The Ferrari 512 was a sports car, related to the Ferrari P series of sports prototypes. It was raced in 1970 and 1971, then withdrawn from competition following a change in the regulations.
For the 1970 season, Ferrari decided to do what Porsche had done earlier with the Porsche 917, that is, build 25 examples of a 5.0 L car to allow homologation into the FIA's Group 5 Sports Car category. With the financial help of Fiat, that risky investment was made, and surplus cars were intended to be sold to racing customers.
The motor of the 512S was a new V12 with 560 PS (412 kW) output. Compared to Porsche's flat-12 monster, it had the disadvantage of not being air-cooled, so it needed a maze of cooling pipes and a heavy radiator.
Since the chassis was of sturded steel, reinforced with aluminum sheet, weight was 100 kg more than that of the alloy-framed 917. Notwithstanding the weight difference, the Ferrari 512S and Porsche 917 were theoretically fairly even matched.