2022 FERRARI 812 Competizione
Reveling in the 819-hp excess of what will likely be the last nonhybrid V-12 Ferrari. CAPS OFF AN ERA
If it feels like we’ve been saying goodbye a lot lately, that’s because we have. The Ferrari 812 Competizione isn’t just the last version of the F12 that launched in 2012, it likely also will be the last new Ferrari that isn’t a hybrid. Every prancing horse that follows it will have a battery pack and an electric motor to aid acceleration, improve efficiency, and reduce emissions. With the Laferrari and the SF90, Ferrari has proved that it can integrate and optimize a hybrid system for performance, so we’re not too concerned about the short-term future. But the 812 Competizione does feel like the end of an era—the last glorious stand of the nonhybrid V-12-powered Ferrari.
The 6.5-liter V-12 under the hood of the new Ferrari 812 Competizione is an internalcombustion exclamation mark. It types in ALL CAPS as it revs all the way to a valvetrainpulverizing 9500 rpm. Suddenly the 8600-rpm redline of the new Chevy Corvette Z06 doesn’t seem so impressive.
Granted, at $601,570, the Competizione costs a lot more than a Z06, and the production run of 500 coupes and 312 Competizione A models—the A is for Aperta, or “open” in Italian—are all spoken for. What those very lucky buyers will get is an 819-hp V-12 to end all V-12s. To bump the redline up by 500 rpm over the 812 Superfast’s already-dizzying 9000-rpm limit, the Competizione’s engine gets titanium connecting rods, a lighter crankshaft, a new cylinder head with finger-follower actuated valves, and diamond-like carbon coating on several surfaces to reduce friction. A redesigned oil tank better handles lateral and longitudinal forces, and it holds a less-viscous oil than other V-12 Ferraris, allowing a variable-rate oil pump to move the engine’s blood more efficiently and at a greater rate. Thinner oil is the equivalent of this car being on blood thinners. No one wants a clot.
If the 812 Superfast is truth in advertising, then the Competizione is super-duper fast. Your mind struggles to process the experience because your senses can’t quite keep up. Surges to the 9250rpm power peak in first and second gear happen so quickly that if you think about anything but pulling the right shift paddle, you’ll bang into the rev limiter. Thoughtfully, Ferrari fits shift lights on the top of the steering wheel to help track the approaching redline. They’re your only hope of getting it right.
Even in the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic’s higher gears, the engine pulls doggedly and fast to the redline. Power delivery is exactly what you’d hope for in a 12-cylinder car: smooth, linear, and uninterrupted. From the outside, the sound is right out of the combustion engine’s greatesthits album. Inside, the engine growls deeply and directly through the redesigned intake. Hold the accelerator down and straights shrink to