Ferrari F12B world press review texts.

Now that the 812 Superfast first deliveries are already programed and because soon the F12B will be history, I post below a compilation of text fragments, taken from the reviews and tests on the F12B by the world specialised automobile press. During the process of searching for my F12B I read many reviews on the car and every time I liked a particular text fragment, I used to copy and save it for posterity and that’s the material I’m posting here.

What has always impressed me is the fact that in 99 % of the reviews I’ve read the F12B always passed tester’s evaluations in all the chapters with the highest possible distinction. Nonetheless I could find only one review done by someone named Scott Evans which expresses criticism as follows:

“All this also adds up to a car that isn’t quite what Ferrari promised. At launch, Ferrari estimated it would hit 60 mph in 3 seconds flat, making it the quickest Ferrari road car ever, the Enzo included. Our test crew, which does more drag-race launches than just about any other team on the planet, figures the F12 would be good for a quicker sprint to 60 mph and a lower quarter-mile time if it could hook up the tires, but it’s got a long way to go to catch the Enzo we tested in 2004.”

This review ends by saying: “Cornering adhesion is likewise less than we’d hoped for. At 0.99 g estimated, it’s less grippy than the Jaguar F-type mentioned earlier, and, again, less grippy than several other top-dollar supercars. It is, at least, grippier than the 10-year-old Enzo. Here again, the F12’s immense power simply overwhelms the rear tires, electronic differential and fancy computers be damned. This car needs more tire.”


I’m aware that publishing such a large quantity of text is a big risc because it might bore to death the majority of the readers and please forgive me if that's the case. However I wouldn’t be in peace with my conscience if I didn’t pass this compilation to other F12B owners and enthusiasts.



INTRODUCTION / VERDICT

“The F12 is so fast and brutal in response to the smallest input that you are constantly busy, and it is definitely more supercar than GT.”

What does Harris have to say about the Italian rivals? As he's vaporizing the F12's rear tires, Harris says, "I wouldn't even look at an Aventador compared to this as a driving experience."

“This is Ferrari's first ‘downsized’ super-GT, and the first car of its kind to be lower, shorter, narrower and lighter than the one that it replaces”.

“In an F12, you will never yearn for more power, nor for a faster, better gearshift”

“The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta is as close to motoring Nirvana as you can get”

“As unflappably capable as it is, does the F12 fail in its role as a Ferrari flagship because it’s not a hair-raising, eye-widening widowmaker?”

“The F12 is a gentleman’s Ferrari first and foremost, one that couples ridiculous power with impeccable road manners, delivered with utmost civility and finesse”.

“The Ferrari F12berlinetta is a car of many talents, one of the less obvious being a capacity to make its occupants yelp”

“But this is no mere rocket ship. The quality of its performance, as expressed by the growl, howl, scream and shriek of the engine as it nears its 8700rpm red line, is just as memorable as the thrust provided”

“The absolutely best thing about this car is neither how fast it is in a straight line nor around a corner, but that it can be making your heart ram your ribcage one moment and will transform itself the very next into a civilised long-distance express.”

“There are sharks and then there are great whites. We instinctively flee from them all but great whites mesmerise us with their size and power and pace. It's the same scenario aboard the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. There are (marginally) quicker cars but none can command the attention this two-door grand tourer gets.”

“One moment we’re out there at 8,250 rpm, racing a biker who’s crazy enough to do this in the wet. Then we split ways with the insane leather guy and the F12 cruises along like it’s some sort of luxury sedan.”

“Now I’m not religious but when they handed me the keys to the F12 on Sunday morning, I did a little prayer of thanks — there is a motoring god.”

“For once, I’m actually lost for words. The Ferrari F12 has so comprehensively shattered all my preconceptions of hyper car capabilities that I need to recalibrate my cranial benchmarks before proceeding any further.”

“It is the driving experience, of course, though, that sets the F12 apart. Never before has a Ferrari felt so ridiculously capable.”

