On Mar 31, 2006, at 10:40 AM, Christian wrote:
Testarossa has been used by Ferrari in naming various cars to
allude to their special series of racing cars with cylinder heads
painted red, a nod to exclusivity and high-end accomplishment.
The original Testa Rossas (two words) were indeed racing cars from
the fifties and early sixties. In 1984 the BB512 (BB = Berlinetta
(hard top) Boxer (horizontally opposed cylinders aka 180 degree V))
was replaced with the Testarossa (one word) the name harking back
to the historical race cars but separated from them with spelling;
one word vs two, but maintaining the cylinder head color. Also in
1984 the 288GTO was released, its name a reference to the 250GTO of
the sixties, another factory race car. Both the Testarossa and
288GTO were road cars not factory race cars. Incidentally, the
Testarossa was morphed into the 512TR and then 512M and that was
the last of the mid-engined flat 12 road cars from Ferrari.
Thank you for the excellent synopsis. You wrote it significantly more
concisely than I'd started to write!!
I have a late series Ferrari 512 Testarossa ... it just happens to be
small... Testors/Pocher 1:8 scale.
http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW3/03.htm
http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW4/large/IMG_0038as.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW4/26.htm
Godfrey
