Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer Design

The body of the Boxer was designed for strength and efficiency, its extreme beauty following from these traits. The body of a car should not simply cover the chassis and cabin, it should interact with them to form a whole. With luck, the design makes a bold and striking statement. In all of these areas, the Boxer was supremely successful. The car was long, low, and sleek. This impression was accentuated on production cars by use of the 'Boxer colour scheme' featuring matte black below the beltline.

The nose curved up from the ground in contemporary sports-racing car style. Great emphasis was placed on passenger comfort, the cabin and door openings were as large as practically possible, and a large 'greenhouse' offers excellent outward vision and light, particularly given the buttresses extending over the rear wheels to enclose the deck.

Pininfarina was just beginning serious application of aerodynamics to road car design when the Boxer was styled as Ferrari's first road car to ensure rather than suggest performance. The curves of the body hugged the chassis beneath. The look was aggressive, with large flares over the rear wheels, a purposeful visage to the front and rear, and a bobbed tail. The 365 GT4/BB had no visible holes to mar its lines; air entered the carburettors through ducts in the rear engine cover.

When the 512 BB gained NACA ducts to cool the rear brakes, they were almost invisible and pleasingly sporting. The combination of sensuous curves and aggressive details correctly suggest the iron fist in a velvet glove. The shape was uncontroversial in its beauty. The design was a departure only in its simplicity of mated form and function, something not previously associated with mid-engined road cars.

The Boxer of 1984 is readily identifiable as a slight evolution of the car it was in 1973. Small styling differences between the 1973-76 365 GT4/BB, the 1976-81 512 BB, and the 1981-84 512 BBi are visible primarily in details such as revised front driving and indicator light fairings, a changed lower front valance and spoiler, reduction of tailights and exhaust tips from the six of the 365 GT4/BB to the four of later models, and small NACA ducts feeding air to the rear brakes behind slightly wider rear wheels.