At some point, automakers will realize there is more to life than horsepower, gearheads will see that eyeball-flattening acceleration is overrated and … oh, who are we kidding? There will always be cars like the fabulously ferocious Ferrari F12berlinetta and we will always love them.
The new flagship Ferrari unveiled today is, the folks in Maranello say, the most powerful road car the company has ever built, producing more power than even the Lamborghini Aventador. The car, which replaces the 599 GTB Fiorano, makes its debut next month at the Geneva auto show.
Ferraris are, in many ways, all about the engine and the F12berlinetta (that’s really the name, one word) delivers the goods. Ferrari pegs the 6.2-liter V12 at 740 CV, or cavalli vapore because, you know, horsepower just isn’t Italian enough. Math was never our strong suit, but we peg that at 750 horsepower. The engine’s got boatloads of grunt, too: 509 pound-feet. Ferrari says 80 percent of it is available at 2,500 RPM, providing “an unrelenting surge of acceleration.”
Unrelenting is an apt description.
