Incredibly powerful, but also exceptionally versatile. To push the heir of the 599 to the limit, you need to be a real expert. But to take it for a spin? Now, that’s child’s play.
Damn rain again, and today of all days. Not the conditions we were expecting before getting on board the F12. This isn’t just any car by any stretch of the imagination. How can it be with 731 horsepower – no, we’re not joking – ready to be unleashed on the asphalt? But what can we do? This year’s Spring is fickle, so we’re left with no choice but to test it in the rain.
After circling the car to admire its beautiful lines – the handiwork of Pininfarina and the Ferrari style Centre – we open the door and slip into the driver’s seat. The cockpit features the ultra high-tech set of the latest Ferrari’s. Noticeable in its design is quite a bit of the 458, a little bit of the FF, along with some elements that are truly unique. The controls are all on the steering wheel – including the turn signals, wipers and the light switches. Below the right spoke, we find the classic manettino – here in the 5-setting version. On the other side, we find a button to change the settings of the adjustable suspension. Just under that, the ignition button. The silence at the Vairano track – due to the weather, we are the only ones on track – is interrupted by the roar of the 12 cylinder engine, which settles nicely after a loud blare at the start. We switch to the ‘Wet’ setting on the manettino, get into first gear, and get a move on.
No Anxiety
The transmission, used in automatic mode, is unexpectedly soft and smooth. With a mere touch of the throttle pedal, it rattles off one gear after the other. While doing so, you eventually find yourself in 7th gear at 110km/h, with the V12 pottering at a little over a thousand rpm. An unusual way, perhaps, to be driving a Ferrari – but it’s reassuring to know that you can if you ever get stuck in day-to-day traffic. In this driving mode, the exhaust butterfly is closed and the suspension absorbs bumps well – definitely better than many pseudo-sport sedans. In short, you discover an unusually comfortable and reassuring F12. And yet all it takes is to switch to the manual shift setting, and downshift a few gears, to find yourself in an entirely different car. A bit more pressure on the accelerator, and the 12-cylinder engine starts to push forcefully. Beyond 4,500rpm, you basically enter another world. The acceleration is extraordinary, while the speedometer needle is pushed towards the realm of the forbidden. You might scoff at us for always saying this when it comes to Ferraris, but there really is no better term to describe this explosion of speed and power. Beyond a certain limit, at least on wet terrain, the big rear tyres are no longer capable of transmitting power to the road and start to spin (the same happens in second, and even third gear if you’re not pointing perfectly straight). They are, however, immediately curbed by the F1-Trac – the refined traction control developed at Maranello, which restores traction and stability. The F12 stabilizes itself immediately, and, with moderate acceleration, continues on its way without requiring any manoeuvring on the part of the pilot. Easy. Too easy.
What a Demon!
Move on to more sporty settings, and the interaction between the various control systems changes so much that it radically transforms the vehicle’s behaviour. On the ‘Race’ setting, the traction control works in close association with the electronic differential (E-Diff 3). Coming out of a curve, for instance, it increases the transfer of torque to the outer tyre as much as possible in order to maximize acceleration. This results in a slight loss of grip at the rear, which needs to be corrected by the driver according to the assistance being provided by the technology. Let us explain better. If the driver applies too much throttle, there’s no risk of spinning out because the stability control intervenes to restore grip. However, this intervention also means that there’s a resulting loss of speed. Consequently, there’s a need to adopt an appropriate driving strategy – with the maximum precision, and the right sensitivity in order to assist, if you will, the electronics to achieve a better result. Essentially, it’s nowhere near as easy as it was before. Two settings up on the manettino (ESC off), and the F12 becomes a weapon sharper than a Japenese katana. Now is when the presence of all 731 horses is felt, all at once, and only the electronic diffrential is left to mediate between the driver and the road. At this point, don’t look for trust from the vehicle because it won’t give it to you. You will have to tame it, control it meter-by-meter with the maximum amount of speed and precision, not only during acceleration but also while braking – because, when pushed to the limit, the tail lightens up a bit too much. Exploiting the F12 at 100% of its capability can only be done by very few drivers, but the paybacks are an unmatched driving experience and outstanding performance.
Guinness-like Records
In the days following, the reappearance of the sun, and thus a dry track, meant that we were able to execute all the tests that we had planned. The results confirm the feeling that we got behind the wheel. The numbers are truly out of this world, and leave no doubt as to the character of this sports car. The F12 was ridiculously fast on every test. It set a new record on the 0-200km/h acceleration run from a standing start (8.8 seconds), and on the handling track it took home the second best overall time – a few hundredths of a second behind the Lamborgini Aventador. Finally, driving on dry asphalt, we were dumbstruck by the perfect balance achieved between engine, chassis, electronics, and aerodynamics – with the latter playing an all-important role on the F12. At the wheel, you hardly notice anything, but (as we explain on the next page) on the outside of the body, strange things happen – curious air games that allow the vehicle to remain nailed to the asphalt.
The Technology
BETWEEN ELECTRONICS AND AERODYNAMICS
Once the 731bhp was produced from the V12, the designers were immediately faced with the dilemma of how to make this monster stick to the asphalt. This problem required a radical change, not only in terms of how to design a front-engined sports car, but also in its very conceptualization. The frame, built with innovatively light alloys, allowed for the creation of a car with a low and rearward center of gravity (almost 54% of the total mass rests on the rear axle). The power arrives to the wheels through an especially evolved electronic differential (E-Diff 3), and it’s managed by F1-Trac – the traction control system developed by the technicians at Maranello, on the basis of their experience in Formula 1. These two systems are adjustable via different driving modes found on the Manettino on the steering wheel. The aerodynamics play an equally important role. The F12 offers a truly innovative solution. The Aerobridge, for instance, made by hollowing out the external edges of the bonnet, allows the winds accumulating at the front to run down the sides. By doing it this way, there is more downforce. The front splitter creates better airflow in the underbody, which is totally flat and covered, and terminates with a very visible extractor. At 200km/h, the F12 develops downforce of no less than 123kgs, with a drag coefficient equal to 0.299. From this, it draws an extremely high efficiency. According to the company, downforce of 1.12kg to every kg of resistance.
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