1978 FERRARI 312 T3 FORMULA 1 RACING SINGLE SEATER

1978 FERRARI 312 T3 FORMULA 1 RACING SINGLE-SEATER
Sold for US$ 2,310,000 Including Commission
Bonhams Auction, Monterey, CA. 2014
Chassis no. 033
The Ex-Carlos Reutemann, Gilles Villeneuve 1978 British Grand Prix-winning, 1979 Race of Champions-winning
Five of these cars were manufactured in the Ferrari Formula 1 'shop for the 1978 Formula 1 World Championship season. They were designed under the direction of the Reparto Corse (Racing Department) chief engineer Mauro Forghieri, and represented an evolutionary development of the highly-successful World Championship-winning 1975 312 T and 1976-77 312 T2-series cars. Power was provided by Ferrari's latest iteration of its magnificent 3-litre flat-12 cylinder F1 engine.
The five 312 T3s built were chassis-numbered in perfect sequence from '032' to '036'. These were great Grand Prix cars, but unlucky too. And their greatest misfortune was simply to come up against Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson and Colin Chapman's latest, greatest Lotus innovation – the revolutionary ground-effects Lotus 79 'wing car'.
Journalist Peter Windsor observed sagely in his end-of-season Formula 1 review: "Take away the Lotus 79 and the Ferrari was superior to every other car, and Michelin..."- Ferrari's tyre supplier that year against Lotus's Goodyear – "...had the best North American season to prove it...". In fact the works Ferrari 312 T3s won five Grand Prix races that year and their drivers finished 24 times from their 32 starts.
Carlos Reutemann himself won four of the team's races that season – the Brazilian GP (in a 312 T2) - United States (West) GP at Long Beach, California – the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch (won in '033' offered here) – and the United States (East) GP at Watkins Glen. Gilles Villeneuve won his home Canadian GP (to a tumultuous reception) in Montreal. Windsor wrote of Carlos Reutemann that year: "He established himself in the top three (drivers). He was consistently fast, he withstood the political pressure, contrary to expectations, and he scored the hardest-earned win of the year – at Brands Hatch, when he beat Lauda (driving for Brabham)". The Ferrari 312 T3 that the fine Argentine driver was piloting that day was, just to emphasise the point, '033' now offered here.
THE MOTORCAR OFFERED
When the Bonhams team first saw '033' now offered here, displayed upon its plinth within the Collezione Maranello Rosso Museum at Falciano, its tangible impact struck us dumb. Some of us had seen its race wins back in 1978-79. In period the Ferrari 312 T3 with its utterly distinctive spearhead planform was widely acclaimed as being the most beautiful of all the Maranello 'T-car' Formula 1 designs with their transverse-shaft trasversale gearboxes centralising mass within their wheelbase length.
Add to the car's good looks the engaging – and to many the no less handsome - contemporary charm of Argentine team driver Carlos Reutemann, plus the stupendous contemporary charisma of his French-Canadian team-mate Gilles Villeneuve, and this Ferrari 312 T3's jaw-dropping effect upon a bunch of real car enthusiasts becomes entirely understandable
In fact this car - '033' - made its racing debut in the 1978 South African Grand Prix race at Kyalami, Johannesburg, on March 4 that year. Reutemann drove it, but a troubled practice period saw the brand-new car qualify only ninth on the starting grid. During the race Reutemann ran eighth for the first 27 laps, before being displaced by Alan Jones's Williams. However, on lap 55 team-mate Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari 312 T3 popped an oil union, larding the braking area into Crowthorne Corner at the end of the long hump-backed straight. Into the braking area sailed '033', Carlos Reutemann reporting: "I hit the brakes and it was like the car had broken, nothing happened". The car speared head-on through two rows of catch-fencing and stopped before hitting anything hard. Just as its driver was climbing out a fuel leak ignited, but the fire marshals soon smothered it.
Ferrari ran a two-in, two-out race programme with their four and eventually five 312 T3 chassis. Carlos Reutemann reappeared in the repaired '033' at Zolder for the Belgian GP on May 21. The car was prepared with a narrow front track and he preferred it to the wider-track alternative for the race, starting from the front row of the grid, headed only by Andretti's Lotus 79 wing car. But on race day he missed his first gearshift from first to second, '033's hesitation triggering a multiple collision in its wake.
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Robert Myrick Photography