AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Did Ferrari not get the memo? Nobody should be building a new V12engined super-GT in 2024. And yet... what if it is really good?

- James Dennison

EXITING THE TOWN OF LAROCHETTE, a road worker in a JCB gawps as the 12Cilindri glides by. Today is his lucky day, because it is at that precise moment that I get my first chance to remind myself what a Ferrari V12 does to a person’s soul. CT Off mode engaged, I click down three times on the carbon paddle. Fourth. Third. Second. My jaw clenches as my right foot flexes down on the loud pedal, my mind made up even if my ankle does not seem so sure.

The forward motion that follows is both violent and deeply intoxicating, all 12 cylinders and 6,496 cubic centimetres working in glorious synchrony to produce the greatest sound to come out of Italy since Bocelli. Fully 80 per cent of the engine’s maximum torque arrives from just 2,500 rpm, so there is little if any waiting and as the revs rise, I cannot help but tighten my grip on the wheel. It is a unique, scintillating kind of acceleration reserved for only the greatest powertrains and right now it is nowhere close to letting up.

At 5,000-7,000 rpm, the baying sound of the intake is unmistakably Ferrari V12, but I have to keep myself from reaching for the next gear, such is the breadth of the power-band. Wailing past 7,000 rpm, the car is gaining revs and speed with phenomenal pace. In a heartbeat the sound of immaculate combustion chaos has reached its peak and another gear repeats the assault on my senses.

But hold on. Dial back a bit. I am driving a new Ferrari powered by what? A 6.5-litre V12? It seems hard to believe amid today’s relentless push towards net zero, but Ferrari are doubling down on their crown jewel and have reaffirmed their commitment to the V12 engine for as long as humanly possible within the legislation, current and incoming. Will this be the last non-hybrid Ferrari V12? Perhaps.