An all-new engine powers its latest drop top to new heights

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First Drive: Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider

An all-new engine powers its latest drop top to new heights

Basem Wasef

25 February 2025

The Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider is a modern visual symphony with its planar surfaces, faceted buttresses, slats tilted at subtly aggressive angles and husky 21-inch wheels that plant its four corners with authority. Beyond the overt futurism is a hint of retro within the complex curves that wrap around the front end, a not-so-discreet hat tip to its 20^th century antecedent, the lavishly long-of-snout 365 GTB/4 Daytona.

It’s no surprise that Ferrari’s half-million-dollar 12Cilindri (pronounced dodichi-chilindri) harbors an Easter egg that points to the past. After all, this model’s pièce de resistance, the feature it’s literally named after, is the naturally aspirated, gasoline-fed 12-cylinder engine that’s in grave danger of going the way of the floppy disc.

Its powerplant is a middle finger to nearly every notion of progress. Displacing a hulking 6.5 liters and probably weighing as much as a boat anchor, the mill forgoes attempts at efficiency like turbochargers or hybridization. You’ll have to veer away from Maranello if you crave a row-it-yourself manual transmission, and the mad scientists at Bugatti are fine-tuning the mechanical madness that is a naturally aspirated sixteen-cylinder engine. But the primary thrust, so to speak, of the 12Cilindri is historic—specifically, the 12-cylinder architecture whose origin story began in Enzo Ferrari’s first-ever creation in 1946 and persisted for nearly 80 years.

In 2025, the 12Cilindri churns 819 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque, delivering 62 mph in 2.9 seconds. The powerplant boasts a number of efficiencies and innovations made purely for effect, like software that boosts torque in 3^rd and 4^th gears for gut-punching thrust and a variable intake strategy that adds a bit of nastiness to the engine sound between aggressive gearshifts.

Mated to an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, this beast of an engine—especially given its eye watering performance numbers—should in theory be brutal in operation. However, the 12Cilindri Spider’s cockpit provides a visual clue to this roadster’s underlying character. The understated surfacing incorporates flush features, including haptic steering wheel controls and three digital screens—a 15.6″ instrument panel, a 10.25″ touchscreen, and an 8.8″ passenger display—leaving precious real estate on the steering wheel among the only spots where physical buttons, switches and dials can be placed. Lacking a physical volume knob on the dashboard; you’ll either need to pump up your jams by using the touchscreen or using the small textured dial on the backside of the steering wheel.

The 12Cilindri fires up via a haptic surface at 6 o’clock on the steering wheel, an oddly unsatisfying process considering the mechanical magnitude of bringing 6.5 liters of internal combustion to life. Interestingly, the $3.9 million F80 flagship reverts to a mechanical start/stop button, while its hybrid powerplant features half the number of cylinders as the 12Cilinidri. Ferrari says the haptic controls on the wheel will be downplayed later with the option for physical controls.

The folding hardtop mechanism adds a mere 132 lbs of mass, which we’d say is a fair tradeoff for the sound insulation and feeling of solidity it brings—after all, this is not a vehicle aimed at shaving 10ths of a second off of lap times, but rather a big-personality grand tourer aimed at devouring miles and miles of tarmac all day long. It takes 14 seconds to raise or drop the roof at speeds up to 28 mph, and the effect, though lovely, is not as transformative as it can be in a mid-engined car. Yes, the infinite atmosphere above brings an air of levity to the cabin, but dynamically speaking, top-down driving does not introduce the degree of sound and fury that having the firewall inches from your spine might. The 12Cilindri also lacks the 296’s so-called sound tubes, which leverage engine intake airflow for enhanced sounds in the cabin.

The V12’s aural imprint is instead one of subtlety and smooth buildup, becoming more aggressive when the manettino is dialed to spicier settings. Loaf about, and the engine is unobtrusive enough to be comfortable for hours on end, as I learned during a full day of driving along the Portuguese coast and through countless mountain passes. Lay into it while taking shifts into your own hands through the massive paddles behind the wheel, and the 12Cilindri changes character entirely, kicking the tail out in corners when the ESC is switched off and charging ahead with the urgency of a bullet train running full tilt downhill. The disparity is startling in the best possible way; when its aggressive side is summoned, the 12Cilindri’s mild manners melt away and are replaced with a streak of fire in the blood. The voluptuousness of accelerating toward the 9,500 rpm redline and hearing a hum become a wail, experiencing a quick and smooth shift, then rising again to redline is the stuff of sports car dreams. Top-down motoring amplifies this environmental experience, but the soundscape doesn’t ramp up in proportion to the ground speed, which can reach exceed 211 mph. Rather, the 12Cilindri’s convertible aspect feels copacetic with its creature comforts—massaging seats, neck warming fans, supple suspension—delivering maximum comfort while hauling absolute ass across your favorite switchbacks.

In this age of ever potent hybrids and turbos, nobody needs the extra cylinders of the naturally aspirated 12Cilindri. But when the urge hits and the road ahead is just open enough, there is nothing quite like wringing out this supreme power source and allowing it to pin you into pleasure.

Long live the V12. Enzo got the formula right from the get-go, and we hope it never goes away.