2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider first drive review: Songs of freedom
The naturally aspirated V12 not only lives, but lives its best life at 9500rpm with the roof down on the 12Cilindri Spider;
Update: 2025-05-23 02:17 GMT
Airports, restaurants, parties, the bus shuttling you from plane to terminal when the airline you’re flying is too broke to pay for an aerobridge parking slot – the question I’m most often asked is which is the best car I’ve driven. Which, spoilt as we are for choice, is often the hardest question to answer. One day it could be a vintage Porsche, the next whatever rally car I’m obsessing over. Oftentimes it’s the Veyron. And when in no mood for conversation after being subjected to the tyranny of a kid slamming the back of one’s seat, it always is the Alto. The stuff that little car can do defies imagination but neither you, nor random acquaintances, are interested in that story. The story you want to read about is the time I drove the 812 Superfast. 10 of them, in a multitude of colours, were idling in Piazza Michael Schumacher, under the shadow of Enzo Ferrari’s home in the middle of Fiorano. Mine was red, matching the doors and windows of the cottage now bequeathed to Hamilton while he scripts the most amazing story since Schumi took the Tifosi to the top of the world. The doors were open, we were invited to spend 15 minutes in the holiest of holy homes before being convoy-ed to the pits and then given 5 laps. 5 hot laps. Dial Manettino all the way to ESC-off, drive as you wish, no noise restriction demanding you lift off on the main straight and silence the glorious V12. Formula 1 had just transitioned to turbo-V6s and I remember telling anybody who’d listen that the 812’s V12 sounded a million times better. After my laps, hands still trembling, I took my rocket-fuel-grade espresso and sat in the ancient stands, the wooden rafters creaking under the burden of history, and subjected the hairs on the nape of my neck to more of the shrieking V12 violence lapping Fiorano. Yup, best car I’ve driven is more often than not the 812 Superfast. And that’s an extremely long-winded way of saying the 12Cilindri has very big boots to fill.
The 812 Superfast has set the bar very high for its successor in spirit, the 12Cilindri
The bloodline goes back to the 550 Maranello, 599 GTB, F12 and aforementioned 812 – the latter two being, in character, more like front-engined hypercars. The F12tdf in particular was famously fitted with very wide front tyres to endow it with the agility of mid-engined hypercars, and then engineers (and eventually drivers) were left to figure out ways of sorting out the resulting drama. The 812 had super-fast handling responses and on the less than ideal roads we encountered in the hills above Modena, it was properly hairy when given the full-send treatment.
The 12Cilindri doesn’t have to be so intense. Now that there’s the SF 90 Stradale at the top of the series-production sportiness pyramid, Ferrari engineers could double down on the grand touring remit, endowing the 12Cilindri with a greater range of abilities (read more comfort).
The layout of the V12 GT remains similar. No carbon tub; this sticks with the aluminium space frame chassis but it is a new and stiffer one, particularly around suspension towers and the A- and B-pillars. The difference between coupe and spider is basically around the sills, with the thickness and assembly process reinforced to recover rigidity that’s lost when the roof was chopped off – no figures though, Ferrari are mum on torsional stiffness differences between the Berlinetta and Spider.
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider form and dimensions
The Spider is 60 kilos heavier, primarily due to the retractable hard top. This is also the first time Ferrari have used aluminium rollover bars – it’s lighter than steel and since that weight is high up, usage of aluminium keeps the centre of gravity lower. An ideal frame of reference is the 812 GTS, with the 12Cilindri Spider getting bigger wheels, up from 20 to 21 inches, height (1292mm) is changed, the body has been widened from 1971mm to 2000mm, length increases by 76mm to 4.73 metres and the wheelbase is 20mm shorter, at 2700mm. Rear-wheel steer is standard but Ferrari say the 20mm wheelbase reduction has delivered enough and more agility, and so unlike other systems where the rear wheels turn in opposite direction to the fronts at low speeds to aid manoeuvrability or even parking, on the 12Cilindri RWS is only used to virtually lengthen the wheelbase at higher speeds. And the really cool part is the rear wheels have separate actuators that move the wheels in different directions depending on what is needed. For instance the inside rear wheel can react with more immediacy, turn quicker and by more of an angle than the outside rear tyre to aid quick lane changes with shorter axle alignment times. These are all subtle inputs, the wheels moving by a maximum of plus/minus 2 degrees, a mechanical device extending by 9mm to move the wheels.
