Drove the F12 today

Many thanks to Jeff @ Wynn Penske Ferrari for inviting me for a test drive of a brand new F12 today. The car is only in town yesterday and tomorrow and will be shipped to different dealers around the country. So, check with your local dealer about when it comes to your area.

Now, about the car----

To say the car is awesome would be actually understating how great it is. I tried to sum it up how it feels and the best way is:

Imagine a 458 Italia with 4 more cylinders, 100 more HP, and an engine exhaust note that makes you cry.

Sounds pretty awesome, eh?

What struck me is how much like the 458 this car feels. Even inside, it has a similar feel. You don't feel like you're in a big car. It seems more like a sports car. The interior is a tad bigger and I love the look of the shelf behind the seats. It seems to have more headroom than a 458 so taller guys may like it.

You can see the "air dams" in the front fenders from a sitting position. It's pretty cool. I never felt like the proportions of the car were "big". In fact, the car feels smaller than it probably is. It's one of the things that impressed me the most.

The steering wheel is exactly the same as the 458 and the various radio/HVAC controls all look very similar if not the exact same. The seats were the standard type with electric assist and very comfortable -- again like the 458.

Just with a lot more of what we love--- POWER.

I drove the car about 20 minutes on city streets and on the freeway. I used a mixer of sport and race mode.

The car I drove was the similar metallic red that a lot of people have seen if they've seen this car in person around the US. It had 100 miles on it so it was new. If you ask me, this is the perfect color for this car. Perfect. Expensive but perfect. It has a cuoio interior which was exactly what I would pick. The car looks rich.

It had the CF driving zone with LED's and a CF dash but nothing else in what I could see as options (aside from the passenger gauge which I did not care for). The car has a lot of standard equipment already. The dash looks so much more upscale than the 458. The round nozzles for the AC work fantastic. If you've seen the F70 interior, you can see some influence in this car.

When I drove this car, I was instantly teleported back to my 458 coupe. The feeling is exactly the same. It feels like a sports car and not a GT. The steering is the same, the suspension the same, the gearbox is the same, and the brakes maybe a tad better. Bumpy road smooths out the car and in normal mode, you can feel every part of the road perfectly, if not a little stiffly. But, that's the beauty of the two modes -- you can go between the two just by hitting one button. TFT screen graphics seemed exactly the same.

In 7th gear, the engine is just turning out 1500 RPM at highway speeds. The engine can be heard but just barely. I can imagine taking this thing cross country easily. The steering at high speeds is amazingly quick and accurate.

Here to me is the best part though of the F12.

This car has an elegance to the design that makes it seem less like "a toy" of the 458 and more like a sophisticated machine. I can see why people liked Daytona's because the DNA is directly linked to the great V12 GT cars of the past. I loved the look of it under sunlight and the back is just plain sexy.

I did not redline the car but I got it to about 8 grand. It's hard to imagine a noise more beautiful to a gearhead. I just busted out laughing. When the car starts up, you jump from the noise it makes. I thought the 458 was loud but this was like a someone yelling.

The car comes standard with a lot of the same "options" you would pay more for in the 458. I would bet you could get an F12 for about the same price as most pay for 458 spiders with similar options. It's more expensive than a 458 coupe though by probably a good 70 or 80 grand.

Will I buy one? Well, if you look close at the top photo, you might recognize someone's 458 spider in the showroom. That's all I'm saying.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

As jealous as my personal video from Stan Lee?

 

The salesman said Rosso Fuoco. I didn't check the tag but I think he was right. It is gorgeous and the perfect color for this car but I think it's an 18K option.

The metal flake is extremely fine. It has a pearl like luster that is amazing in both shade and sunlight.

 

These I would say are the three big advantages of this car.

1) It's got more cylinders and more power than the 458

2) It's not as flashy or racy looking. In fact, I would describe it as elegant.

3) Many options in the 458 are standard in the F12.

If you have a budget of about 350K, you can get a heavily optioned 458 spider or a nicely optioned F12. The price isn't that much different. Resale wise -- I can't tell you as historically spiders hold their value better. It seems to me that Ferrari is being pretty tight with allocations of F12's.


I'm not knocking the 458 at all. It's just that they have a different personality when you look at the exterior shapes.

Again my biggest surprise -- and something I was not expecting at all -- is that it's so much like the 458 coupe in terms of sitting in it and the driving feel. I thought it would be bigger, heavier, and have a less sporty feeling.

 

Yes, but it's not as pronounced in "on and off". I forgot to mention it. It is different in sport and race mode like the 458. I would describe it as progressive.

I think that the current regulations in a lot of countries require that a car be at a certain DB level when idling. That's where this "flap" thing is coming from.