First drive in an 812

The one reason I won't allow my teenage son to drive my 812 compared to an F8 is rear wheel traction until tyres are fully warm. Cold tyres and/or cold or wet roads can be a recipe for disaster in a 812. Nowhere near as dangerous in an F8. The F8 is a brilliant Ferrari with amazing steering but lacks the drama and noise of any 812 IMO.
The 812 is a real man's car with no disrespect whatsoever towards the fairer sex.

 

Curious about race mode comments.

Depends on where you drive and how. I start out in sport and then go to race when oil temp is stabilized. This is on street. For the last few years I then go to ESC OFF which just lets you drive the car instead of the other way around.

This is possible if everything is optimum (tire temp, tire pressure, tread depth, road conditions) which is usually all I do now. In addition you don't cook the rear brakes like in the other modes. I don't think my skills are that great and on the street you just can't extract a significant amount out of the car or at least shouldn't be doing so.

With all nannies off it is quite fun. You have to know your car which means not total miles driven but, for me, miles driven in each session. A ten minute ride once a week won't work to get to know the car. You would have to re-learn it each time you get in. These V12s are the best engines made and should be enjoyed.

 

I do not currently own any Ferrari, just a couple Porsche’s and an old Mustang. The f8 I have driven many times including on the track. The 812 has been one drive so far. I am fortunate to have ready access to several cars which I can drive hard but don’t hold the title.

 

I hope you are not a valet parking attendant Kidding of course. I wondered if you had rented the 812 for a day and was going to ask from where. I had a terrible experience trying unsuccessfully to rent one from one of those slickster outfits in Vegas.

 

A friend of ours with an F12 told my wife "it's not the sort of car (an f12) for a woman like you".

So she's gone and traded the Cali for an F12

 

Sorry, but as everyone stated, you'd be crazy to let your kids drive a Ferrari V12! They are notorious for handling once the rev ranbges build.
Again, no offense, but you didn't push the car. It's quite docile in steering in Normal mode below 5000rpm. It becomes alive between 5-7000rpm. When it's near 8000rpm it wants to kill you. Which in the case of an unexperienced driver it certainly will. The V12 engine has some sort of 'kick' to it that when revs builds it seems to go faster and faster and your brain isn't ready for it.
If you want a 'safe' fast car for your kids get a 911 Carrera 4s.
Or if you want a Ferrari the 458/488.

 

I always drive my F12/812/812GTS in race mode.
I start the car in Normal mode and when temps are up I switch to Race.
Normal is too restricted and too many nannies constricting power.
Race Mode is perfectly fine on the street when you know what you are doing. Even when you are not a very capable driver.
If you're the type of driver that loves to throw a V12 on a wet street in a tight corner and hits the throttle with all your might, you need to get a different car!
Always make sure your steering wheel is alligned and your safe if you floor it. Simple.

 

wasn't the TDF engineered deliberately to be this way (loss of grip, lower traction control settings etc) for the purpose of being perceived as a raw car that time would favor?

 

Oh boy, letting an inexperienced driver take the wheel of this 800hp v12 is a death wish. This car can be violent as hell, I think the other way around, rather give the keys to a 488/F8 for an inexperienced driver. Clearly, you did not mash this throttle. No way my kid could drive this car.

 

The F8 which is a great Ferrari is a very easy car to drive compared to the 812 by quite a margin. Anyone who thinks the opposite has never driven an 812 in a spirited fashion.

 

Wow
There is a reading comprehension issue somewhere here. I was sharing my experience. I’m certainly not getting either for my kid, I was making a point based on others comments about letting their kids drive.
My point was that the 812 is easier to drive in normal city driving than a 488 or f8.
I appreciate hearing everyone’s perspective, but laugh at the fact that people are telling me I’m “wrong”. And once again, I WAS IN RACE MODE.
Thanks

 

You drove it 100 miles, and it’s pretty easy to tell you couldn’t have pushed it very hard, that would be why people are saying you are wrong. Since it isn’t your car, that doesn’t surprise me.

There are people who own the 812 and a combination of the cars you compared it to saying you are wrong. Maybe go to P chat or something.

 

I think you’re missing the point, Stew. Holding title doesn’t make my “opinion” anymore right or wrong. Looking at the mileage in some of the garage queens around here, I’m fairly certain I have more miles in the drivers seat of 488 and f8 than some of the owners.
there is no objectively right answer….I stated that the visceral excitement was better in the 488/f8. That’s an opinion based on my experience, so while people can certainly disagree, nobody is right or wrong.

 

"feels big and not very nimble, but it is a touring car, so I get it" My guess is that this is what people are telling you that you are wrong about. Frank, who has over 1000 track miles in the car is telling you that it has the same lap time as his GT3rs (6k track miles). I have over 20,000 miles in the 812, over who knows how many hours. I can tell you that you didn't push the car if you believe it is not nimble (especially for it's size).

