Ferrari’s Forgotten Two-Cylinder Experiment
In 1955, Ferrari experimented with one of the most unconventional Formula One engines ever conceived at Maranello: a 2.5-litre two-cylinder racing engine.
Designed under Aurelio Lampredi and known as the Tipo 116, the enormous inline twin displaced 2,493 cc from just two cylinders. Each cylinder measured an extraordinary 118 mm in bore and 114 mm in stroke. It was conceived with slower, tighter circuits such as Monaco in mind, where low-speed torque and a compact installation could potentially offer an advantage. Period accounts describe its vibration as so severe during testing that it damaged the bracing of Ferrari's test bed, and the experiment went no further.
The engine subsequently became little more than a footnote in Ferrari history.
Yet these six photographs appear to document the physical remains of that extraordinary experiment.
Six photographs. One extraordinary Ferrari engine.
Recently acquired for the Curated Cavallino Archive, this group consists of six original black-and-white photographic prints showing the disassembled two-cylinder Ferrari engine in remarkable detail.
Rather than formal factory publicity photographs, the images have the character of working documentation. The engine is photographed from above, from either side and internally, its immense cylinder dimensions plainly visible. In one particularly fascinating image, a tape measure is stretched directly across one of the cylinder liners.
The reading corresponds closely with the Tipo 116's documented 118 mm bore.
That photograph also contains another intriguing clue.
The person taking the measurement is wearing a necktie repeatedly woven with the JCB logo.
The JCB connection
Anthony Bamford became one of Britain's most significant Ferrari collectors, and there is contemporary documentary evidence that he acquired a lorry load of discarded Ferrari components from the Ferrari factory's so-called "morgue", subsequently shipping the material back to England. Denis Jenkinson recorded the story in Motor Sport in 1980 while discussing Bamford's collection and the Ferrari parts discovered among it.
The JCB-patterned tie therefore raises an intriguing possibility: that these photographs were made while unidentified Ferrari components in the Bamford collection were being inspected and documented.
It is an attractive explanation, but an important distinction should be maintained. The tie establishes a compelling JCB connection; on its own it does not prove the precise workshop, identity of the man pictured or date the photographs were taken.
And then there is the inscription on the reverse.
Written in pencil on the back of one of the prints are three words:
“Photo: Eoin Young”
Young was far more than an occasional motorsport photographer. The New Zealand journalist worked closely with Bruce McLaren and was involved in the formative period of what became McLaren Racing; Bruce McLaren himself recalled setting up a private team with Timmy Mayer, Teddy Mayer and his secretary Eoin Young.
Decades later, Young returned to the extraordinary 1955 season in his book The Amazing Summer of '55. Intriguingly, a contemporary review specifically highlighted among the book's notable photographs a Ferrari prototype 2.5-litre Monaco 1955 engine.
The Tipo 116
The engine itself was an extraordinary piece of engineering.
Ferrari had achieved considerable success with Lampredi's large four-cylinder engines, but the Tipo 116 took the philosophy to its logical extreme: fewer cylinders, enormous individual displacement and an emphasis on torque.
With only two cylinders sharing almost 2.5 litres, each displaced approximately 1.25 litres. The prototype used four valves per cylinder and was intended as a potential Formula One engine for slower circuits. Contemporary technical accounts put output at approximately 175 PS at 4,800 rpm.
Its theoretical advantages came at an enormous cost.
The reciprocating masses involved in pistons of this size produced severe vibration. Accounts of Ferrari's testing describe the engine damaging the test-bed bracing, while other sources report crankshaft failure associated with the engine's poor balance. The two-cylinder idea was abandoned and Ferrari pursued more conventional solutions.
The Tipo 116 never raced.
For now, these six physical prints preserve an unusually intimate look at one of the strangest engineering experiments of Ferrari's early Formula One era.