Ferrari V12 to live on… until regulations ban it

The famous Ferrari V12 has plenty of life left in it yet – and the Italian supercar brand plans to keep it screaming for decades into the future, even if its hybrid and electric stablemates out-punch it.

Despite tightening emissions regulations and both hybrid systems and electric motors that are easily eclipsing the performance of big-capacity naturally-aspirated supercar engines, Ferrari says there will always be a place for the iconic V12 in its high-performance line-up.

Ferrari’s global marketing director Emanuele Carando says the Maranello-based brand will keep making V12s for as long as it can.

“We will produce naturally-aspirated V12s until the law will allow us to do,” Carando told Australian journalists in a virtual roundtable this week.

“We hope the law in the future will continue to show opportunities, probably working on new petrol which is more sustainable,” he said, referencing synthetic or e-fuels that allow internal combustion engines to effectively be carbon-neutral due to how the fuel is produced.

Ferrari long ago gave up on V12 being the performance heroes in its range, starting with SF90 supercar that was launched in 2019.

Whereas the soon-to-arrive 12Cinlindri – the replacement for the 812 – makes 610kW and 678Nm, the SF90’s turbo V8 hybrid system produces about 750kW and a whole lot of torque (the V8 alone makes 800Nm and then gets a help from three electric motors, with no combined torque claim).

And electric motors are easily trouncing anything powered by petrol; for example the upcoming Porsche Taycan Turbo GT makes up to 815kW and 1340Nm.

Not that Ferrari is fazed, pointing to “driving thrills” as the main focus for the brand – something it says it can measure from the smile on the face of drivers.

Ferrari also says it measures “longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration, braking, gear-shifting and sound” to determine whether its cars live up to expectations.

“Those five elements are the most important we evaluate,” said Carando.

Noise is something a Ferrari V12 does well and it’s something likely to be on display in the 12Cilindri, which revs all the way to 9500rpm – more than any other road-going Ferrari.

And more is possible, as Ferrari’s powertrain project manager Ruggero Cevolani confirmed in discussing the important new model.

He said the highly-strung 6.5-litre V12 had been engineered to rev the magical 10,000rpm mark but that the brand settled on a still-stratospheric 9500rpm limit to maximise overall performance and driveability.

“Technically speaking this engine is able to reach 10,000rpm, because we introduced a lot of lightweight components,” said Cevolani, who explained that the emphasis on mid-range torque and outright performance led to the 9500rpm limit, resulting in 610kW and 678Nm.

“But between engine RPMs, power and torque shape there is a trade-off,” he said, referencing the software-driven torque shaping designed to provide a more linear driving feel.

“Higher rev-limiter would have meant a slight sacrifice in the overall power of the engine at maximum speed and a corresponding drop off in the sensation of constant acceleration,” said Cevolani.

That may be true, but it still has us frothing over what a Ferrari V12 revving past 10,000rpm would sound like…

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