“In the end the F12 Berlinetta is a gran turismo in the best sense, although Ferrari is even talking about racing it. All it needs is some more glamorous folk behind the wheel.”

“The F12 Berlinetta is everything a modern V12 Ferrari should be. It's bold and unapologetic, with a nod to the past but a clear focus on the future. The supercar's obituary has been written time and again in recent years. Here's proof positive that there's a lot of life left in that particular formula.”

“The F12 might be Ferrari's fastest car ever, but more important, it's the most fun Ferrari in years. Slap on a grin and hop on in; this is a rolling festival of perfection;”

“This is a car you’d live with and drive and love and admire and appreciate every day. Any day, in fact. Neither fragile nor delicate, the F12 is bombastic, epic and howlingly fast.
There’s nothing else remotely like it.”

“Ferrari is an automaker with an unmatched racing pedigree and cachet, don’t you want the best it has to offer without paying a cool million.”
“That might be the biggest shock of the F12. It has exceptionally high limits, but it doesn't force you to reach them to feel like you're having fun “

“The F12, then, exists as a sort of bridge between the two. Most of the Enzo’s speed mixed with most of the 458’s handling comes together in a fantastically quick and fun-to-drive GT car. It just isn’t an all-out sports car. That’s hardly a bad thing.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between someone with big balls and someone with a small brain. Watching a Ferrari F12 bust a wheel fording a stream in the Himalayas is one such moment.”


PERFORMANCE

“Throttle response is so accurate, so precise, and the power is so readily available that accelerating is as much thought process as physical interaction with the car. “

“Traction is fabulous; the electronics that underpin the chassis are thankfully undetectable - the whole thing is a wailing, rampant, compact, tight ball of energy that devours this road and fills me with perfect memories. Especially when I shift down and the savage crackles echo back like cannon fire. “

“It’s fair to say the Ferrari F12 has the best drivetrain of any road car on sale today. “

“The way its dozen cylinders rev with apparently no inertia is insane and the twin-clutch gearbox not only keeps up, but actually enhances the experience.”

“The F12 is so fast and brutal in response to the smallest input that you are constantly busy, and it is definitely more supercar than GT. “

“Most judges sang the praises of the V12. ‘It is a total triumph,’ said editor Nick Trott. ‘Ferrari should be honoured for building arguably the greatest road-car engine of all time”

“The powertrain is surely the most remarkable, exciting and addictive of any car on sale today. It isn’t just the power, staggering as that is, but the manner of its delivery. The final 2000 revs to the red line and the speed of the shift to the next gear are truly breath taking.”

“In first and second it’s borderline uncomfortable, the scenery moving as if you’ve pressed 1.5x on the DVD remote, and by the top of second gear you’re so far beyond the national speed limit any further exploration seems imprudent.”

“If there were more than five stars available here, we’d have awarded them. Given the increasingly prevalent fascination with turbochargers and electric motor assistance, there’s a splendidly old-school decadence about a naturally aspirated 6.3-litre V12 that revs to the moon.”

“Across the industry, only Lamborghini’s and Aston Martin’s V12s are anything like it. Even then, the F12’s engine feels in a class of one in combining top-end power with low-end tractability. It is more alert and responsive than any other large-capacity engine in recent memory.”

“It used to be said that when you bought a Ferrari, you paid for the engine and got a car thrown in free. Not quite how it feels today, but there’s no doubt that the F12’s powertrain is its stand-out feature.”

“In an F12, you will never yearn for more power, nor for a faster, better gearshift”

“There’s so much power here, though, and it comes in so quickly, that you can push through any under steer at any speed, in any gear, with a flex of the right foot.”

