The new Ferrari Dodici Cilindri is a 819hp celebration of the mighty V12
Revvs up to 9,500rpm, featuring a modern-day design tribute to the 365GTB Daytona
The V12 lives! For what appeared to have been lost to the history books, Ferrari ensures its signature naturally-aspirated V12 engine soldiers on with its latest supercar. And this V12 infatuation grew to such an extent this time that Ferrari decided to name the car entirely on its famed powertrain – the Dodici Cilindri, Italian for twelve cylinders.
The mighty V12
The Ferrari Dodici Cilindri gets a mighty 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 with no form of pressured boost or hybrid assist, making the powertrain a ‘di razza’, or purebred. It gets placed in front of the front axle and users can only view this opera d’arte or ‘piece of art’ machinery by opening the gigantic clamshell ‘cofango’ bonnet that wasn’t found in the 812 Superfast and the F12 predecessors.
With 819hp and a 0-100kph sprint time of 2.9secs, the Dodici Cilindri’s output figures aren’t a monumental leap over the 812 Superfast. But, Ferrari never made this new GT car to supersede its predecessors on paper and specifications. It appears to be a passion project, a (possible) swansong to the famed engine and a desperate effort to keep the signature V12 dish alive, hail and hearty, a feeling mimicked by the driver when he pins the throttle to the floor and realises the tachometer on the Dodici Cilindri redlines at 9500rpm.
Engineers claimed the stringent emission norms and harsh noise limits made it quite challenging to develop a V12 in this EV-environment. Hence, instead of making a supercar whose V12 shrieks can wake-up entire towns, the Ferrari mechanics have managed to pipe down the orchestra inside the cabin for the passengers to revel in the twelve-cylinder Italian symphony.Â
Daytona-inspired design
The 812 Superfast looked menacing up front with a face that stamped the grand-tourer champion tag with authority. The new front-engined Ferrari flagship is softer to the eyes, partly because it pays tribute to the legendary 365 GTB Daytona with its angular, front-dripping, straight-lined wedged front end. A black-mask runs along the width of the headlights and Ferrari claims you can’t have it in body colour. Same can be said for the ‘delta-wing’ motif running along the rear section of the roof that extends to the rear flanks. The blacked-out elements right above the not-round-anymore but squared-off tail lights are essentially active aerodynamic units that rise up by 10 degrees between 60kph and 300kph to generate 50 kilos of downforce onto the rear axle. Some may argue why didn’t Ferrari pull off a Mclaren and engineer active aero bits onto the entire rear panel instead of the current flank setup and that comes down to offering practicality. Incorporating the middle section as well would entail the boot to be brimmed with hydraulics for the active aero which currently remains empty to swallow up to 270-litres of golf bags.
The Dodici Cilindri has gained some weight over its 812 Superfast predecessor, tipping the weight scales at 1560 kgs over 1525 if all the carbon fiber options are ticked. The extra fat comes down to the larger 21-inch wheels carved out of a single block of aluminium, the bonnet and the active-aero bits installed at the rear. But the new model does benefit from 812 Competizione’s reworked rear-wheel steering, a shorter wheelbase and an upgraded generation of Ferrari’s side slip control to allow more tail-happy action when one isn’t redlining the twelve-cylinders at 9,500rpm.
The usual Modern Ferrari cockpit
The cabin doesn’t feature major changes to the usual modern Ferrari dashboard layout. Yes, the passenger continues to get a second screen embedded within the dashboard but a bigger screen now adorns the center console that houses the air-con, seats and infotainment configurations. Ferrari design boss claims the cabin is now more clean and futuristic but a little throwback to the physical starter button instead of the current touch-sensitive would’ve made the deal even sweeter, dont you think?
The Spider is already here
Where Ferrari truly surprised the world was by unveiling the convertible spider iteration alongside its hard-top coupe cousin right from day one. Usually, this roof slashing practice takes a year to release but as the Dodici Cilindri appears to be a passion project, Ferrari seemingly couldn’t hold onto the excitement. The folding hard-top roof on the Spider goes down in 14 seconds and boasts a price tag of €435,000 while the fixed-roof coupe starts at €395,000. Being a Ferrari, consider these as starting price tags with owners quite evidently would want to configure their Dodici Cilindri with fancy iterations of leather upholstery, select between comfortable and padded or sporty and bucket seats, and commission probably even inch of their car in carbon fibre that’ll only push those prices up north.
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