Phwoar horse
New ‘special version’ of Ferrari’s 812 to boast 819bhp from its naturally aspirated V12
IT’S YET TO BE NAMED, AND EVEN IF YOU have pockets deep enough actually getting hold of one will be no easy task, but one thing’s not in doubt: this is a front-engined Ferrari berlinetta with an 819bhp naturally aspirated V12, and just the thought of that is enough to fry our minds.
That horsepower figure, some 30bhp clear of the already monstrous 812 Superfast’s, is joined by the equally spectacular statistic of 9500rpm – a stratospheric 1000rpm increase beyond the point at which the Superfast hits its peak. To achieve this, Ferrari claims to have carried out some significant engineering work on the F140-series V12’s internals, and also to its breathing, both in and out, and we’re not surprised: as far as the art of the internal combustion engines goes, this is surely close to its apogee before electrification takes over.
The ‘Versione Speciale’, rumoured to potentially be called the Competizione, is the latest in a series of limited-run, hardcore variants based on Ferrari’s ultimate front-engined V12 models. For the 599 it was the GTO, for the F12 the TDF, and both cars premiered new technologies that have filtered down into the company’s ‘regular’ models in time.
The 812 ‘VS’ looks to be no different, while providing an ultimate road and track experience for the lucky few. Expect a further development of Ferrari’s electronic driver aids suite, with the debut of Side Slip Control 7.0, which essentially seeks to make drifting 819bhp’s worth of Ferrari something that mere mortals can aspire to.
Ferrari has also worked on reducing mass compared with the 1630kg Superfast, although there aren’t any figures available at this time to show how successful or otherwise the firm has been. What we do know is that there’s extensive use of carbonfibre,
and perhaps more radical still the rear window has been left on the factory floor, replaced with a louvred aluminium panel. Visibility rearwards will be provided by a camera system, à la SF90.
Overall, this new variant has a markedly different exterior look to the regular 812, and pleasingly without the sort of add-on wings that characterise many rivals. It’s virtually a new design (created by Ferrari in-house, incidentally), but with clearly recognisable 812 DNA. The front intake is larger, with seperate chin ducts, while there’s obvious airflow management going on, from the vanes low down in the front corners to the vortex generators on the rear panel. Perhaps most striking is the carbonfibre ‘blade’ that spans the width of the car halfway up the bonnet, but the tail runs it close for impact, with an integrated ducktail spoiler and extraction slats that clearly ape those of the 250 GTO. All told, it has quite some road presence.
Inside, there are lightweight door cards and a centre console that includes the latest ‘H-gate’ selector. Expect the standard spec to be sparse in line with the car’s overall lightweight ethos, although in this market if you’re happy to pay, you can probably have what you want. Talking of which, there’s no word yet on the car’s price, or its performance figures (they’ll be on evo.co.uk as soon as we get them), but expect the former to be a significant jump over the Superfast’s £263,000 starting price and the latter to show small but notable improvements over the current 2.9sec 0-62mph time and 211mph top speed.
The crucial gains, of course, are likely to be in the car’s overall performance and dynamic envelope. And one thing’s for sure: if this is the last of the big frontengined V12 Ferraris, before hybridisation at the very least, then it’s really going out with all guns blazing.