Getting more from Ferrari’s V12 is ‘really hard work’

Electric cars have, when it comes to power outputs at least, gone from a low baseline to a position of absolute dominance.

The combustion engine has been fastidiously evolved for more than a century, specific outputs rising only incrementally as devoted acolytes nurse marginal gains from this curious device of world-changing potential. New understanding brings a little more compression here, a touch less friction there, a few more revs without catastrophe.

Take Ferrari’s 6.5-litre V12. Chief technical ocer Michael Leiters and his team engineered an all-new valvetrain, lightened and re-balanced the crank and adopted titanium conrods, all to take peak power from 789bhp (812 Superfast) to 818bhp (812 Competizione). It was, Leiters admits, ‘really dicult work’.

The V12 in Ferrari’s first car, the 1947 125 S, was good for 79bhp per litre; the 2021 812 Competizione 126bhp per litre. That’s an improvement of 0.6bhp per litre, per year. Tough going. While bhp per kWh is not the electric equivalent, it’s an interesting calculation nonetheless. Just 13 years on from Tesla’s ground-breaking Roadster (53kWh, 244bhp) we have the 120kWh, 1874bhp Battista – that’s progress to the tune of 8.4bhp per kWh, per year. Different gravy.

You’re left pondering two questions. One, isn’t peak power kind of academic beyond, say, 500bhp? And why, when it’s so damn hard to increase it, do the likes of Leiters continue to push themselves to wring every last drop from the combustion engine?

‘For Ferrari, it’s worth fighting for this engine,’ says Leiters. ‘From a technical point of view this [the naturally-aspirated V12] is not the most ecient way – we could create more performance with a V8 turbo. But from an emotional point of view the V12 is the best. 830bhp, 1000bhp, 1900bhp… who cares? If you’re a good driver you’ll get a thrill with 830bhp. And if you’re a normal driver you’re scared if you put the pedal to the metal with that amount of power. What you feel is more important than a big number. But we do it because it’s important to communicate that we have improved again. It’s a convenient indicator to declare something about your car.’

Is this, then, why cars get more powerful, not lighter? In part, certainly. ‘Reducing weight is only positive – you get only advantages. Except cost. Reducing weight costs a lot of money; nd it’s very dicult. And this [more power] is a trend accelerated by electrification. Electric car makers don’t care about the weight. For them, fun to drive, lateral acceleration and all this stuff is not so important. They increase power output and they go.’

Leiters, you sense, is reluctant to do the same. Come 2025 Ferrari will be an electric car maker – but on its own terms. ‘Ferrari as a brand is strong enough to define our own way. We can do things nobody is expecting. When it comes to electrification, and particularly control integration, I’m positive we will find a Ferrari solution.’

And when he’s done defining Maranello’s electric future each day, there’s the welcome distraction of keeping its V12 alive and kicking.

Enjoy the issue.