This very Ferrari 512BB appeared on a poster to advertise its 188mph top speed. Can it still promise such thrills today? Robert Coucher drives the star of many a bedroom wall
Photography Barry Hayden
Remember the days before smartphones and social media? The days when people read magazines and tore out pictures they liked or unpicked a centre-spread poster to stick on their walls? Athena prints and other posters were all the rage, with Farrah Fawcett the best-seller in 1976, followed closely by the famous ‘tennis girl’. You know the one.
As for young car types, the way we expressed our enthusiasm for a particular marque was by having a car poster on the bedroom wall. It seems impossibly simple and old-fashioned these days, as seemingly everyone has thousands of clips on their phones with fast cars indulging in all sorts of silly antics, often ending in a crash.
But back then, ‘poster cars’ were an important barometer of what was cool and desirable in the world of motoring. Needless to say, only supercars were accorded the bedroom-wall honour; they included Aston Martin, Jaguar, Maserati, Porsche and, of course, Ferrari. Actually, this very Ferrari, making it one of the most famous 512BBs of the lot.
Chassis number 21689, one of only 927 BBs produced, is a rare right-hand-drive example purchased new in 1977 by the well-known racing driver Chris Meek, who owned Mallory Park circuit. At the time, Ferrari was claiming that its new supercar, the considerably updated 512BB that followed the original 365 GT/4 BB, had a top speed in the region of 188mph. Unfortunately, when road-tested in the US, Europe and Britain, the 512BB was unable to reach that magical figure, with Autocar managing only 163mph in its 6 May 1978 issue. Not bad, but not supercar enough for one owner, who decided to go legal with Colonel Ronnie Hoare of Maranello Concessionaires, claiming he’d been deceived.
So racer Meek thought he’d do a test run to find out exactly how fast the 512BB actually was in the real world. Which is how he, a crew of mechanics from Huddersfield Garage, men from Michelin and a nervous envoy from Ferrari in Maranello came to be gathered on a deserted M1 at five in the morning.
With photographer Mike Hargreaves strapped into the passenger seat, Meek wound up the BB to an indicated 188mph and Hargreaves took the shot, immortalising this Ferrari as a poster car as well as a supercar. The Colonel then showed the litigious customer the photo and that was the end of it. A while later Meek recei