Compared to the 812 GTS, the body has been widened by 29mm, lengthened by 76mm and the wheelbase is shortened by 20mm
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider engine
The highlight is of course the engine, THE V12 tucked so far back under the huge bonnet that it’s behind the front axle line. Lift the massive hood, Cofango in Italian, and you can see the tyres – a lovely bit of theatre. Code-named F140 HD, the V12 is a derivation of the 812 Competizione’s direct-injection, 6.5-litre, 65-degree V12. No turbos, no hybrids, yet it still puts out 126bhp per litre. Peak power– reached at 9250rpm – remains the same at 819bhp though peak torque is down by 13Nm to 678Nm (due to the stricter emission norms), made at 7250rpm. To ensure the V12 doesn’t blow itself apart at 9500rpm it has light-weight internals, sophisticated valve gear with sliding finger followers, titanium con-rods, lightweight pistons with a low-friction coating, and a lighter crankshaft (compared to the Superfast but similar to the Competizione).
Ferrari has kept the 12Cilindri's V12 free from the tangles of turbos and hybrid assistance
Since it’s named after its engine, Do-Dichi-Chilindri, I start subjecting myself to the violence of the V12 howling to 9500rpm. Despite gasoline particulate filters and ceramic cat-cons muffling the exhausts, it is still crazy loud. Too loud if you’re crouching near its tail pipes trying to offer a coherent line to the camera and the camera assistant decides to give it the beans for effect.
In a world where the naturally aspirated V12 is finito, this is a defining moment. Will this be the last V12? Unlikely because those who have mountains of money want V12s – not EVs. Wonder who the Ferrari EV buyer will be? (And that EV is coming in October, at their capital markets day)
But fret not. Ferrari will continue to make the V12. Their shareholders are very important, and very vocal. Nearly as vocal as this V12 where a run from 2000 to 9500rpm is the experience of a lifetime. It rattles your brain and shoots shivers down your spine. The highs are obviously crazy-high but this engine has an aural character throughout the range; tuneful in the mid-ranges, bassy at low revs, an event no matter what you do. The sound engineering includes a new intake plenum, variable-length intake ducts and a new exhaust system with two six-into-one manifolds. There is amplification, not via the speakers, but from the exhaust resonators transmitting sound from just ahead of the throttle body intake. It’s an engine to die for with the only real problem being the very, very few occasions you find to pull the V12 all the way to the redline. Like the 812 this too demands a race track to unleash its full fury but there’s a reason why we aren’t at a race track.
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider ride and dynamics
Ferrari describe the 12Cilindri as the most capable Ferrari gran turismo of all time and hitting that target meant delivering serious improvements in comfort. The chassis, 15 per cent more torsionally rigid than 812 (no figures were given of the Spider vs 812 GTS), permits the use of softer damper settings. MagneRide semi-active dampers have been designed to reduce roll on track yet be more comfortable over broken black top, something that the cliff-top route north of Cascais in Portugal gives us plenty of opportunity to experience. Get over the frustration of being stuck behind a never-ending stream of tourists and one discovers truly excellent ride quality, aided by the ‘bumpy road’ mode accessed via a simple punch of the red Manettino dial. Easy to find (unlike lot of the other stuff – Ferrari’s HMI interface still needs plenty of learning), it is one of the best features of a car this complex, delivering an absorbent and indulgent ride for something on such massive tyres (21 inches – 275-section at the front, 315 at the rear). In fact Ferrari engineers are keen to point out the generous 35 profile tyres, the taller sidewall paying rich dividends for ride comfort without compromising body control. Comfort, sorted. As with any Ferrari it takes the first hour to get used to the hyperresponsive steering. You turn with your wrists rather than the arms and never have to take your palms off the ten-to-two position what with it being less than two turns lock to lock. Similarly the brake-by-wire system which has a short, sharp pedal action that takes adapting but an hour later feels like second nature.
Despite the aggressive wheel and tyre combination, the ride is befitting of a grand tourer and is surprisingly comfortable
The 20mm wheelbase reduction moves the driver’s seat closer to the rear axle delivering a sense of the car pivoting in the middle around the driver; so much so that it almost feels mid- not front-engined. It’s not intended to be a track car but, the coupe is around 1 to 1.5 seconds a lap slower around Fiorano than a 296 GTB, but “way faster” than an 812.
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider acceleration and performance
The acceleration figures – 2.95sec to 100kmph and 8.2sec to 200kmph – are a fraction slower than the coupe (2.9s and 7.9s) – but even more intense. With no roof around your head, the shrieking V12 assaults your senses with even more ferocity, shift lights flashing on the steering wheel, the DCT banging shift after shift, and on a wet patch of the motorway where I released my frustration of being held up by traffic all day long, the tail even did a jig while charging to the redline in third gear. There’s a limit to what the rear tyres can do (no all-wheel-drive here), whether it is 789bhp of the 812 or the 819bhp on the Do-Dichi-Chilindri. All straight-six and multiples thereof are silky-smooth and then hurtling towards 9500rpm is a physically intense, overpowering experience. But you’re looking at jail time if you indulge in that for more than a few seconds on a public road.
