race car started in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Italian racing team Scuderia Bellancauto, and also campaigned in races at Monza and Imola. The voluminous and richly storied documentation retained to this day bears witness to its competitive endeavour, along with the overall condition of this race-prepared automobile. Without any form of restoration, the racer still has the same exquisite patina as in 1984 when it retired from the race track.