We drive Ferrari's new V12 supercar, the F12.
Setting out onto the narrow streets of Maranello is quite intimidating. The F12 feels super wide, the steering is too quick, and there is so much urge from the motor, even from just beyond tick-over, you can breach the national speed limit without even properly getting on the throttle. The roads in Maranello, contrary to what you might expect, are as bad as some of those here. So I expect a bone-jarring ride every time we cross over a bad patch. But that just never happens – which, frankly, boggles the mind. The suspension of this car has to be stiff enough to deal with more than 700bhp, and the 35-profile tyres aren’t much help either. But the F12 is nowhere near uncomfortable. There’s a layer of stiffness, sure, but there’s also a suppleness that’s just beggars belief. The suspension doesn’t thud through bumps and this is largely down to the adjustable ‘Magneride’ dampers that react in milliseconds.
Town soon gives way to country. Wider roads and no stop-lights allow the use of more throttle and revs; so now, instead of using between 1200 and 1400rpm, I use anything between 2000 and 2500rpm. And I haven’t even given the big V12 motor a good whack yet!
I know just how hard a 690bhp Aventador pulls, but unlike the four-wheel-drive Lamborghini, the F12 only drives its rear wheels. The road opens out a bit more. Flowing corners give way to longish stretches and every few kilometres, we come upon a bunch of tight bends. I’m using more power, more revs and more of the chassis’ potential, and the F12 is beginning to reveal itself, onion-like, in layers.
This new V12 motor uses direct injection, so the build-up of torque starts early. Ferrari says 80 percent of the torque comes in by 2500rpm and that’s entirely believable. The motor almost teases you into using more throttle, and excursions up the rev range are accompanied by a wall of sound that includes wailing trumpets and chain-driven cams. The most surreal bit, however, is just how refined the engine gets. Sure, the revs soar and the engine note climbs up a couple of octaves, but once you cross 4500rpm, the engine turns so smooth, it’s as if someone has switched it off. It just feels like it ceases to exist, only the screaming and howling of the exhausts remain.
The sheer athleticism engineered into the chassis also begins to shine through. Suddenly, the super-quick steering and ultra-sensitive brakes make sense. Responses are both instant and precisely measured, no time lost in wasteful slack, the F12 doing your bidding instantly. Ferrari says it had to ‘drag’ the rest of the car up and make everything work faster to help match the potential of the engine. So the brakes now use a modified version of Bosch’s ‘pre-safe’ system, where the pads are brought into close proximity with the discs as soon as you get off the throttle. This means there is no squishy ‘dead zone’ on the brake pedal and hard braking can start at first contact.