Ha! A variation on that is that my wife and 3 daughters told me (I'm 57 yrs. old) that I am way too old to be driving around in a bright red, flashy looking sports car. Perhaps they are right. So I am sticking to dark blue and dark red sports cars from here on out. They didn't say anything about styling, but I am naturally drawn to the F12 more than the 458, so I guess that's a good thing for me.
Seeing the F12 in person will blow your mind....can't believe its the successor to the 599. I wasn't sure about it in photos...but in person it was way more impressive than the 599...I saw one in Silverstone grey; my photos post upside down here so I won't bother posting them.... Kevin
I respectfully disagree. There is no age at which you are too old to drive around in something that gets your blood going. When you think you are, get ready for the dirt to be shoveled on you. Follow your passion.
An additional link in case one has troubles viewing Ferrari F12 Berlinetta Review - Top Gear on Vimeo
Well I mean with over 700 bhp of course its going to be tricky to drive at 10/10th but how many people will actually drive like that? Unleashing the full might of this car on the road would be a rare event in most countries.
Too much power? For me a car has 'too much power' if tyres, and/or gearbox and/or drivetrain can't keep up. This seems no problem whatsoever for the F12. The car is capable. The only limiting factor is the driver. And if the driver feel the car has too much power (for him to handle) then respect for the self-knowledge, but just drive slower. The car hasn't too much power. The car is fine as it is.
hmm, I think 'too much' relates to the infuriating quality of not being able to put your foot down for more than a second - it's much more fun to drive a slower car relatively closer to it's limits (inc acceleration) than a massively faster car less so!
I think not . You do have to pay attention with the F12 (and the FF for that matter) and possibly Clarkson doesn't like to pay attention? He really seems to like it when his foot is not in it. I've had a MGB, MG Midget (can I use that M word in todays can't offend anyone stupid culture?), Porsche 928's, ... clearly the F12 (and the FF) are WAY more fun ... but you do need to pay attention . Rick
Gorgeous car, but proof how absurd these manufacturers are becoming with these power figures. Exotic cars are supposed to be terrible in slow traffic, city roads and bumpy streets, but he found that the F12 was actually pretty good in this regard, but he took the car on a beautiful country road with no traffic to prove a point, but found that it was twitchy, and you can't put your foot down for more than a second because things are coming at you too fast. Seemed like the car was doing the opposite of what it's intended purpose should be. This is great if you're a bonafide pro, but not everybody is. It's why he prefers the LFA, and even said that the Stig, a guy with a lot of pro experience, doesn't think the F12, although holds "a candle to it", isn't better. They are eerily similar, one just has a couple of hundred less horsepower. These wonderful cars with their high tech software and marvelous chassis' are becoming cruisers because they have just too much power to have any serious fun without worrying about putting it in a ditch.
The only limiting factor in the US are the roads, the speed limits, and other drivers. I drove an FF not too long ago. The thing was so impossibly quick that every time I breathed on the gas I was traveling at irresponsible speeds. However, absent the speedo there was virtually no sense of speed. Just saying, sometimes too much is too much. I like power, but in a vehicle that is engaging at any speed, not just at ridiculous speeds. Most modern exotic sports cars can really only be safely enjoyed on a track or some foreign land with a more liberal view of speeding.
Of course these cars have a performance envelope that is rarely approached on public roads. I think that the allure of these cars is along two dimensions: The driver can have fun and get great driving enjoyment at any speed at a fraction of the car's capability. Not all high performance cars have this trait. I have not driven an F12 so I can't say whether it makes for this kind of enjoyment, but I can say that the 458 has this trait. Second is the knowledge that the car has the high limits we know about and that these limits can be approached on a track any time one wants.
This is nothing new. Drive a Stradale on the roads he drove on the same conditions and he will come out sweating with his knees trembling as well. Even the LFA would be scary on that road. Bumpy, curvy, and wet. But if you manage to get home in one piece, it's a hell of a memory to have.
