First Drive: The 819 HP Ferrari 12Cilindri Takes the Old-School Supercar Into the Future
Ferrari designers looked to the Space Age and 1970s retro-futurism to design the marque’s new replacement for the 812 Superfast. Then they dropped in an old-school engine that built Enzo Ferrari’s legend: A naturally aspirated V-12. The 12Cilindri, whose very name (DOH-dee-chee chee-LIN-dree) says it all, relies on this potent, conventional mill to make it one of the fastest and most-powerful front-engined sports cars in history.
The 12Cilindri is just one of several atavistic supercars—including its direct rival, the Aston Martin Vanquish, and the V-16-equipped Bugatti Tourbillon—that revel in cylinder excess, keeping the ICE party going until emissions rules issue last call to the guzzlers. Yet the V-12 was a controversial engine since the origin of Ferrari as an automaker, as observers scoffed at the idea of splitting 1.5 liters between twelve tiny cylinders.
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An admirer of Packard and its big American V-12s, Enzo Ferrari enlisted engineer Gioacchino Colombo to design a sharply downsized version for the first Ferrari 125 S that rolled from Maranello’s factory in 1947. The latest model’s twelve-cylinder power plant would blow Enzo’s famous Persol sunglasses off his face. It’s more than four times larger at 6.5 liters, and precisely seven times as powerful, driving both the coupe and spider variants, priced starting at $464,000 and $510,400, respectively.
Starting from a chateau in Luxembourg, we fire up this seemingly endangered V-12, which springs to life with an angry bark and settles into a sensuous croon. Piloting our example (presented in a sunny Giallo Montecarlo paint scheme) through the green hills of Luxembourg, we’re introduced to the car’s touring acumen. Despite the blistering performance figures, it fits the definition of a grand tourer to a tee with adjustable magnetic shocks for ride comfort, useful trunk space, and a rear parcel shelf with snazzy tie-down straps for exclusive luggage designed by Marc Newson.
It’s only after moving to Goodyear’s test circuit at Colmar-Berg that we are able to appreciate the model’s substantial punch—a snorting rip to 62 mph, claimed to take merely 2.9 seconds, with the ability to reach 124 mph in 7.9 seconds. The car hits 183 mph by the end of the main straightaway, and given a little added room could have easily closed in on the touted top speed of over 211 mph.
Twiddling the steering-wheel manettino switch to shut off traction control, we roast the rear tires to get reacquainted with the V-12’s lusty power, despite the lack of turbocharging’s tricks. Peak torque is “only” 500 ft lbs, but 80 percent is available at 2,500 rpm. Versus its 788 hp predecessor in the 812 Superfast, the engine spins up 31 more horses and gets titanium connecting rods that are 40 percent lighter, a lightened crankshaft and pistons, and valve-train components derived directly from Ferrari’s F1 engines, boosting mechanical efficiency.
With Colmar-Berg’s long, steady corners, the circuit is ideal to show off new 21-inch Eagle F1 SuperSport tires. The versatile rubber combines low noise and rolling resistance with enough grip for track action. It’s also the first Goodyear-developed rubber for a Ferrari since the F50 of 1995, another V-12 model that shows how far we’ve come. The F50, a hypercar of its day, generates 512 hp and 347 ft lbs of torque.
Viewed in repose, the 12Cilindri’s long hood and cab-rearward proportions nod to classic Ferrari GTs of the 1950s and ‘60s, including a black band across the front end that’s a cheeky callback to the 365 GTB/4 “Daytona.” Lifting the dramatic, front-hinged clamshell hood, the largest ever draped over a Ferrari, reveals the redheaded engine below.
The rest of the car is intentionally daring: Think an Italian astronaut clad in one of Space X’s slim new suits. The most bravura element is a delta-shaped rear windscreen aft of a contrasting carbon-fiber roof. The windscreen plays up the aerospace design, flowing into an integrated pair of black winglets that rise up to 10 degrees to boost downforce.
Every juicy squeeze of the throttle underlines the star of this particular show, the V-12. Its rev limit soars to La Scala heights of 9,500 rpm, 500 rpm higher than before, accompanied by its own signature song, simultaneously elegant and violent. A new induction and exhaust system pipes the engine’s war cry directly into the cabin via sound resonators; no artificial EV engine noises here.
As for the interior, Ferrari cockpits have been crying out for a center touchscreen to ease the maddening operation of steering-wheel controls on some previous models. In response, the 12Cilindri gets a 10.2-inch display that looks a bit Garmin-esque, but is still a welcome upgrade. As in other cars, a third screen for the passenger can seem superfluous, but it does let shotgun riders control audio and other functions.
The swanky dual-cockpit design aims for near mirror-image layouts for the driver and passenger. It’s all hand assembled and lavishly decked with carbon fiber and stitched leather, which includes the trim on the flat-bottomed steering wheel with column-mounted paddle shifters. Compared to the 812 Superfast, a lower dashboard tumbles quickly toward the floor for better outward views, accentuated by a minimal center console whose metal transmission toggles nod to Ferrari’s romantic old manual shift gates—which only reminds us how you can’t get a stick in any new Ferrari. Buyers can choose standard sport seats, or a racier pair with deeper bolsters and carbon-fiber shells.
Ferrari’s first-ever software solution for a V-12, which it refers to as “Aspirated Torque Shaping,” smooths torque peaks and valleys in third and fourth gear to deliver a sense of limitless acceleration. A more-palpable gain comes from a dual-clutch automated gearbox that adds an eighth gear to boost performance and trim fuel consumption. Ferrari claims that the paddle-shifted gearbox delivers upshifts and downshifts that are 30 percent faster, and that the rear-end ratio is 5 percent lower.
Everything Ferrari has learned over decades of serial F1 dynasties, every chassis and handling trick, comes together in the 12Cilindri. The wheelbase shrinks by 0.8 inches versus the 812. Four-wheel steering virtually shortens that wheelbase by another 1.2 inches for added poise and reactivity in corners. And those rear wheels can pivot independently for improved cornering ability.
This big GT changes direction with the barest twitch of the steering wheel, which feels lubed in olive oil. The Side Slip Control traction system, now in its 8.0 iteration, transmits the 819 hp output to the pavement with an impressive lack of wheelspin or unwanted drama. And a sensitive by-wire braking system, first experienced on the brilliant 296 GTB hybrid (and less-brilliant SF90 hybrid), hauls down the 12Cilindri with ease.
As mid-engine Ferraris, such as the 296 GTB, have become the marque’s bread-and-butter, Maranello acknowledges the 12Cilindri is a different dish entirely. It’s aimed at a special niche, people who demand an undiluted, unfiltered driving experience. Ferrari began development of the model more than four years ago, long before the industry’s current reality check and pivot from EVs. But for customers who pine for a retro engine in an otherwise future-leaning supercar, the 12Cilindri’s timing appears perfect.
Click below for more photos of the 819 hp Ferrari 12Cilindri.
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