2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri First Drive Review: One of the Wildest Front-Engine Ferraris Ever!

Red lights march across the top of the steering wheel rim in lockstep with the ever more intense howl from the big V-12 engine and an endless surge of acceleration. Then it’s one-two blues and a quick snap of the right-hand paddle to avoid kissing the 9,500-rpm rev limiter. There’s a crack from the exhaust as the dual-clutch transmission engages the next gear, and the V-12’s howl momentarily changes pitch. But that seemingly endless surge of acceleration continues unabated. We flash past the braking marker at 180 mph. Yeah, the 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri is awful fast in a straight line.

What Is It?

The speed is hardly surprising, perhaps, given the new 12 Cilindri packs the most powerful V-12 ever installed in a factory-built front-engine Ferrari, a febrile naturally aspirated rev-monster that displaces 6.5 liters and produces 818 hp at an almost unimaginable 9,250 rpm, with 500 lb-ft of torque on tap at 7,250 rpm. What is surprising, however, is just how fast this front-engine Ferrari is through the corners. It has the long-hood, cab-rear proportions of classic Ferrari gran turismos such as the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, but it will demolish a winding two-lane road with the sure-footed elan of the mid-engine 296 GTB. Indeed, the Ferrari 12 Cilindri looks like a GT, but it drives like a sports car.

The Hardware

Gianmaria Fulgenzi, the Italian company’s product development chief, says the 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri is a Ferrari “for the few.” What he means is—apart from the fact the 12 Cilindri coupé will start at $464,000 (including destination) when it arrives in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2025, so few of us will be able to afford one—is that it’s a car designed for Ferrari afficionados who lust after Maranello’s front-engine V-12s.

The front-engine V-12 is, of course, Ferrari’s most famous vehicle format. Ferrari’s first road cars in 1947 were front-engine V-12s, though their engines displaced a mere 1.5 liters. Ironically, the new 12 Cilindri’s engine, codenamed F140HD, is an evolution of the 65-degree V-12 originally designed for the mid-engine Ferrari Enzo of the early 2000s. Although Ferrari engineers describe it as a comprehensive rework of the F140HC used in the 812 Superfast, many of the F140HD’s performance-enhancing components and technologies were previewed two years ago in the high-revving V-12 that powered Ferrari’s extraordinary, limited edition, mid-engine SP3 Daytona and subsequently used in the 812 Competizione.

Those enhancers include titanium connecting rods that are 40 percent lighter than equivalent steel items, new pistons that are 2 percent lighter, and a rebalanced crankshaft that’s 3 percent lighter, according to Ferrari. The sliding-finger cam followers actuating the engine’s 48 valves are another key performance enabler, a low-mass, low-friction technology borrowed from Ferrari’s Formula 1 engines. Fuel is pumped into the combustion chambers via a high-pressure direct-injection system running at 350 bar, and a new exhaust system features equal-length headers that feed into the ceramic catalytic converters and particulate filters that help the engine meet emissions regulations in the U.S., Europe, and China beyond 2026.

Drive is sent to the rear wheels via a new eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle transmission. This gives the 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri an extra gear beyond the 812 models, which allowed Ferrari to change the transmission’s ratios—they are the same as those used in the SF90, the 296 GTB, and the Purosangue—and increase the torque transmitted to the rear wheels by 12 percent while reducing shift times by 30 percent.

The new transmission, combined with the revised final-drive ratio in the e-differential that’s carried over from the 812, means the 12 Cilindri’s gearing is 5 percent shorter than that of the Superfast in the lower gears, despite it rolling on 21-inch wheels shod with either Michelin Pilot Sport S5 or Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tires, the first time Ferrari has offered a Goodyear as original equipment on one of its cars in more than 30 years. The tire sizes are staggered, of course, measuring 275/35 R21 at the front and 315/35 R21 at the rear.

The 12 Cilindri has rear-wheel steering, but each wheel can be steered independently of the other. Although the 12 Cilindri shares much of its suspension and braking hardware with the 812, the chassis, made up of aluminum extrusions and castings, is all new, with a wheelbase that’s 0.78 inch shorter and delivers 15 percent better torsional rigidity.

The 12 Cilindri’s chassis hardware is overseen by the latest iteration of Ferrari’s innovative vehicle dynamics control system, Side Slip Control (SSC) 8.0, key elements of which include a six-axis vehicle-motion sensor, plus the brake-by-wire ABS Evo system that made its debut on the 296 GTB and what Ferrari calls Version 2.0 of the 296 GTB’s grip estimation system, which enables the car to figure out grip levels, even on wheels that are being steered, 10 percent quicker than before.

Air Apparent

The 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri also bristles with state-of-the-art aerodynamic trickery that, as you’d expect from an automaker with its own F1 team, is mostly hidden underneath the car. At the front section of the underbody are three pairs of vortex generators that work with the front splitter to increase downforce on the front wheels. The central part of the underbody is designed to channel air to the rear diffuser, and a further pair of vortex generators are located between the rear wheels.

What you can see are gaping vents at each front corner that direct cooling air to the oil radiators and improve the airflow along the sides of the car. Another vent after of the front wheel opening allows air to escape from the front wheel housing, and vents on the hood help draw hot air from the engine compartment. At the rear of the car is a triple-channel diffuser and flaps at rearmost extremities of the rear fenders that tilt up to 10 degrees into the airflow at speeds between 38 mph and 186 mph. Ferrari says the twin-flap system delivers 110 pounds of downforce to the rear wheels at 150 mph, and it eliminated the need for a full-width active rear wing that would have compromised trunk space.

