Pick Of The Day: 1978 Ferrari 512 Boxer

With Arizona Auction Week around the corner, I figured why not post a higher-end car for my Pick of the Day for a change? The car is a 1978 Ferrari 512BB (Boxer) offered on ClassicCars.com by a dealer located in Southampton, New York.

Just to kick things off, the 512 Boxer is probably my single favorite Ferrari road car that I do not fit in. How do I know I don’t fit in these cars? Well, you see, about 15 years ago, when they were an absolute bargain, I bought one from a friend, who at the time told me that I would not fit. I ignored his advice. I reasoned that I had already owned a 308 GTB, a 328 GTS, a Daytona, and a 308 GT4. I had to fit in the 512, which was one of my all-time favorite cars. I ignored all the advice from my friends, who all said the same thing. The Boxer arrived. They were right and I was wrong. I did not fit in the car. I learned an important lesson: Always sit in a car before you buy it.

To me, the 512 Boxer is one of the finest Ferrari designs of the 1970s and ’80s. The double clamshell when you open up the front and back together, the stunningly fast look it has even when standing still, and the crazy performance it offered when new were all just so intoxicatingly alluring. The 512BB is a weapons-grade car and the very definition of what an exotic car or supercar was in the 1970s and ’80s, a car that demanded to be driven skillfully at the limit. The 512BB was designed to compete with the Lamborghini Countach and did that quite well.

For those of you who wonder if you would fit in this Ferrari, if you are 6 feet tall – even 6 feet, 1 inch tall – you are going to be fine. If you, like me, are 6 feet, 4 inches or taller, look for something else. There is literally no way – outside of installing a racing seat – that you will fit in a 512 Boxer.

This specific 512 is an early carbureted car, finished in Rosso Corsa over a tan with black Daytona-style accents. The seller calls this 512BB an extraordinary example, with paintwork, fit and finish, trim and interior that have all been done to the highest level. The car has mechanical sorted and drives beautifully.

In addition – and very importantly – this 512BB includes its tool kit, all books, and extensive service records.

Even at today’s prices, I feel the 512 Boxer is an absolute icon from the beginnings of the exotic car era and an excellent value. The styling, combined with the extraordinary 4.9-liter Ferrari flat-12 engine fed by six Webers, makes these cars simply spectacular in every way. The 512BB was a 180-mph car in the late-1970s! I have driven a few of these (even though I don’t fit) and they deliver on everything a Ferrari promises to be better than any ’70s and ’80s Ferrari except the Daytona, and in many ways are that model’s equal in a different kind of package.

If all this makes you want one as much as I still do, then the solution is easy. Click on the link, check out the car, get it inspected by a knowledgeable Ferrari mechanic (do not skip this step), and write a check for $289,000, which is the asking price for this 16,491-original-mile 1978 Ferrari 512BBs asking price.

Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com