Many people thought the 2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri would not — or could not exist — and yet here it is.
Resplendent in an unmissable chemical-yellow paint job, the newest Ferrari has as its heart a mighty V12 engine that is not muffled by turbochargers nor diluted by any hybrid system. The blood-red motor makes 819 hp, revs to 9,500 rpm, and produces spine-tingling noises like an army of 10,000 angry drones.
Cheating Death
Auto industry watchers predicted this sort of engine was dead, killed off at long last by tightening emissions regulations. The vast majority of the automotive world has, after all, abandoned indulgent naturally-aspirated engines long ago. Companies and cars that haven’t ditched oversized engines just yet — Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, and a handful of other high-performance machines — have paired them with turbochargers, superchargers, or plug-in hybrid (PHEV) systems in a token effort to reduce fuel consumption and, in turn, emissions.
Not Ferrari. The 12Cilindri is a rear-wheel-drive road missile with a naturally-aspirated V12 up front — just like the very first Ferrari made in 1947. If you’re rich enough, it’s like the rules don’t matter; a growing number of boutique automakers cater to billionaires’ thirst for old-school analog horsepower, from the new V16-powered Bugatti to the Gordon Murray T.50 and its 12-cylinder engine, and any number of exotic restomods by Singer and others.
How Ferrari gets away with it in this era of battery-powered cars and climate change and global emissions reduction targets is, frankly, a question for the regulators to figure out. We can tell you that in Europe, low-volume automakers (including Ferrari) are exempt from emissions reduction targets until 2035.
Here in Canada, zero-emissions vehicle sales targets don’t kick in until 2026, and in theory, engines like this V12 could be allowed in new vehicles until 2035. Perhaps Ferrari is simply waiting until the last moment, squeezing every bit of profit it can from its signature V12.
“It’s a car that goes against today’s trends,” said Jacopo Marcon, Ferrari’s product marketing manager for the 12Cilindri. “With this model we’re keeping our purist tradition alive, addressing those clients for whom Ferrari means the most.”
Big Bang for Big Bucks
Unsurprisingly, those customers have very deep pockets. The 2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri starts at $554,439 in Canada. By the time you get it on the road with $80,000 in options, taxes, and fees, you’re looking at closer to $800,000.
What do you get for your money? Well, aside from a very loud signifier of your large bank balance, you get an experience unlike any other.
From the driver’s seat, the 12Cilindri’s hood looks as if it stretches to the horizon. The two upturned flares over the front wheels make it feel like you’re piloting a low-flying spacecraft. Two triangular wings on each rear corner of the car deploy automatically according to the driving conditions.
The sci-fi vibe is intentional. Ferrari’s designers took inspiration from 1970s futurism as well as the sci-fi illustrations of Syd Mead. It has an almost robotic look, and is totally unlike previous V12 models from Ferrari.
Firing up the engine with a little touch-sensitive pad on the steering wheel is initially underwhelming but you won’t care once the 6.5L engine roars to life. It’s a chaotic noise, a multi-faceted howl of dissonant frequencies that only really coalesce as the engine reaches its crescendo above 8,000 rpm. Up there in that rarified zone, the noise fills your chest. Compared to its predecessor, the 812 Superfast, the 12Cilindri’s sound isn’t as manic. It doesn’t sound as much like one of Ferrari’s old 12-cylinder Formula 1 cars, but it still makes a deliciously exotic noise.
Certified Land Missile
Speed builds like the sound, in a gradual, linear, unstoppable way until the engine runs into the limiter. Then the gearbox whip-cracks and before you can blink the speed just keeps building. We can report fourth gear is good for more than 200 km/h, which leaves another four gears of the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic in reserve for who knows what.
On the rain-soaked, leaf-strewn roads of Luxembourg’s countryside, there’s no way to use all 819 hp in a rear-wheel drive car. Turn the steering wheel-mounted manettino dial to wet mode and the electronics do a remarkable job of making this monster feel tame. In sport mode the rear tires can break traction without warning, but faster than you can think of an appropriate expletive the car’s electronic safety net has already caught the slide and saved you from a half-million-dollar embarrassment.
But perhaps what’s most shocking is just how much of the 819-hp is usable in these awful driving conditions. Like its predecessor, the 12Cilindri finds grip where it seems there is none. A slightly shorter wheelbase and an independent rear-wheel steering system — which allows the two rear wheels to adopt different steering angles if needed — grants the 12Cilindri a feeling of extreme lightness and borderline frightening agility. Adding to the sensation is the light steering and quick-ratio rack. This car turns at the speed of thought.
Top speed is 340 km/h and the sprint to 100 km/h takes 2.9 seconds, according to Ferrari. Yes, there are a handful of much cheaper and very practical electric cars that are quicker. (Ferrari’s first electric vehicle is slated to launch next year and it, too, will probably beat the 12Cilindri in a drag race.) There are also other Italian supercars which are quicker in a straight line, like Lamborghini’s new hybrid-assisted all-wheel-drive Revuelto. But if any of that matters to you, then you’re not the target customer for this car. It’s like catnip for driving purists.
Final Thoughts
Again, the numbers aren’t the point — the experience is: the feel, the look, the sound, the shock and awe, the extreme price tag, and the exclusivity. As with all modern Ferraris, the 12Cilindri’s real magic is that it simultaneously flatters and thrills any driver without feeling too easy or artificial. It makes you feel superhuman in a way its rivals can’t quite match.
This is the formula for all modern Ferraris, and it works. Just follow the money; through the first half of 2024 Ferrari sold just 2.7 per cent more cars (3,484 worldwide) than it did through the same period last year, but its net revenue was up a whopping 16.2 per cent. Maybe Ferrari’s rivals that were so quick to abandon scintillating naturally-aspirated engines should rethink that strategy.
