Ferrari 12Cilindri Review 2024 | Top Gear

The 12Cilindri. Or Dodici Cilindri, if you prefer. Feel free to practice the correct pronunciation. It will make you feel like a proper Ferraristi, which is who this bracingly modern new car is aimed at. It succeeds the 812 Superfast and F12 Berlinetta, making it part of Ferrari’s purest bloodline, that of the front-engined GT.

Enzo Ferrari capitalised on this throughout the Fifties and beyond when he sold his cars to kings and princes in an effort to keep the often tempestuous racing business afloat. “The 12 cylinder will always be the original Ferrari,” he said in his dotage. “So everything else is a derivation.”

No pressure. More of the same, then?

Not quite. The recipe remains broadly the same but the end result has a distinctly different flavour. Ferrari claims the 12Cilindri has a bigger bandwidth than ever, with an increased emphasis on comfort and design as the principal differentiators, without compromising on the blade-like dynamics and riotous performance V12 Ferraris are known for. It’s the connoisseur’s Ferrari, the OG, and in the flesh it drips with confidence.

That said, the design has proven polarising, even by the shock and awe standards of the contemporary car world. Ferrari’s chief design officer Flavio Manzoni candidly admits that some onlookers might be a bit bewildered to begin with. We’d argue that it’s still very much a crowd-pleaser, assuming that the crowd has a solid working knowledge of car design and an above average concentration span.

Manzoni dislikes retro but is happy to quote from the past. So your eyes do not deceive you, for the horizontal blade nose clearly evokes the 365 GTB4 Daytona (Ferrari experts will confirm that that particular Pininfarina design transformed the company’s aesthetic in a fast-moving late-Sixties era).

The rear end is quite difficult to get your head around. We miss the round tail-lights…

Time to move on. The ‘delta’ screen is perhaps the most challenging element here, with those – only in black – active rear aero flaps a close second, and the light bar and oblong tail-pipes all competing for attention. It’s a highly graphic, geometric looking car, with proportions that are so deliberately extreme they’re almost but not quite cartoonish. Just wait until you see it for real before grinding your fists into your keyboard in a fit of righteous indignation.

The entire cofango – bonnet and front wings – tilts forward to reveal the engine. It’s a major piece of sculpture and a triumph of manufacturing technique, and this is perhaps the only car in the world that looks as good with its bonnet open as it does closed. The V12, meanwhile, is more beautiful to look at than ever in a world increasingly full of dull propulsion-oriented black boxes.

Ah yes, the engine…

It picks up where the limited run 812 Competizione left off, which has annoyed some online observers. Sure, it has the same power output – 819bhp – and the valvetrain’s sliding finger followers, each coated in Diamond-Like-Carbon to reduce friction, are also shared. Titanium conrods appeared in the 812 Comp, part of a package of measures that reduce the weight and inertia of the engine’s components. A different grade of aluminium reduces the weight of the pistons, and the crankshaft is three per cent lighter. Ferrari is hardly going to walk back the innovation as it rolls out its next-generation models, and this engine continues in production impressively hybrid and turbo-free.

What about the hardware that surrounds it?

The chassis is new, 15 per cent stiffer than the 812 Superfast’s, and made of extruded and cast aluminium. Much of it is recycled and there are now 17 castings compared to 22 (resulting in a reduction of 146kg of CO2 per car produced). There’s also a 20mm reduction in the wheelbase compared to the 812, and Ferrari claims extra rigidity in the A and C pillars, with improved NVH levels and safety as a result.

Though the body’s surfaces are largely unadulterated there’s a lot of aero trickery. The underbody is designed to funnel hot air away from the central radiators, and there are vortex generators at the front and rear to generate downforce. The active aero flaps on the tail stay flush to the body in ‘low drag’ configuration, pop up in ‘high downforce’ mode to an angle of 10° according to how hard you’re pushing between speeds of 38mph and 186mph.

Above that the computers lock the car into low-drag mode assuming a top speed run is coming. It also means there’s no need for a full-width rear wing which serves up more boot-space. A proper GT, y’see. This is as close to a boulevardier Ferrari as the company makes, but it’s still a complex and clever machine.

Ferrari may just have delivered its most complete car ever. It’s not as visceral or extrovert as its forebears – which might bother some of the hardcore – but that’s hardly an issue when you experience what the 12Cilindri can do. It’s hugely charismatic, beautifully made, and a design and tech leader. That bloodline has just been enriched.