 2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta. Click image to enlarge |
Review by Michael Bettencourt, photos by Michael Bettencourt and courtesy Ferrari
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2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta
Maranello, Italy – VaaaRRROOOOOMMMM… announces the Ferrari F12berlinetta upon startup, loudly announcing that there’s now a fully awake monster lurking just past your toes. Its vicious bite of sound at startup may not make you popular with your neighbours, or then again it may, but it feels as if everything becomes clearer instantly. It’s not time to run errands, or head to work, or attend to any other such trivial matters.
It’s time to drive. Hard.
The F12 is the most powerful road-legal Ferrari ever. Its monstrous V12 engine, with its 730 hp and cylinder count reflected in its name, is now the most powerful naturally aspirated production car in the world. Only the Bugatti Veyron, helped along mightily by its four turbochargers and sixteen cylinders, can surpass these horsepower numbers, at least in North America.
Ferrari has confirmed that this engine will be the basis for Ferrari’s upcoming hybrid supercar, unofficially dubbed the F70, which will become the limited edition Enzo replacement to debut early in 2013. Details of that model are still sketchy as I write this, but a development of its HY-KERS gas-electric hybrid system will be used to boost power and lower emissions, as well as help the handling through a new torque vectoring system, all in a footprint and weight close to that of the current 458. Whether or not whispered horsepower numbers in the 900 range come to pass, it will certainly overtake the F12’s brief reign as the most powerful production Ferrari in history.
  2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta. Click image to enlarge |
But the F12 is not meant to be Ferrari’s sportiest car, it’s meant to be its most exciting grand touring car. Its high pony count may be the most of any current Ferrari, but its overall demeanour on the road suggests that practicality and comfort also came into the equation far more than in, say, a rear-engine 458.
Exiting the factory grounds through the famed Ferrari archway, we started in Automatic mode to see if the transmission could handle the stop-and-go stuff without bucking around. There’s no lack of cut or thrust (especially) here, the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission nicely civilized throughout in its fully automatic mode, even if it’s a touch lumpier than the auto mode of more luxury-oriented rivals like a Bentley Continental GT or Aston Martin Vanquish.
Turn signal and headlight stalks have been banished, as has any manual transmission availability, to keep the driver’s hands on the steering wheel at all times. That busy steering wheel became too busy on a couple impromptu occasions, as the horn has been diminished to a couple of subtle, unlit indentations in the steering wheel right around the thumb mark.
  2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta. Click image to enlarge |
It’s one thing not to offer cupholders or stereo controls on the steering wheel for the sake of driving purity, but hiding the horn had both my co-driver and I occasionally hammering on that prancing horse fruitlessly.
Then again, the best way to keep space around you in an F12 is by using the accelerator. A full blast of the F12’s power is like that last step before your first skydiving jump: you know all hell is about to break loose, and the anticipation is about as scary as the rush of the launch. Open your window, and the air rushing by and screaming from the wind and engine seem similar too. Pounding down on the standard carbon-fibre discs brought the anchor down with similarly violent neck-stretching force, just pushing forward instead of rearward.
 2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta. Click image to enlarge |
While the acceleration and braking were forcefully extreme, it was the V12’s Formula One-inspired engine sound that was most intoxicating. With power peaking at 8,250 rpm, warp drive truly starts around 5,000 rpm. It’s then that it becomes a permeating shriek that shakes your core more than the most sado-masochistic personal trainer.
All of the F12’s power results in screaming blasts to highway speeds, as suggested in its benchmark 0–100 km/h acceleration time of 3.1 seconds, and in its 340 km/h top speed. Ferrari states a 1 minute and 23 second lap time around Fiorano, which is two seconds better than the Enzo, and one second faster than the 599 GTO, according to Ferrari.
Ferrari claims the F12 is 30 percent more fuel efficient than the 599 in combined driving on optimistic Euro testing cycles. While Ferrari provides an overall average of 15.0 L/100 km, it admits the reduction will be less once more realistic EPA numbers come out. However you slice it, the F12 is going to be one of the thirstiest sports cars around when it arrives in North America in spring 2013.
     2013 Ferrari F12berlinetta. Click image to enlarge |
Slowing down to take in the F12 at a rest stop, the Berlinetta – or F12berlinetta, as Ferrari strangely combines the F12 and Berlinetta designation as one word – continues along the design school of restrained aggressiveness that started with the 458. The body avoids big spoilers or the massive intakes for subtler but still performance-enhancing styling cues. Most notable at the front is what Ferrari calls the Aero Bridge, two sheet metal scallops in the hood that lead air under a bridge in the bodywork to behind the front fender to provide more downforce.
Stepping inside, there’s an artful sleekness to the F12’s interior, with performance the overriding theme. That’s especially true if one opts for the carbon-fibre steering wheel with integrated LED rev counter, carbon-fibre seat shells – helping the CF package shed a further 30 kg – and an instrument readout screen in front of the passenger that displays the driver’s speed, rpm and gear choices.
My F12 tester seemed well optioned, but with nowhere near the sumptuously fully loaded finishes of a Bentley. This particular example didn’t have the carbon-fibre steering wheel or passenger tattle-tale screen that displays the speed, rpm and gear readings, but featured more security-oriented front and rear parking cameras. All the materials and surfaces look sleek to the eye and virtuous to the fingertips, with red leather swathed across the dashboard and door panels to match the rosso of the carpets and leather seat inserts.
Out on the twisty mountain roads surrounding Maranello, though the power is triumphant, handling was just a touch less divine. The lovingly chiseled steering wheel helps turn in quickly and smoothly, but there is just a shade of delay there compared to mid-engine cars, to help with comfort and directional stability on the highway. Although the latest generation magnetorheological shocks offer improved response time to its continuous pavement monitoring, with settings adjustable on the steering wheel, it’s hard not to compare the F12 to the brilliant mid-engine 458 Italia coupe we drove around these same roads to this larger and heavier sports car. And there is simply no better or sharper-handling vehicle on the road than Ferrari’s 458.
On the other hand, the F12 is notably more comfortable, with a much larger cargo area, at 320 litres. And it is practical considerations such as this that are key if Ferrari is correct that about a fifth of its owners will drive the F12 daily – which is a high percentage, for a Ferrari.
In the end, the F12berlinetta seems to be a Ferrari for those used to having the best of everything, including multiple examples of the prancing horse machinery. It may not be the prettiest Ferrari, nor the best handling, but its Herculean engine is enough to guarantee its legendary status, no matter how long its actual reign as the most powerful production Ferrari lasts.