You made an opinion that it isn't viscerally exciting based on a single drive of 100 miles, which is fine. People with more miles and experience in the car are saying you are incorrect on how nimble the car is, and that it's much more killer than the mid-engine cars (leading to visceral excitement for most). How many miles could you have in cars you don't own? Do you blow money renting exotic cars on a regular basis? Do you just have friends who let you take their cars for joy rides whenever you please? Just because you don't "hold the title" doesn't mean you can't understand the 812 or other cars you are comparing against. But it also likely means you aren't driving them on a regular basis, and potentially limited on how hard you could be driving the car. It's a lot easier to form opinions over a period of ownership of likely numerous drives leading to thousands of miles. If someone owns an 812 that has 500 miles tells me the same thing you did, I'd tell them drive the car more. And because they own the car, they can go drive it when they want, they don't have to ask someone.

At the end of the day, you don't have regular experience in the 812 (and likely the other Ferraris you mention), and concluded very contrary to basically anyone else who owns an 812. I've limited my personal response on how you compare to the F8 as my spider arrives tomorrow, but I've driven the F8 on multiple occasions for a few hundred miles. I don't have enough experience to form a true opinion or feeling of the car. I will say that it is not nearly as raw or crazy feeling as the 812 is, but it compliments the 812 well.

 

Ok, this is all fair and I see your point. These aren’t rental cars and I have frequent access. I admitted in my post that it was an initial
Impression based on my first experience.
I will continue to drive the 812, and hopefully on a track soon. My track time in the f8 admittedly allowed me to push the car more than 100 miles on some twisty roads in race mode with the 812.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond in this way and explain your point of view, it makes a lot of sense to me.
I think you will enjoy your f8…..I have over 1,000 miles in one, including track, and it’s a great car!
Cheers

 

We have all these cars (though sold the F8 after about 2k miles). I have about 5k miles over Superfast and GTS. Also we have Pista and Speciale. It’s surprising how different the Speciale to Pista to F8 comparison is. In particular F8 and Pista. F8 clearly feels like a ‘standard’ version and is very live-able, blindingly quick and nimble and it feels really planted. If I was to sum all three up quickly it would be ‘playful’ (Speciale), ‘serious’ (Pista) and ‘quick and easy’ (F8). The 812s by contrast are very different. Of course they are, they’re front engined. They’re not real GT cars though, like a Bentley or even a DB Aston. They are too sporting for that. You could argue they are docile to drive slowly but then so is the F8, therefore that’s not a differentiator.

The 812s are dominated by that unbelievable engine. There is nothing else like it, certainly not the 4.0 twin turbo V8. Nor the n/a V8 in the 458s. The real key to the 812s (and why I also far prefer them to the F12) is that they feel really nimble, agile and can put the power down in a way you would think they have no right to. I followed an 812 around Donington in our Pista and it was quick. Yes, of course, the Pista was a little quicker but hardly. And was I having any more fun? Not sure about that.

An F8 is brilliant, an outstanding one-car Ferrari garage and if I could only have one, I think it would probably have to be mid-engined. But the 812 is the bigger talking point. And it’s actually a more special thing. ICE itself is threatened but engines like Ferrari’s V12 will be truly missed when and if they are no longer around. Mated to a brilliant chassis that brings great fun and that feeling of intimacy when it allows you to get to know the little details that make up its responses. I couldn’t outrun a well driven F8 across country in an 812 but I would be very close. And my ears would be full of an amazing symphony, my smile would cover my face, and if I could keep myself in check, I would feel like some sort of driving hero. The Ferrari front engined V12. How can you not love them?

 

Spoken by an owner who has an incredible series of cars.....we should put this post as a "sticky" lol. Thank you for your real-life experience shared here amongst enthusiasts

 

+1,000,000,000,000

 

^^^This^^^


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An 812 is a more “mature” car- at my age I don’t look like I’m in a midlife crisis trying to get in and out of it- and the smiles per mile(spm) exceed the rpm by a wide margin. The front midengine V12 Ferrari has been honed over the decades- yes it may be a dinosaur today on verge of extinction - but it is the T Rex-awesome in its power but it will bite your head off if not careful. This good car/bad car character,although not as acute as a F12TDF, makes it one hell of ride if you push the car and yourself with care. Exhausting but rewarding


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When I read your post I thought of this video:

 

What's going on with the sidewall at 4:06 in that video? Looks like the tire is wobbling off the rim.

 

The tire is rotating so fast due to the 812s immense power it cracked the space/time continuum [emoji13]


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Look closely, the tire is on the 'tiger teeth' of the track apron (red/white overrun section), the surface is quite bumpy on purpose and the tire is hobbling across it. Right before the tire enters that section, it is rotating smoothly.

Additionally, that's the outside tire where the centripetal forces are pushing the cars weight (that's why the opposite tire appears stable, it is being slightly lifted (if you look closely you will see the driver side tire is actually pulling up off the track). So there is a lot of force acting on that tire and it can only do so much at one time