Ferrari and four-wheel drive go way back, although it never was a promising technology for the company. The great engineer Mauro Forghieri, who supervised the racing development of Scuderia for decades, investigated the 4wd concept to use it on Formula 1. A test car using parts from other race cars was built. The 312B3 or 'snowplow' was mostly known because of its appearance and the integrated front wing/spoiler with the fuselage. The 1961 Ferguson P99 Climax inspired this project. This was the first 4wd F1 car and the last front-engine car that won an F1 race. The 312B3 was never raced, leading to the successful T-series race cars. However, Ferrari never raced or tested a 4wd F1 car again.
After he resigned from F1, M.Forghieri was appointed director of Ferrari's "advanced research office," where he stayed for two and a half years. Under his supervision, Ferrari presented a working concept car, the 408 Integrale, a moving laboratory for new technologies.
The 408 was so advanced that today, almost 25 years after its 1987 debut, would look misplaced in the current Ferrari lineup. It had a very advanced aluminum frame with sandwich panels bonded together by glue and laser welding. Its shape had very low drag, a Cd of only 0.274 to 0.314 depending on the position of the movable rear wing.
The 408, like the NSX later, incorporated and defined the template used by almost every supercar today. It had a centrally longitudinally-mounted V8, which was offset to the right to accommodate the gearbox side by side. It was very compact and light (1260), especially because it was built with production quality standards. It had air condition, and its interior quality was better than that of F40. Engineers from Honda most certainly considered 408 while designing the NSX, which isn't a case of shameless copying.
The most exotic feature of the 408, which is mentioned in this article, was its four-wheel drive. It had a relatively simple system with two mechanical limited-slip differentials (17% front, 75% rear). The central differential was geared to transmit 29,3% of the power at the front and 70,7% at the back under normal conditions. It had a hydraulic limited-slip system and a manual override for the complete lock.
The 408 concept was very thoroughly designed and relatively easy to enter production. However, it was considered too advanced (12~15 patents were submitted) and exotic for the time and especially for Ferrari. Mauro Forghieri later joined the resurrected under Romano Artioli Bugatti, where he evolved his ideas and developed the four-wheel-drive system of the also advanced EB110. The latter had a longitudinal offset placed V12 with the gearbox stacked on its side, like the 408.
The use of four-wheel drive to augment the performance of a sport car or even a supercar or racecar isn't new. It isn't new even for Ferrari, as mentioned above, and even though the two 408 prototypes were the closer the company ever got to a production 4wd car, the concept was studied and explored in depth.
Source: Ioannis K. Erripis - robotpig.net
Images: Ferrari S.p.A.; Mario Buonocunto Concept Cars Page; Road&Track; www.ferraridatabase.com