The proportions might be classic front-engine, 12-cylinder Ferrari, but apart from a sly nod to the Ferrari Daytona in the black panel that extends between the headlights across the front of the car, the 12 Cilindri is most emphatically not a retro car. Ferrari design chief Flavio Manzoni’s training as an architect and industrial designer is evident in the way 12 Cilindri’s graphics and volumes are defined by intersecting geometries, and in the crisp minimalism of much of the detailing, particularly the front and rear lights.

Yes, the 12 Cilindri looks like a Ferrari. But it also looks fresh, a dramatic, modernist interpretation of the iconic GT oeuvre. And for those who like wind in their hair with their V-12 engines, the coupe will be joined later in 2025 by the 12 Cilindri Spider, whose base price will be $505,400, including destination.

Let the Fun Commence

The 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri certainly delivers in terms of driveway theatre. It would be disappointing if it didn’t. But naturally, it’s once you get if off the driveway and onto the road that this new Ferrari really opens your eyes and quickens your pulse.

First impressions are mixed, though. With the manettino switch set to Sport mode—the softest drive mode setting other than Wet—and the dual-clutch eight-speed looking after the shifting chores all by itself, the 12 Cilindri is content to loaf along at 40 mph, that big V-12 turning little more than 1,100 rpm in sixth gear and purring like a well-fed lion. But the first time you cruise around a long, looping turn at 60 or 70 mph, the 12 Cilindri feels oddly edgy, dissecting what should be a long, smooth arc into a series of discrete chunks.

It takes a few more miles behind the wheel—and, ideally, one hard blast along a winding two-lane—to understand what’s going on. The 12 Cilindri’s chassis is not edgy. It’s simply hyperalert, responding immediately to the merest input on the steering wheel. Steer like a klutz, and the 12 Cilindri will feel … klutzy. But be smooth, taking full advantage of the light steering effort to guide the steering wheel with fingertip precision, and the Ferrari flows down the road like quicksilver.

Now, a car that can feel edgy at low speeds is often a handful at high speeds. But the genius of the new Ferrari 12 Cilindri is, thanks to the SSC 8.0 chassis control system, you don’t need the sublime skill and razor-sharp reflexes of Charles Leclerc to probe the outer limits of its handling envelope. The brilliance of SSC 8.0 lies in how it’s not just a safety net that’s there to catch you when you screw up. Rather, it’s a dynamic driving tool even highly experienced drivers can use to make this Ferrari go faster.

You can, for example, trail-brake deep into corners, leaning heavily on the ABS Evo brake-by-wire and the upgraded grip-estimation systems to keep the Ferrari’s nose pointed exactly where you want it. Then, as you clip the apex, you can quickly go to power. What’s important, though, is the fact the whole process feels organic. SSC 8.0 doesn’t rewrite the laws of physics; it just shines a light on the dark places in Isaac Newton’s notebook. You can feel the moment the front tires start to slip if you get too ambitious and the rear tires squirming right on the limit of adhesion under acceleration. Select CT Off on the manettino, and you can dial in just the right amount of power oversteer when you need it.

Driven with intent on a quiet road, with the manettino switched to Race mode (which, despite the name, is designed to set the car up for sporty road driving), the transmission in Manual and that mighty V-12 in its happy place beyond 5,000 rpm, the 12 Cilindri is a ferociously fast thing, perhaps the fastest front-engine road car in the business. It will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2.9 seconds, Ferrari says, and barely five seconds later it will be traveling at 124 mph en route to a top speed of 211 mph.

There’s More to It

Those numbers don’t accurately convey how quickly this Ferrari gets from point to point. The 12 Cilindri seems much lighter on its feet through the twisties than, say, a Mercedes-AMG GT 63, and it makes the 812 Superfast almost feel like you’re driving a bus—and not just because of SSC 8.0 and the upgraded rear-steer system. No, its shorter wheelbase is key, Fulgenzi says: “Taking three-quarters of an inch out of the wheelbase may not sound like much, but it’s huge.”

You notice it in the cabin, too. Inside, the 12 Cilindri is a tighter fit than those classic GT proportions might suggest. If you’re much over 6 feet tall, chances are you’ll want a touch more legroom behind the wheel, especially if you order a car with the standard Comfort seats. The lightweight carbon-shell Sport seats, which have much thinner back rests, can rake back a touch further. The interior’s design is less avant-garde than the exterior’s, and the hardware and functionality is much the same as that in cars such as the 296 GTB and Purosangue. The big difference is the new landscape-format 10.25-inch touchscreen that flies above the center console.

The 2025 Ferrari 12 Cilindri is a clever mix of classic and futuristic, an intoxicating and intriguing shape shifter that’s part GT yet all sports car. It also reveals Ferrari as an automaker increasingly confident in its ability to create cars that, despite their different powertrain layouts and absolute performance levels, share a clearly defined tactile similarity, a familial familiarity. “The 12 Cilindri is not a GT,” Fulgenzi says. “It’s not a sports car. It’s a Ferrari.” He’s certainly right about that.