1986 Ferrari Tesarosssa

Details

Twelve cylinder engines are synonymous with Ferrari. In fact Enzo Ferrari’s very first car, the 1947 125S was powered by a 1.5 Litre V12 engine. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the majority of Enzo’s masterpieces were powered by V12 engines of varying capacity. Interestingly all of these cars had the engine located in the front. Cross town rivals, Lamborghini, introduced their stunning Miura in 1966 which was powered by a transversely mounted V12 engine located behind the driver. This spectacular car took the motoring world by storm and sent shock waves throughout Ferrari HQ in Maranello. Ferraris answer, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, was a fabulous motor car in its own right, but there was always something about the mid-engined sports car that gave it an edge.

It took until 1971 for Ferrari to unveil its first mid-engined sports car, the 365 GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer. The Boxer was very well received and it ultimately went into production and replaced the Daytona in 1973. Interestingly Ferrari opted for a ‘flat 12’ rather than V12 engine configuration. The engine was mounted longitudinally rather than transversely as Lamborghini did with the Miura.

The Boxer was a great success for Ferrari and along with the Lamborghini Countach was one of the very real ‘supercars of the seventies’. The 365 GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer (387 cars built) was replaced by the 512 Berlinetta Boxer (929 cars built) in 1976 which was then replaced by the 512 BBi (1007 cars built) in 1981.

Introduced in 1984 to replace the 512BBi, the Testarossa or ‘red head’ was named to commemorate the fabulous Ferrari race cars of the 1950’s – the Testa Rossas. Ferrari stayed with the twelve cylinder mid-engined layout for its new car, however, the Pininfarina design caused much debate in the car world back in the day. To improve some of the flaws of the Boxer the  car was designed with massive side vents which were actually an important part of the car’s functionality to provide air for the radiators and also aerodynamic down force. These were seen as a little ungainly, however, the car was a huge success for Ferrari with its then flagship selling in massive number the world over. Just over 7,000 Testarossas were built over eight years of production. It’s successor the 512 TR (produced from 1991 – 1994 with just over 2,200 cars built and 512M (produced from 1994 – 1996 with just over 500 cars built).

Oldtimer Australia is delighted to confirm the sale of this Australian delivered, factory right hand drive 1986 Ferrari Testarossa. This particular example is a very rare early car featuring the ‘flying mirror’ and the centre bolt wheels.

This car is an incredible ‘time capsule’ having been in storage for 25+ years. Today the odometer reads 5,072 miles.