HELE will be a mandatory option for the upcoming F12 limited edition (at least for the french market). I feel like I want to get rid of it from the very beginning but does anyone have any experience with HELE on a F12? Is it acceptable? Can it be switched off for good or should the driver turn it off systematically after starting the engine? It seems that we'll all have to learn to live with it as I suspect it will be a standard feature very soon on all F models... Jacques
I have driven an FF with HELE (Stop/Start). In my opinion it's a pain in the back side, especially in London traffic with a V12 blast everytime you pull away from a stop. It's embarassing! Fortunately i'm fairly sure HELE can be switched off in the settings (but please check). Besides these Ferrari V12's are seemingly much more environmentally friendly than these millions of cheating polluting VW's.
Yes, you must think about adaptive lights, I do like them too! HELE : High Emotion, Low Emission : stop and start
When I did the Tailor Made session at the factory last year, Elena Fontana asked me some last questions before we left including 'do you want the start/stop feature". Had to contain myself from laughing hysterically. I think, if I read the literature correctly, it accounts for all of a 0.5 MPG increase over the F12 without it. Just something else to go wrong...
I too think that this option is plain stupid, however, I am pretty sure that it will become standard feature. Now the question is : how will we get rid of it!
Yes, but think of all the CO2 that's saving! Mind you, i feel sorry for the starter motor having to churn over that V12 time and time again and i'm sure the environmental benefit will be outweighed by the pick up truck exhaust emissions when the start motor fails!
Starter motor and battery will take a big hit. Two traditionally high failure items made less reliable through needless overuse. Plus, that's a lot of power cycles for the cabling. Also, even if the engine is warm there's the concept of engine wear at all those startups. Totally foolish idea to keep killing/starting that V12.
We have it in our FF, and I don't find it to be a problem at all. The car gets a stouter starter and battery, and with direct injection, the engine barely cranks at all before just starting up. The delay between releasing the brake and the engine being back to life and ready to move the car is usually less than the time it takes to move your foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal. In some instances it gets confused, especially if the stop is of only a short moment. But if I'm in a situation where the start stop gets bothersome, there's a button on the overhead console to just turn it off. Turning it off seems to "stick" between drives, too. So once its turned off, it stays off until you next push the button to turn it back on, hours, days or weeks later. In traffic situations where it could conceivably start and stop endlessly, it has the smarts to just leave the engine running. I suspect its judging based on amperage availability and other considerations whether to shut it off or not. In any event, it does not always turn off the engine when you come to a stop. Given that it can be turned off at will, I don't get all the angst about it. Its actually kinda funny to pull up to a stop light and have people notice that the Ferrari next to them is not making any noise at idle. And one Fchat user who is a tech person for Ferrari has reported previously that the cars with the HELE have a bit more power, and that's not a bad thing in my book.
IYe, I did mean AFS. RE HELE simply awful.even with the abaility to disable I would not buy a car with thi feature.Woul pay lots more money not to have this.
Many thanks Eric for sharing your experience. Knowing that it can be turned off for good is very good news for me!
Rented a 5 Series BMW in Jacksonville last year with this feature. I hated it. Reminded me of the lag you get with the turbos while they spun up. There was a slight shake in the front end of the BMW while the engine turned back on. Annoying. I hope Ferrari designed it better.
