Ferrari 12Cilindri Review

Ferrari unveiled the 12Cilindri in Miami Beach on May 3, 2024, timed to seventy years of selling cars in America, and it takes over from the 812 Superfast as the company's front-engined V12 berlinetta. The name is simply Italian for twelve cylinders. The styling pays tribute to the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, most obviously in the black band across the nose, which Ferrari will not delete or paint another color, and the design won an ADI Car Design Award in 2025.

The engine is the 812 Competizione's 6.5 liter V12, still without turbochargers or hybrid help, making 819 hp at 9,250 rpm, now through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Four-wheel steering, brake-by-wire and rear flaps that deploy for downforce do the chassis work. Ferrari quotes 2.9 seconds to 62 mph, 7.9 to 124 mph and 211 mph. Evo found it less edgy than the 812 Superfast but still quick-witted, responding more like a lighter mid-engined car than a big GT, and its testers were taken with the engine even as one noted that it lacks drama low in the rev range.

Inside, it is a more modern car than the 812. There are three displays, a 15.6 inch screen for the driver, a 10.25 inch central touchscreen and a display for the passenger, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and wireless charging as standard. The steering wheel controls are capacitive, as on other recent Ferraris, and Evo's testers disliked them, along with flat seats and large blind spots. A 2026 US recall covered 80 cars fitted with window tint too dark for American rules. The EPA rates it at 14 mpg combined. It started at $470,950 for 2025; at least one lightly used car has been advertised well above that, but this is a series production car and its values have yet to settle.

The 12Cilindri trades some of the 812's aggression for comfort and technology, and the trade is mostly a good one: the engine is as special as ever and the chassis still rewards a committed driver. The touch controls are the weak point, and Ferrari has since begun to walk them back, returning physical buttons on the F80 and the Amalfi. As a naturally aspirated V12 grand tourer it has few direct rivals left in production.