One of the more interesting cars exhibited at the recent Chelsea Auto Legends show was a rare Ferrari 268SP.

Unveiled in 1962, the 268SP was one of a series of Sports Prototypes unveiled that year using fundamentally the same chassis design and bodywork but with a variety of different engines. The engine is broadly 2/3rds of a Ferrari 400 Superamerica V12, with a single cam per bank, and with a larger capacity and more cylinders.  Ferrari possibly considered this to be an easier way of producing horsepower than the four-cam V6 used in the 246SP, and may have considered this relative simplicity to be more attractive to customer teams (both engines were reported to produce to around 260-270bhp).

The 268 did not turn out to be very successful and was overshadowed by the 246-powered SP cars - Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien used one of these to win the Nürburgring 1000km in 1962 and another led at Le Mans before retiring in the hands of the Rodrieguez brothers - but arguably the 268SP could be considered the starting point for the illustrious line of mid-engined V8 Ferrari sports cars that was to follow.

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