“On a circuit, at first it will be as much your nerve as the Ferrari’s power that limits the speed at which you’ll travel. We can’t think of a racetrack where you’d crave more poke. “

“The sensation of speed in the F12 is thrilling off the line, and only intensifies as the needle rises; there’s a point at which burying the right pedal turns from anticipatory to exhilarating, and just beyond that, downright scary”

“But this is no mere rocket ship. The quality of its performance, as expressed by the growl, howl, scream and shriek of the engine as it nears its 8700rpm red line, is just as memorable as the thrust provided”

“Apart from being both weightlifter and sprinter, the V12 is also incredibly smooth”

“The F12 Berlinetta might share the same front engine layout as its celebrated predecessors, but believe me, this monster-powered Ferrari has more naturally aspirated firepower than the entire US Army.”

“During a marginal blip in confidence, I managed to achieve a personal best of getting three lit up, but no more, fearing a fourth might be the last red light I ever saw”


STEERING

“Ferrari has gone for a super quick steering rack ratio, which almost seems laser-guided at lower speeds but falls just the right side of twitchy, allowing you to slice through roundabouts with a startling economy of movement in your hands”

“The most impressive thing, even more than the amazing power onboard, was the steering. The hardest thing was getting used to that. It was so precise that we had to recalibrate our meager brainpower and forget what we’d previously thought steering felt like”

“We’d even go so far as to say this was the most precise steering of any production Ferrari ever.”

“The rack is impossibly quick and turn in is impeccably sharp. The more you drive it, the more the steering will impress you.”

“If you combine the way the steering feels with how the V12 sounds and the brakes (which are incredible) feel, you have a car that is shockingly connected and analog in a world of cars that are digital and only come alive when you start thrashing them hard on a track.”

“After mere seconds behind the wheel, it became immediately apparent that the F12 Berlinetta is a 731-horsepower engine intent on ripping itself from the confines of the chassis. “

“The F12 Berlinetta might share the same front engine layout as its celebrated predecessors, but believe me, this monster-powered Ferrari has more naturally aspirated firepower than the entire US Army.”



SOUND

“To associate road cars and Formula 1 is all too often a mix of clichés and platitudes. The F12 deserves it. I had never heard before a car reproduce with such fidelity and richness the acoustic signature of an F1 under full load”

“Lowering the driver window acts as a volume button, but also balances the spectrum, adding medium and treble.”

“Windows down, flack, flack, flack on the left-hand paddle, pin the throttle and instantly you could be in Monaco in Grand Prix week.”

“From the screaming exhausts as you’re hurled through the darkness, to the loud crack as a gear change fires through and extinguishes the red LEDs on the top of the steering wheel, the F12 is pure race car.”

“For a few brief seconds of acceleration it completely fills the tunnel, howl reverberating off the ceiling, the noise gaining that distinctive cavernous echoing depth before shrinking in an instant as you burst back out into the daylight. Incredible.”

“The Ferrari F12 is an astounding car. But what's really amazing is the noise. It's ear porn. And hardcore, barely legal ear porn, at that.”

“operatic” is not too strong a word. It should go without saying that you shouldn’t buy this car if you don’t like like attention. It is audibly arresting from the moment the engine turns, before people even see it.”

“It’s kind of a cliché, but the V12 in the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta sounds like a demonic symphony orchestra on the move. There’s the now-common bark on start-up, there are light crackles on the overrun, some whine, and what sounds like a circular-saw in an echo chamber from about 3000rpm.”



LOOKS / DESIGN

“The F12 has a hatchback, a first on front-engined V12 Ferraris. “

“At the rear, Ferrari has adopted a “Kammtail” design, a sharp cut named after an German aerodynamics pioneer. Wunibald Kamm established that most of the air flow advantages of a water drop shape can be achieved by cutting the tail abruptly “

“The bonnet still defines this car, drawing your eye with its complex, voluptuous curves “

“My personal favourite is the central bonnet vent that extracts hot air from the engine, which mixes with air passing over it to reduce pressure build-up at the base of the windscreen “

“What I am impressed by is how low the bonnet is, how abbreviated the Kamm tail, and, while it lacks the drama and visual titillation of a mid-engined machine, how much sheer presence it has for a car only a foot longer than a GT 86 “

“Appreciate the F12 first by standing back and taking it in. Although the word “berlinetta” means “little limousine” in Italian, the only long thing about this car is its nose”

“The F12 is like a gorgeous woman in a bikini, — you just can’t take your eyes off her.
I love every voluptuous inch of this car but the deep curves cut into either side of the long bonnet, called the Aero Bridge, are a highlight.”

