Profiting from History; $5 million-plus racing Ferrari is top weekend auction car.(News)

Byline: LARRY EDSALL

Phil Hill was familiar enough with this particular V12 to refer to it as the "Bellentani engine.''

"Its early history is a bit fuzzy,'' the former world champion wrote in "The Legend of the Ferrari 412S,'' an article for Rosso Ferrari magazine that was re-published as part of the catalog for RM's Monterey Sports & Classic Car Auction at Pebble Beach, where this particular engine-and the car that surrounded it-sold for $5,610,000.

That figure, $5.61 million, was by far the most paid for any vehicle at any of the myriad auctions held in conjunction with the recent Pebble Beach/Monterey Historics/Concorso weekend.

Oh, yes, the car that surrounded the engine that had been built by Vittorio Bellentani and his fellow Ferrari engineers was a 1956 Ferrari 412 S, a front-engine sports racing car driven to victory by Richie Ginther, and driven rather successfully, as well, by Hill and others.

Hill recalls that the engine originally was installed in the car driven in the 1957 Mille Miglia by Alfonso de Portago and Eddie Nelson, both of whom died, as did 10 spectators, when the car crashed.

Ferrari salvaged the V12 and souped it up for the Formula One car that Luigi Musso and Mike Hawthorn-and eventually Hill-would share under the unusual multi-heat format of the Grand Prix vs. Indy race at Monza in 1958.