The torque-shaping tech that had debuted on the 488 makes a comeback to mitigate turbo lag
Ferrari are aware of that and say that more often the V12 will be in third and fourth gear between 2000rpm and 5000rpm on winding roads and that’s where aspirated torque shaping comes in. First productionised on the 488 GTB, torque-shaping tech was used to get around the feel of turbo lag. Unlike the 488 though where only seventh gear delivered max torque, on the 12Cilindri this is about management of responses and a more linear delivery. 80 per cent of the maximum 678Nm comes in as low as 2500rpm, but torque curve is electronically controlled and delivery is tuned from 2000rpm all the way to and above 7000rpm so that there’s a sense of constantly building up to a crescendo. On the twisty bit of road hugging the cliffs I found myself in exactly this mode, between third and fourth gear, appreciating what the engineers had done to bring down the torque curve to suit just this kind of grand touring. It’s an incredibly rewarding groove, and then when the roads open up it’s staggering how the chassis manages over 800bhp from one of the fastest-responding powertrains in the world.
The eight-speed transaxle is the smoothest and fastest shifting DCT around with 30 per cent quicker shifts than the 812’s 7-speed. It puts 52 per cent of the weight on the rear axle, there’s an electronically controlled limited-slip differential, drive modes, variable stability control and Ferrari’s latest Side Slip Control software. In conjunction with a six-way chassis sensor system it actively measures and predicts the car’s movements and monitors the slip of each individual wheel. You can still switch it all off but, as with all Ferraris, you’ll be quicker with it on, also safe in the knowledge of a safety net around you when you dig in and start pushing at the limits. Turn in and there’s zero slack. Zero wait. You marvel at the swiftness of the response and it immediately settles in the first phase of the corner. Since the engine’s power delivery is so linear you can get on the throttle early and lean hard on the huge lateral grip. But there’s also so much power that the 12Cilindri is a playful car, easy to swing the back end round, the responses akin to a light mid-engined sports car rather than a large front-midengined GT. The grip, traction and linear torque delivery without any spikes gives you confidence as well as plenty of excitement.
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider aerodynamics
Active aero also helps calm things down, adding 50kg of downforce to the rear axle at 250kmph and shifting the aero balance rearwards aiding stability in fast cornering by introducing a touch of understeer. The active aerodynamic flaps on either side of the boot lid rise by up to 10 degrees between 60 and 300kmph, the angle of attack calculated basis longitudinal or lateral acceleration to aid cornering. The two flaps lift together, not individually like on the Pagani Huayra, and along with the extreme underbody aerodynamics, cleans up the body completely. Which brings us to the big topic of debate.
The active aero flaps on the boot lid only operate autonomously on the go and cannot be raised manually
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider design and looks
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider cabin and comfort
Inside there’s less flamboyance than, say, a Lamborghini and more of a sense of quality. The dash is split into two zones with the passenger display delivering enough information on revs, speed, g-forces and more to make an informed decision on when to start screaming. The driver gets a 15.6-inch digital instrument panel with CarPlay integrated in it while the central infotainment screen is designed to blend with the rest of the dashboard when switched off – no floating tablets in the Ferrari world.
The steering wheel is festooned with buttons for everything from lights and wipers to the Manettino and even haptic touch pads for cycling through the various displays on the screen. The only driving-related function controlled off the central touchscreen is the all-important nose lift which is included in the ₹9.15 crore ex-showroom price of the Spider. What Ferrari no longer offer is built-in navigation, (correctly) surmising that Google Maps does a better job. Neck warmers and an adjustable screen behind the driver aids top down grand touring while a 1600-watt, 15-speaker Burmester sound system is available for when you want to drown out the V12. Except, why would you?
Ferrari is adamant about keeping the V12s alive and kicking for as long as possible
2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider verdict
Enzo Ferrari famously said the engine is the heart and soul of every Ferrari and so that there is no confusion he emphasised, “The 12 cylinder will always be the original Ferrari, everything else is a derivation of the original model.” The Do Dichi Chilindri pays homage to the iconic V12; unmolested by turbos or hybrids; as pure as the classic Ferrari engine gets. And Ferrari have clarified that they haven't named the car after its engine because it’s a swansong for the V12; it will keep building V12s for as long as it is (commercially and legally) feasible to do so. A good thing that because nobody is interested in a conversation about the world’s best car that doesn't include a V12.