FERRARI 812 COMPETIZIONE

Is the latest front-engined V12 special out of Maranello as terrifying as the last one?

- MATT PRIOR

TESTER ’S NOTE Ferrari still gives you the best gearshift paddles (steering column-mounted) and gearshift quality in the business. MP

Enter, then, the latest special Ferrari that you have to be invited to buy. It’s the 812 Competizione and, as is the norm with different generations of Ferrari, it gets a different name rather than just being, say, another ‘GT3’ or ‘LT’. This car’s forebears are the F12 tdf and the 599 GTO.

It’s based on the ‘ordinary’ 812 Superfast, whose 789bhp 6.5-litre V12 has been tweaked even more as the Competizione’s centrepiece, with titanium conrods, new pistons, a 3%-lighter crankshaft and redesigned heads with sliding finger followers between the camshafts and the valve stem (because they cope best with very aggressive cams and high revs). Now the engine revs to 9500rpm and makes an additional 30bhp while doing so, for 819bhp.

At the 2015 launch of the F12 tdf, Ferrari’s engineers thought there was one more generation of development left in the big V12. This is that car but, legislation notwithstanding, there might even be a little more yet.

The F12 tdf’s throttle response was, though, massively aggressive, even at low revs. Too responsive. It’s what Ferrari thought its customers wanted at the time. Getting a big front-engined V12 car to be hyperresponsive isn’t easy, so they put huge tyres on the front and then set about taming it. Just not quite enough. This time around, they say, they looked for a car that’s a little more drivable – although still one with huge, 275-section front tyres.