The LAPSOF THEGODS

WHILE FERRARI REMAINS A GIANT IN THE worlds of both high-performance road cars and motorsport, in the early 1960s it was arguably even more of a dominant presence. Consider that it won the 1958, 1961 and 1964 F1 drivers’ titles, and that at Le Mans, the race where its name had really been put on the map when it won the first 24 Hours to take place after the Second World War in 1949, it would win seven times between 1958 and 1965. Its road cars had the performance and the glamour, and much of that was bequeathed from the marque’s successes on the racing circuits of the world.

The story of Ferrari in sportscar racing in the 1960s is one of triumph and tragedy, and of a superpower in slow, albeit often glorious, decline. When the flat-12s fell silent