Clarkson's MO is to pick a storyline that is relevant but that often differs from the line other journalists choose. For that reason he is often criticised as a 'non serious' motoring journalist. What I like about his reviews is that they're not highly technical or objective but tend to focus on subjective stuff. At the end of the day, supercar purchase and ownership is highly subjective. On this issue I think he has a point, although I must confess I am still someone who would like to own an F12. I was out in my CS yesterday. The weather was fantastic, the roads warm and dry and fairly empty. Even with a 'mere' 420 bhp, in no time at all you can be at speeds that are fairly unacceptable for the road but the problem is, it is the higher speeds, on faster roads where the car comes alive. The F12 can only make this worse. If the point he is making is that deploying 730bhp ensures that you cannot get into the flow of driving because the car is quicker but your reactions to potential danger are not, then his argument must have some merit surely? This year we had an unnaturally long and cold winter in the UK. By the late spring I was desperate for warmer, dryer roads because I was fed up with not being able to stretch the legs on my cars. £300k is a lot of money to pay for this kind of frustration. Whether we have passed the optimum power point with the current crop of cars - F12, Aventador etc. I don't know. However, even though I personally can't resist the power, I am forced to acknowledge that it might be better to put power lower down the priority list for new products. People have mentioned the Veyron but those are a bit different. A Lamborghini or Ferrari has a normally aspirated engine (i.e. the point is to operate in the high rev ranges, encouraging a racy driving style to get the benefit) whereas the Veyron is turbocharged, which means that the mid range torque allows you to enjoy the experience at lower speeds, even though if you gave it the full beans it would be just as insane in terms of road speed. It is heavier and 4wd, again making it more usable on the road. I also think journalists review cars like the Veyron in a different way - very few of us can afford them and the reason they exist is that manufacturers want to demonstrate what their engineers can do. The Veyron was never a realistic project - every one lost money for VW. So journalists tend to celebrate the fact that something like it exists, whereas the F12 is a serious car, designed to be used by many more people for more uses than most Veyrons will see. Don't get me wrong, I don't fully agree with JC but I do understand his point.
I you gave me an F12 and told me I could own it.......but I could never drive it above 85mph.....I'd take it and be happy. 85mph in an F12 must still be a sublime experience.
Did he rev to over 9k before changing gears on the first part of the segment? I also don't know anyone who catches air off a roadway (and keep control) in a Ferrari or any other car, other than a rally car. I am amazed.
frankly, i agree with lukeylikely. i have not driven the f12, but would like to. however, i can sympathize with the experience in the cs that i also got out this weekend....basically it is a complete waste of time to be in that car unless i am either going to a track, or going to italy. every other venue, and certainly switzerland where i have just been penalized 10k for relatively innocuous speeding, is just a waste for the cs, and that would count double for the f12. so altho i think jc is a buffoon most of the time, i tend to agree with him on this power issue. it reminds me of my childhood...i had a massive scalextric (actually the german version - carrera) set up in the basement. it was a recreation of the le mans circuit. and i had a variety of cool cars running on it. you could vary the power going into the system, and every so often i would just crank it to 11 and see if i could get the car round - nope. i would max out the mulsanne but then could not manage the curves and the car would fly off. and that is what is going on with todays supercar bhp race - all these cars simply have too much power, that is essentially wasted in our real world situations, and in the hands of the owners who are not professional drivers for the most part. but i love it that they are available....
Sounds like you need to apply the brakes *before* entering the corner. Seriously if y'all want to complain about horsepower, drive a Miata as they are plenty fun for the street. (Heck some of the most fun I had at an SCCA race was renting a Miata and running in SM class between my "serious" race.) For everyone else: more HP and bigger brakes!
More nonsense auto journalism. Auto journalist have had very little to say for a while now, so they randomly reach for thing just for the sake of having something different to say. Why mention the unusable power of the F12 and not the unusable power of almost every sports car in the world for the last 15 years? What's so significant about the last 100hp in the F12?
