FANTASTIC BEASTS

With legislation threatening their very existence, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Lamborghini have another roll of the V12 dice

- Story: Ben Barry Photography: Jordan Butters

A TEST OF THREE V12 SUPERCARS IS clearly not comparable to a Royal Air Force (RAF) low-flying exercise, but it does share three core requirements: we need an inordinate amount of fuel, a lot of space, and, preferably, not so many people around to complain about a howling racket that rattles windows for miles around (although to you and me, it is a 12-cylinder symphony).

So, we point the Lamborghini Revuelto, Ferrari 12Cilindri, and Aston Martin Vanquish north, striding up the A1, aiming to refuel in Barnard Castle and vanish from the radar in the North Pennines.

Disappearing is easier said than done, because even with the volume off this trio would pull a crowd; the hybrid Revuelto later proves as much, as it glides through town on electric power and startled pedestrians grab smartphones from pockets like guns from holsters. And when all three of these end-of-days V12s are singing through an arsenal of exhausts, it is a social media feeding frenzy.

Beyond the visuals and the sounds, more fascinating are the radically different spins these three put on their respective V12 engines—where they place it, how (and whether) they boost it, and the means by which they transmit its spectacular power output to the road.

We are here to discover how that makes them feel to drive.

A 250 GTO for the modern era, the Ferrari 12Cilindri takes Enzo's mantra that clients bought an engine with a car thrown in free, then turns it into the most literal nomenclature since Maserati got stumped naming a saloon with four doors.

Then again, this engine has done so much good work, it should probably have a piazza named after it. Six-point-five litres of naturally aspirated heaven descended from the Enzo, it rips to 9,250 rpm and makes 830 hp all in.