“To my eye, there simply isn’t a bad angle on the F12. Scrutinise it from anywhere you like — from a rooftop, lying on the floor, up close, from a distance — it just looks right. If you ask me, it’s the best-looking Ferrari since 1970s-80s icons such as the 308 GTB, 512 BB and 288 GTO.”

“Carrying this analogy further, the 458 Italia is akin to Charlize Theron — lean, smouldering, desirable. Shading them all is the F12, which has the essence of an in-her-prime Monica Belluci — curvaceous, quintessentially Italian and enough to make any red-blooded male’s legs turn to jelly.”

“It sounds cliché, but standing next to the F12, it's hard not to appreciate how successfully it marries the needs of both engineering and style”

“The coupe body has many subtle and attractive aerodynamic devices dotted around it and some will activate automatically when conditions demand it.”

“As soon as the air hits the nose of the Ferrari F12, the car starts playing tricks on it. Those air intakes on the corners of the front fascia are active. Whenever the front brakes need cooling, these open up to serve.”

“The F12 has curves in all the right places and even straps across the front wheel arches: there to aid downforce, apparently, though they wouldn’t look out of place in the window of Agent Provocateur. “

 

This car is worth waiting for and you can always recover the lost time.

 

Thank you Nuno...

 

That one I don't recall having read it before and despite of having never driven a Catherham 620R I believe the comparison.

 

No doubt it is…..

 

Do it because it's worth…...

 

Jerry, I have a reasonable collection of car magazines in English, French and Italian with the reviews and tests on the F12b and they are archived in three large folders which I sometimes retrieve and look at the pictures and reread the articles.

Yesterday I took my 27 year old son for a 50 Km drive into a beach town overlooking the Atlantic ocean and on the way back I asked him to take the car and at first he declined but
I insisted and he didn't refuse. For him was the first time inside the f12b and we were driving on a motorway with a lot of curves and I could see through my left eye that he was delighted with the experience. When we reached a straight I told him to press the accelerator down what he did and we were immediately catapulted backwards and lights started flashing on the steering wheel and the acceleration was terrific. Afterwards and until we reached our destination he drove at a slow pace and didn't say a single word and I could tell he was really concentrating on what he was doing and when we arrived his only words were "Dad this car is something really incredible but takes time to get used to and if you are not a good driver it can be very dangerous".

PS- I can bet Nuno is the biggest Ferrari enthusiast of us all and one of the most well known back here.

 

Gary, By looking at the specs of the 812 Superfast one can deduce that it will be slightly faster than the F12b but in terms of road driving experience we still have to wait to see what the testers have to say about it. However there is something that many of us already think and which has to do with the fact that the F12b is the last Pininfarina designed V12 Ferrari and aesthetically looks much more harmonious and well designed than the 812 Superfast.

 

Aaron, congratulations for your new F12 and good luck on your trip because that's what this car is for, to be driven.

 

Can't agree more…...

 

I completely agree with your analysis on the F12b and despite of what you correctly mentioned about the 812 being faster and having more features, for me personally what really matters is the fact that the F12b is a beautiful car with the Pininfarina signature and on road driving a superb experience which can already be too fast.

My soon did watched the Jeremy Clarkson video on the wet roads of Scotland and since you have mentioned it, I wonder if he got traumatized by watching the reviewer's face during the acceleration scenes and now he has what I would call the Clarkson syndrome.