A Woodland Hills Ferrari owner/enthusiast makes possible the experience of a lifetime
How my ride in a 1992 512TR would leave me permanently addicted to Euro performance

My experience with Ferrari was everything that I thought it would be; an Italian sports car with driving accuracy that could be countered by few others, it never failed to surprise with its light and nimble driving dynamic, no matter what the road and the surrounding environment might have thrown at it. It was a world unlike any that I was used to, and I became addicted on contact.
A gentleman by the name of Andrew, who is the proud owner of this beautiful, 1992 Ferrari 512TR, and his company, Michele and Trish, were more than kind enough to offer me a first-hand experience with the legendary 512TR, the mid-engine Ferrari that was to replace the previous 512BB, or Berlinetta Boxer. Introduced in 1991, the 512TR is an up-scaled version of the original Testarossa, the mid-mounted flat 12 car introduced into Ferrari’s 1984 lineup. The 512TR was produced from 1991-94 with a total production number of 2,280 cars. Though the 512TR was a relatively limited-production run within the Testarossa family, the Testarossa series as a whole, including the 512TR and its successor, the F512M, were among the most mass-produced of the Ferrari models, with a total unit construction of around 10,000 from 1984-96. The original Testarossa introduced in ’84 was the joint effort of Ferrari and designer firm Pininfarina, in an effort to build a car that eliminated the design flaws of the previous Berlinetta Boxer from the 1981 lineup. Among these were an improved cabin design, which on the 512BB suffered extreme heat from the car’s plumbing system, which ran from the single, front-mounted radiator to the engine itself, which was also a rear-to-mid layout. Another complaint that was often uttered about the previous 512BB was its lack of luggage space, which Ferrari and Pinninfarina sought to improve by lengthening the Testarossa’s wheelbase from 64 to 2,550 mm, or 2.5 to 100 inches, in order to allow for an all-new, carpeted storage space underneath the Testarossa’s forward-swinging hood. This new wheelbase extension also allowed for extra storage space in the cabin behind the driver and passenger seats, and headroom was increased by raising the car’s roofline by half an inch from the roofline of the Boxer.1
Although the 512TR shares many functional and aesthetic features and cues in common with the base-model Testarossa, the 512 car in particular is a bit more hot-rodded, as the TR’s 4.9 liter, flat-12 engine puts out 430 BHP, a substantial increase over the stock Testarossa’s 390 BHP using the exact same flat-12 with the exact same displacement. The 512TR does maintain, however, the stock Testarossa’s side strakes, also commonly known as the car’s “egg slicers” or “cheese graters.” Though funny in name and appealing in design, the TR’s signature side vents are extremely functional and vital in that they allow mass airflow to the car’s twin, rear-mounted radiators, apart from the legislation of most countries that made the side strakes mandatory where large openings on cars are outlawed. The side strakes also add to the Testarossa/512TR’s stability and handling by making the car wider at the rear than at the front, which means that the side vents are multifunctional as well.2
What I enjoy the most about the 512TR is the balanced “symphony” of its flat-12 engine, a symphony that clearly indicates that beneath the rear hatch of this car is a small-displacement 12-cylinder that much more than makes-up in smoothness and accuracy where it may lack in torque at the bottom of the powerband, lumpiness at idle and other running characteristics typically associated with American performance cars. But in the case of the Ferrari driving experience, you don’t really care about those characteristics, because the responsive accuracy of the TR’s advanced, wishbone-style suspension works in unison with the small-displacement, flat-12 to provide a drive that makes you want to gradually grab Rs in the high range, not being so concerned with providing a “hard punch” in the bottom end, or low range. The wishbone suspension offers a ride and handling dynamic that sometimes even goes as far as to distract from the unique, crescendoing music that only a Ferrari 12-cylinder could produce. But it doesn’t discount Maranello’s cutting-edge methods of machining and engine-building, and as I’ve said, the flat-12 engine, with its balanced running dynamic, only serves to further compliment the 512TR’s overall character.
Andrew, the owner of this 512TR, also had his 550 Maranello on display at the show at Warner Center. I’ve actually been told by Andrew and his best friend, Michele, that Drew’s Maranello is actually significantly faster than his TR. This just might be, but as was the case with the classic successor to the 308 model, the 328 GTB and GTS, the 512TR truly captures that stereotypical, red-on-tan paint and interior motif that we would expect from either the 308/328 series, the “baby Ferrari,” or the real Testarossa on which the “baby Ferrari” is tightly-based. It’s a mid-motor sports car built during a time when the true “class” of a high-end exotic was apparent in the aesthetics of the car itself. If it’s true that straight-out drivetrain performance has been placed before appearance in the current exotic market, and that body style has been sacrificed for the sake of this drivetrain performance, then this classic, Ferrari 512TR is a striking, almost alarming reminder of an era in sports car history when these two dynamics of sports car construction were evenly and successfully balanced.

- Sal Alaimo Jr., B.A. (2/27/11)   S. J. A.