There was a moment, I guess about 20 miles into my drive, after I’d given up trying to persuade Google Maps to follow the route suggested for it and was instead spearing north towards roads I actually knew, when it occurred to me that the Ferrari 12Cilindri wasn’t the car I’d expected it to be. At all. I must say it brought me up rather short.
More fool me for breaking hack rule one: never reach a conclusion about a car you’ve never even sat in. Looking at it written down, I concede now this seems a fairly basic mistake to make. In my defence, let’s look at what we have here: a front-engined, rear-drive, two-seat supercar powered by a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 driving a dual-clutch gearbox. A car with aluminium panels and an aluminium spaceframe chassis, double wishbone front suspension, a multi-link rear axle and carbon ceramic brakes. A car that accelerates from rest to 62mph in 2.9sec, to 124mph in 7.9sec with a top speed of 211mph. Problem is, this is a description that fits to the letter not only the 12Cilindri but also the 812 Superfast it is designed to replace. So I thought, not unnaturally, that that’s what it would be like, only more so. But it isn’t.
I even went so far as to think it was pretty much an 812 Superfast under the skin (albeit with a bit more power and a bit less torque) but when I asked in the press conference how much of the old car had survived to the new, there was a pause before the spokesperson responsible said ‘the uprights’. And that was the end of that particular line of enquiry.
