1962 Targa Florio

thumb|1962 winners, from left: Ricardo Rodriguez, Olivier Gendebien and Willy Mairesse The 46° Targa Florio was a motor race which took place on 6 May 1962, on the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, Sicily, Italy. Like in 1961, a mid-engine V6 Ferrari won, and this time another finished second, with the best Porsche finishing only third. The race was part of the 1962 World Sportscar Championship which was contested in various categories and classes, including Grand Touring. Race Ferrari did bring only one V12 front engine car to Sicily, a 250 GTO that was only a T-car for testing. One of the mid-engine SP chassis was fitted with a 2.6 liter V8-version of the Dino V6, but this 268 SP was crashed in practice. The two other SP cars had V6 in two sizes to compete in two classes, the 246 SP in S3.0, the 196 SP in S2.0. Porsche had lost in 1961 because Ferrari had also adopted the mid-engine layout, but with a bigger stronger V6 engine. The flat-4 DOHC Porsche 547 engine was aging, thus the engineers were trying out a new prototype version of the 718, combining the two-litre flat-8 Type 771 engine (developed along with the 1.5 litre Porsche 753 engine for the 1962 Porsche 804 Formula 1 car, and also seen in testing for 1962 Le Mans) with the new coupé bodywork which had thus far only been used with the four-cylinder DOHC engine. Bonnier i Targa Florio Bonnier in the Targa Florio 14 Swedish Björklund Bengt Lerum, Sweden Illustrerad Motor Sport 6 June 1962 The factory in Zuffenhausen, like Ferrari being busy also with the 1962 Formula One season but not comfortable with single seater racing, outsourced the effort for the Targa, which usually included weeks of practise drives on the public roads in Sicily, to Count Volpi's Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia. As Mercedes had done in the 1920s wins, some of the cars were painted red instead of the German white or silver. Worries about reliability, which had cost them the 1961 race, were another reason. The second car was driven by Graham Hill and Dan Gurney, but the latter crashed it after a brake failure. The other prototype car finished in third place but also had brake problems as Porsche were still coming to grips with disc brakes. Ferrari dominated most of the 1962 race, with a double victory for the SP sportscars and with two privateer GT finishing fourth and fifth. Ferrari won both sports car and the GT3.0 trophies, with Porsche winning the GT1.6 category with a Carrera 1600. Official Classification Class Winners are in Bold text. http://www.racingsportscars.com/results/Targa_Florio-1962-05-06.html Targa Florio 1962 (Race Results) Racing Sports Cars 2016-05-17 Pos No ClassDriver Entrant Chassis Time Laps 1st 152 S3.0 BEL Willy Mairesse/Olivier Gendebien MEX Ricardo Rodriguez Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 246 SP 7:02'56.3, 10 2nd 120 S2.0 ITA Giancarlo Baghetti ITA Lorenzo Bandini Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 196 SP 7:14'24.0, 10 3rd 108 P2.0 SWE Joakim Bonnier ITA Nino Vaccarella Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia Porsche 718 GTR Coupé 7:17'20.0, 10 4th 86 GT3.0 ITA Giorgio Scarlatti ITA Pietro Ferraro San Marco Ferrari 250 GTO 7:22'08.0, 10 5th 92 GT3.0 FRA Roger Delageneste FRA Jean Rolland Ferrari 250 GT SWB 7:44'33.0, 10 6th 42 GT1.6 FRG Hans Herrmann FRG Herbert Linge Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia Porsche 356B Carrera Abarth GTL 7:46'26.0, 10 7th 14 GT1.3 ITA Vito Coco ITA Salvatore Arena Scuderia Etna Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato 7:50'36.0, 10 8th 74 GT2.5 ITA Piero Frescobaldi ITA Alessandro Federico Jolly Club Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato 7:51'38.0, 10 9th 56 GT1.3 ITA Alfonso Thiele FRA Jean Guichet Scuderia Sant' Ambroeus Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato 7:56'39.0, 10 10th 44 GT1.6 ITA Antonio Pucci FRG Edgar Barth Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia Porsche 356B Carrera Abarth GTL 8:00'05.0, 10 11th 34 GT1.3 ITA Giuseppe Virgilio ITA Giuseppe Sciacchitano Scuderia Etna Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato 8:07'05.0, 10 12th 8 GT1.3 ITA Francesco Susinno ITA Giulio Pernice Scuderia Etna Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 8:21'56.0, 10 13th 52 GT1.6 ITA Alfonso Vella ITA Pietro Termini Balarm Porsche 356B Carrera 8:22'50.0, 10 14th 6 GT1.3 ITA Girolamo Capra ITA Giuseppe Dalla Torre Scuderia Sant' Ambroeus Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 8:25'27.0, 10 15th 4 GT1.3 ITA Giancarlo Sala ITA Sergio Pedretti ("Kim") Scuderia Sant' Ambroeus Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 8:26'44.0, 10 16th 40 GT1.6 ITA Raffaello Ciarpaglini ITA Ottavio Prandoni Scuderia Ambrosiana Porsche 356B Carrera Reutter 8:39'13.3, 10 17th 28 GT1.3 ITA Angelo Bonaccorsi ITA Vito Sabbia Scuderia Etna Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 8:41'10.2, 10 18th 10 GT1.3 ITA Franco Tagliavia ITA Guido Garufi Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 8:53'21.0, 10 19th 82 GT3.0 ITA Umberto de Bonis ITA Roberto Fusina 250 GT California Spyder SWB 8:55'56.2, 10 20th 64 GT2.0 ITA Giuseppe Ramirez ITA Luigi Ramirez Lancia Aurelia B20 9:34'12.0, 10 References 1962 World Sportscar Championship 12 Hours of Sebring ADAC 1000km Nürburgring Category:Targa Florio Targa Florio Targa Florio