THE LAST BASTION

While others convert to electrification, Ferrari remains committed to its V12. Simon Hucknall evaluates its past quarter-century of progress through a 550 Maranello and a new 812 GTS

- Simon Hucknall

What does a V12 mean to you? Is it the pinnacle of combustion-powered brilliance; a multi-cylindered masterpiece that’s among the smoothest and most sweetly balanced engines found in any car? Or is it just the final bastion of automotive profligacy, the antithesis of all that’s clean and green, awaiting its inevitable death knell from legislators the world over?

Ferrari should know better than most. Of the four manufacturers in the UK that still sell V12-powered cars (Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce being the others, if you ignore the odd niche luxury car), it has by far the longest back catalogue of road-going V12 models. In fact, you could argue that it’s a continuous one, too, given that Maranello’s flat-12 engines from the 1970s to the 1990s were actually wide-angled vees by another name.

And being mid-engined, it’s those cars – Boxers, Testarossas et al – that separate the two eras of front-engined V12, two-seat production Ferraris. The first one ended with the 365 GTB/4 ‘Daytona’ in 1973 and the current one started in 1996 with the 550 Maranello, which we have with us today, neatly bookended by the current 812, which we’ve also brought along to gauge what a quarter-century of evolution looks and drives like.

Autocar’s original test of the 550 actually referred to the Daytona, saying: “For all its speed and beauty, it showed that a mid-engined successor was necessary. The 550 shows that it is not.”