The Ferrari V12 is one of the most iconic engines, and lucky for us, they’ve found a way to give it life even after the move to electric vehicles.
For as long as there has been motorsport Ferrari has been at the very top. Cars painted in Rosso Corsa are synonymous with victories and success in all categories of motor racing. And this doesn’t come as luck, Ferrari has been at the Forefront of engine development for as long as they have been a company.
Perhaps the key aspect of Ferrari’s success boils down to the very heart of the vehicle. The engine. And the very best, the pinnacle of engines comes in the form of the Ferrari V12. It’s perhaps the most successful engine across all fields of Motorsport and has a racing pedigree like no other.
And so, naturally, Ferrari wants to save the V12. It wants to save it from the impending doom that is the move to electric, and the uncertain future of the cars it’s already built. Ferraris aren’t cheap, and so they’re doing their very best to ensure longevity in the product they have produced. Here’s how Ferrari will save its V12 in the electrified years to come.
The History Of Ferrari’s Iconic V12 Engine
According to “the commander”, Enzo Ferrari, the engine is the heart of the car. And so this became the mantra for Ferrari. They built the engine, and then they built the surrounding car. After gaining much-valued experience working for Alfa Romeo, Enzo decided to take matters into his own hand and designed the Ferrari 125S. And the engine that would power his first-ever car? A 12-cylindered motor shaped in a V.
And so the love story began. All Ferraris came equipped with a V12 engine all the way until the 1980s. So much so that this became a signature characteristic of the brand and is often reflected in the model names. The unmistakable sound, unmatched performance, and the power to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up no matter how many times you’ve experienced it before.
Legendary cars such as the 250 GTO all the way up to the most modern stuff like the 812 Superfast and GTS. The common thread for all of these prancing ponies is the engine that makes them go. The V12 transcends what makes driving special. It encapsulates the very feeling that was Enzo’s motive for making a car. And unfortunately for us today alongside some other legendary engines the Ferrari 12 is becoming extinct. Or is it?
Will They Make An All-Electric Ferrari?
In March of this year, the European Union announced that cars running exclusively on E-Fuels would be allowed to remain on sale beyond the proposed regional ban on new combustion engine cars from 2035. This immediately raised the possibility of low-volume brands such as Ferrari continuing to build and sell their non-electrified cars. A huge bonus for the brand.
The Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna suggested that they could keep selling their cars as long as they were powered by E-fuel. He also said that the brand remains on track to meet its goal of being carbon-neutral by 2030 and that in fact, it will be launching its first electric car in 2025. It feels as if Ferrari thinks that their ICE still has a lot to give, and they’re going to capitalize on that as much as possible.
Ferrari has also expressed that they feel the E-fuel change has about much faster than originally expected and so it’s opened up a whole new array of possibilities for Ferrari and its future. So far it hasn’t given away too much about what its first-ever electric-only car will look like, but it’s suspected that the car is nearly ready, and we’ll be showcased before long.
Besides this nobody really knows what the future will hold for Ferrari as they are characteristically very tight-lipped on the subject. Currently, Ferrari has a 3-liter V6 a 3.9-liter V8, and a 6.5-liter V12 powering its lineup. The 296 GTB and SF90 Stradale are already both hybridized and so the move to all-electric is happening more organically than once imagined.
How Much Does A V12 Ferrari Cost?
There are three ends of the spectrum when looking at Ferrari V12 to purchase. We’ll start with the old stuff the Ferrari 250, perhaps the most iconic of all Ferrari cars and some have sold for record prices over the years can be had for around 380,000 for a pretty good example.
In the middle end of the spectrum, you can have something quite affordable like the Ferrari 308 GTS for as little as $68,000. While this may not be the finest example of a Ferrari V12 it’s a Ferrari V12 nonetheless.
And on the very other end of the spectrum is arguably Ferraris’s most ludicrous product in the last 30 years the Ferrari F12 TDF. For this, you can expect to pay just south of a million dollars, and you’ll be buying yourself a piece of Ferrari V12 history. No matter which one you pick, they all have a piece of motoring history inside the engine bay, and if we had it our way the Ferrari V12 would live forever.
Sources: Ferrari, Classic.com
