Super & Fast

A traditionalist might call this a GT, but Ferrari’s new front-midengined V12 is pure supercar.

- Wilhelm Lutjeharms

588 kW. In automotive terms, that is a big number. Even in an era of high performance hyper cars, 588 kW remains a significant statistic. One of the head engineers who worked on the 812 Superfast’s engine admitted that it was something of a challenge to extract yet more power from Ferrari’s famed V12 and develop the engine to rev even higher.

Needless to say, with this new power plant, codenamed F140J, the company has succeeded. Further development of an engine that can trace its basic architecture to the Ferrari Enzo supercar means the 6,5-litre (up from the F12’s 6,3-litre unit) V12 now develops 588 kW at 8 500 r/min and 718 N.m at 7 000 r/min, with the rev limit raised to a loftier 8 900 r/min.

There is simply so much to celebrate here. For starters, the engine boasts more than 75% new parts and the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission has been further improved to offer upshifts some 30% quicker and downshifts 40% faster than before.

While the Superfast moniker might sound a little on the crass and obvious side, it does have provenance: the name belonged to one of the earliest production Ferraris. At the Paris Motor Show in 1956, nine years after Ferrari was founded, the Superfast I was unveiled; it’s a name that would stick for a number of years and, yes, it featured a V12 engine.

Although the engineers employed experience gained from development of the limited-edition F12tdf, the 812 Superfast is not as focused, nor as hard-core. See it as a replacement for the F12berlinetta. The 812’s intake manifold is based on the tdf’s, but hydraulic tappets have been used instead of the mechanical ones. Ferrari’s aim has also been to make the 812 Superfast more versatile than the tdf, along with building a little more comfort into the suspension setup.