What do the numbers represent in a Ferrari's name?

Answer 1

In a Ferrari Formula 1 Car, the number tend to either represent the year such as the F2012, or something to do with the engine size for example the F248, with a 2400cc displacement and 8 cylinders

In a Ferrari road car, there are several different conventions depending on the size of the engine and/or the era of the car.

The early cars up to about the mid 70s were all v12s, and there number was the cc of each cylinder, so times the number by 12 to give you the total cc, eg the 250 was 3,000cc and the 275 was 3,300 cc

Starting with the dino 206 the was a 2 liter 6 cylinder engine and the dino 246 was a 2.4 liter 6 cylinder

The v12s however continued the original numbering convention until the Testarossa, with v121s after this tending be named in the smae way as v 8s and other , eg engine size then cylinders for the Testarossa 512 TR, being a 5 liter 12 cylinder version

The next change came in the mid 90s with the 355, being a 3,5 liter engine, but now the second 5 stood for the number of valves per cylinder, rather than total cylinders

Then they changed again to just capacity such as the 360 (3.6 liter), 550 (5.5 liter)

The two big exceptions are the F40, and the F50, where the numbers stand for the anniversary since the founding of Ferrari