T'S BEEN FILTHY WEATHER EVER SINCE I FIRST DROPPED INTO the new Ferrari 12 Cilindri's low-set driving seat, but, as if by some divine coincidence, the mist rises and the sky begins to clear shortly after we cross the German border and pass a sign with those four tantalising diagonal strips that demarcate an unrestricted stretch of autobahn. Smoothly opening the throttle pedal to its stop in any highperformance car is quite a moment, but when that car has 12 cylinders and revs to 9500rpm...
In this case, though, it's more than an engine, and more than a car, isn't it? The two things together are more than the sum of their parts here because a Ferrari is one thing, but a V12 Ferrari... that's a thing in and of itself, both in automotive culture and to Ferrari as a marque - the first Ferrari in 1947 had 12 cylinders, and 'everything since is a derivation', as Enzo Ferrari once put it.
Perhaps that's why Ferrari has chosen to name its latest V12-powered car after the engine itself. The 12 Cilindri (which sounds a lot better pronounced in Italian, or the closest an English-speaker can get to it phonetically at least: doe-dee-chee chill-in-dree, or '12 cylinder' to you and me) is the successor to the 812 Superfast. When that car's 812 Competizione evolution was launched in 2021 (see issue 292), evo's Adam Towler wondered rhetorically whether it would be the last naturally aspirated V12 Ferrari of its kind.
This story is from the November 2024 edition of Evo UK.
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This story is from the November 2024 edition of Evo UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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