When the 5-litre class was abandoned for 1972, the career of both the 512 and 917 was effectively over. (Photo: ultimatecarpage.com) » More Photos

The championship now moved to Europe for five more races before the season's pinnacle, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Forghieri was keen on developing the car further, but was limited due to homologation restrictions. Reliability was incredible in those five races, with just one retirement from 17 starts. Unfortunately none of the finishes resulted in wins, but there were podium finishes none-the-less including a 2-3-4 finish behind a single 917 at the Monza 1000 km. The 512's handling was underlined by a third place finish at the Targa Florio, a track that favoured the nimble 3 litre prototypes.

Le Mans was the most important race of the season for Porsche. A Le Mans win would complete an arduous 20 year racing effort. More than on any other track, the car's top speed at Le Mans is crucial. Both Ferrari and Porsche produced special longtail versions which created less downforce, but in turn gave less drag for higher top speeds. Ferrari fielded four longtail works racers, but Porsche's leading JWA (Gulf) team was reluctant to switch to the longtail variant because of testing accidents. Again the Ferrari's were substantially heavier than both the regular 917 and the long tail versions.

Qualifying showed that the 512 S' 100 additional kilos were no real handicap as Vacarella recorded a lap time of just 0.3s behind pole sitter Elford in his longtail 917. Finishing had been Ferrari's strong point throughout the European season, but that quite abruptly ended at Le Mans. Vacarella's car lasted just 30 minutes. When rain began to slick the track shortly after, two of the remaining works cars fell victim of a multiple car mishap. Jackie Ickx took the lead in the remaining works 512 S, but around 2:00 am he hit a puddle and crashed out, killing a marshal in the process. Porsche finally won their Le Mans. The 1970 Le Mans was the only running of the race where works Ferraris and Porsches battled for victory; the end, and beginning of two eras.

Now with the stress of Le Mans behind them, the Forghieri led development team started to work on a slimmed down and more powerful version of the 512 S. Dubbed 512 M (for Modificato or Modified), the revised car now produced 620 bhp and weighed in at only 815 kg, compared to the 512 S Spyder's 856 kg. A 'sharper' wedge-shaped nose was fitted and a large airbox was mounted on top of the engine to force air into the intake-trumpets. Further modifications included new rear bodywork and the spyder option was no longer available. The 'M-package' was far from cheap, but about 15 of the 25 512s were updated.