| History - Ferrari and 4WD |
Ferrari and 4 wheel drive goes way back although it never was a favorable technology for the company. The great engineer
Mauro Forghieri, who supervised the racing development of scuderia for decades, investigated the 4wd concept in order to use it on Formula 1. A test car using parts from other race cars was build, the
312B3 or 'snow plough' as it was mostly known because of its appearance and the integrated front wing/spoiler with the fuselage. The 1961
Ferguson P99 Climax inspired this project. This was not only the first 4wd F1 car, but also the last front engine car that won an F1 race. The 312B3 was never raced but it lead to the successful T-series race cars, however Ferrari never raced or tested a 4wd F1 car again.
(Ferrari 312 B3S "snowplough" - photo Brian Snelson - link)
After his resignation from F1 M.Forghieri was appointed director of Ferrari's "advanced research office" where he stayed for two and a half years. Under his supervision Ferrari presented an working concept car, the
408 integrale which was a moving laboratory for new technologies.
(Ferrari 408 - photo Ferrari/Road&Track)
The 408 was so advanced that today, almost 25 years after its 1987 debut would look misplaced in the contemporary Ferrari line-up. It had a very advanced aluminum frame with sandwich panels that were bonded together by glue and laser welding. Its shape had very low drag, a Cd of only 0.274 to 0.314 depending on the position of the movable rear wing.
(Ferrari 408 - photo Ferrari/Road&Track)
It had a centrally longitudinally mounted V8, which was offset to the right in order to accommodate the gearbox side by side. It was very compact and light (1260) especially considering the fact that it was build with production quality standards. It had air condition and its interior quality was better than that of F40. Engineers from Honda most certainly took 408 into consideration while designing the NSX and this isn't a case shameless copying. The 408, like the NSX later, incorporated and defined the template used by almost every supercar today.
The most exotic feature of the 408 and the reason it is mentioned in this article was its four-wheel drive. It had a relatively simple system with two mechanical limited slip differentials (17% front, 75% rear). The central differential was geared to transmit under normal conditions 29,3% of the power at the front and 70,7% on the back. It had a hydraulic limited slip system and a manual override for complete lock.
(Ferrari 408 - photo Ferrari/Road&Track)
The 408 concept was very thoroughly designed and it was relatively easy to enter production. However it was considered too advanced (12~15 patents were submitted) and exotic for the time and especially for Ferrari. Mauro Forghieri later joined the resurrected under Romano Artioli
Bugatti where he evolved his ideas and developed the four-wheel drive system of the also advanced
EB110. The latter had a longitudinal offset placed V12 with the gearbox also stack on its side, like the 408.
(Bugatti EB110 - photo Bugatti)
The use of four-wheel drive in order to augment the performance of a sport car or even a supercar or racecar isn't new. It isn't new even for Ferrari, as mentioned above and even though the two 408 prototypes was the closer the company ever got to a production 4wd car, the concept was studied and explored in depth.
