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The Key

The Queen

05 December 2020

Photo credit: Ferrari, Wheelsage

The most beautiful butterflies live just a single day. What many consider the most beautiful of Ferraris, the 330 P4, suffered the same fate. After the P3 was defeated at Le Mans in 1966 by the Ford GT40 – which, it should be remembered, had a 7,000cc engine compared to the Ferrari’s 4,000cc – the P4 was built in Maranello. The harmoniously muscular and compact lines were enhanced by the addition of a number of technical evolutions and a considerable increase in power that took it to 450 horsepower. Its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona was a good omen with three Ferraris arriving together onto the podium: a P4. A P3/4 (an evolution) and a 412P. Success continued at the 1,000 Km of Monza but, once again, not at Le Mans. However, there was the World Sports-Prototype Title at stake and winning this title became Maranello’s goal. In The Key 2020, which will be available for purchase from 18th December, the dramatic finale and discovery of one of the three magnificent P4s built, recently restored and ready to unleash the rumble of its mighty 450 horsepower V12 engine once again. By the way: back then this was astronomical power… today there are many road cars out there with just as much. But that’s not enough: none of them can get anywhere near the most beautiful butterfly of them all. At this point it’s fair to wonder why such a winning masterpiece like this only survived a single season. Simple: a change in the championship rules. Two were profoundly modified to be used in the American CanAm championship, and the third went to a collector. Today, thankfully, they’re all back to their original glory.  

The famous 1–2–3 side-by-side parade at the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours. It was the debut of the P4, the one in the middle wearing the number 24, which shared the victory with the P3/4 number 23 and the 412P number 26
At the 1967 Targa Florio this P3/4 (an evolution of the P3 from the previous year, but very similar) was registered to race by the Sicilian hero Nini Vaccarella and Ludovico Scarfiotti. It was Vaccarella who had the accident that forced the car to retire when it was in the lead
The 1967 330 P4 with the faired mirrors suggested by test pilot Mike Parkes for aerodynamic reasons
The 330 P4 number 21 of Scarfiotti and Parkes, which finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 failing to defeat, with its 4-litre engine, the Ford Mark IV equipped with a 7-litre V8
The P4 seen in transparency clearly shows how the design of the car is perfectly developed around the mechanics
The open-version P4, now in Canada in Lawrence Stroll’s collection photographed at the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach