Yahoo Autos Ferrari 12Cilindri Deep Dive Preview: No electric here, just pure V12 beauty
MARANELLO, Italy – Bentley built its final W12 in April, an engine VW Group introduced in 2001. Mercedes and BMW already bid auf wiedersehen to 12 cylinders. But Ferrari is Ferrari. Defying trends and regulators, the company has created a radically reimagined GT whose name rivals “LaFerrari” for on-the-nose intent: The 12Cilindri.
The new Ferrari 12Cilindri was just officially revealed in Miami, but I got a deep-dive viewing two weeks ago at the company’s sleek Centro Stile (“design center”) in Maranello.
With all respect to the 812 Superfast, the breathtaking, Delta-themed 12Cilindri crumples and tosses its predecessor’s evolutionary design. For years now, Ferrari’s classic front-engine GTs have been overshadowed by its mid-engine V8 supercars, and now the brilliant six-cylinder 296 GTB hybrid. So extending the life of Ferrari’s hallowed V12 is a good thing, but only if the GT it powers gets some love and attention as well.
Talk about an attention-getter. Even as it nods to Ferrari’s past — including a visor-like hood band that’s a cheeky callback to the 365 GTB4 Daytona — the 12Cilindri’s winning modernity seems a career mic drop (so far) for design chief Flavio Manzoni.
Fans of ICE-fueled overabundance will give thanks to 12 apostles, seated for supper in red-haloed rows, below the Ferrari’s DaVinci-spec hood. Those cylinders will deliver a decidedly unholy 819 horsepower, up from 788 in the 812 Superfast, and matching the track-focused 812 Competizione. Ferrari pegs 0-62-mph (100 km/h) acceleration in 2.9 seconds, a 7.9-second rip to 124 mph, and a top speed beyond 211 mph.
The Ferrari V12 that started it all was Gioacchino Columbo’s controversial 1.5-liter design, whose 1946 blueprints are preserved in Maranello. Critics scoffed that the tiny displacement was better suited to a four-cylinder. Italian racer Franco Cortese recalled a general consensus on Enzo: “He’s a nutcase. It will eat his money and finish him.”
Instead, Enzo’s one-off 125 C (and a single 125 S) rolled from the factory gate and into history in 1947. That 125 C conked out with fuel-pump problems while leading its first race, which Enzo dubbed “a promising failure.” The snub-nosed red barchetta won six of its next 13 races — though not the Mille Miglia — making 100 horsepower from its 60-degree V12. Ferrari wouldn’t build a road car without a front-engine V12 for 20 years, until the mid-mounted V6 Dino 206 in 1967. So Ferrari’s 12-cylinder loyalty is only natural, including in the naturally-aspirated Purosangue SUV.
Eight decades of growth have lifted displacement to a big-blocky 6.5 liters, with the aforementioned 819 horses and 500 pound-feet of torque. I’m already dreaming of a test drive when Manzoni lifts the largest hood ever fitted to a Ferrari: a single hunk of hot-formed aluminum long enough to make a Viper blush. The front-hinged clamshell eliminates cutlines around the hood, in a car inspired as much by aeronautics as automobiles. Say arrevederci to a traditional grille. Headlamps are integrated into the wraparound “Daytona” band, with blade-like daytime running lights. A pair of asymmetric hood vents are the only visual break in the fluid form. Sexy, swelling front and rear fenders are connected by a subtle update of Ferrari’s familiar semi-circular indent line.
Again dispensing with nostalgia, Manzoni and Co. went for high, functional drama out back: A sweeping rear window and carbon-fiber roof nod to an aeronautic flybridge. And rather than a traditional rear spoiler, that rear window melds into a pair of moveable, batwing-like flaps at each corner. The electric winglets can lift up to 30 degrees to boost downforce, but won’t move independently. (Ferrari engineers say the weight and complexity of a dual-motor system weren’t justified by aero gains). An aggressive rear diffuser juts like a lineman’s facemask, the one area where function arguably intrudes on an otherwise-elegant form.
The window and, um, “batflaps” form the car’s signature Delta shape, with the greenhouse surface in contrasting body color. A gem-like lighting blade (with no round taillamps, scusi) wraps a concave rear. Viewed from behind, the 12Cilindri appears to be a double-wide supercar fantasy: Owners had better prepare to be chased by Insta-snapping fans.
Ferrari unveiled the coupe in a coat of gray-white “Bianco Artico” paint, which seemed hard to top — until we traipsed into its Atelier (where customers choose leathers and other options) for a gander at the 12Cilindri Spider. The convertible was shown in “Verde Toscana,” a spring awakening of green-gray that flattered every line. As in the 296 GTS, the space-saving retractable hardtop opens or closes in 14 seconds at speeds up to 28 mph.
