Last roar: Behind the wheel of Ferrari's mad new 12Cilindri

The National

a day ago

As a kid, one of the first spaces you truly feel a sense of ownership over is your room. Over time, it becomes your world – a place to feel safe, to dream, to express yourself.
That first act of assertiveness over the space often comes as something pinned to the wall. Maybe a drawing. Then a world map or a prehistoric predator. Eventually, you build up to a picture of a dream machine. A plane. A ship. A car.
Growing up in a rainy corner of west London in the late 1980s and early 1990s, car-obsessed boys waged a veritable arms race for space on bedroom walls. There were the usual suspects – low-slung Italian icons with names that sounded like medieval spells. While my peers were either Team Testarossa or Countach, I went a bit left field – I picked a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, better known as the Daytona.
I'd seen one in a Kensington classic car showroom window and was obsessed. It looked European and American. Timeless and futuristic. Lightning fast and beautiful in its stillness.
Many years later, when I step into the Ferrari dealership in Dubai to collect the new 12Cilindri for a test drive, I'm instantly transported. Back to a time before deadlines and disc pain, when a car's shape alone could launch a thousand daydreams.
Some online users doubted its looks when the car was first revealed – but they were wrong. Every glance at this beautiful machine over my 48 hours with it stirred something primal.
Sink into its sculpted cockpit and hit the ignition and the V12 doesn't just start – it erupts. It's not a sound, it's a sensation. Designed by Flavio Manzoni and his in-house team, the 12Cilindri (pronounced 'dodici cilindri') is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12. Redlining at a dizzying 9500rpm, it produces 819hp and 677 Nm of torque, delivering symphony and speed in equal measure.
Despite its visual nod to the Daytona, this grand tourer is no throwback. Inside, it's slick, screen-heavy and futuristic.
The model I drive has the optional sports seats, which are truly unforgiving. If I were to drop about half a million dollars – which I am not and cannot – on a car like this, I'd want to make sure the seats are comfortable enough to keep me sitting in it forever. So, if you are in the enviable position of getting one of these, go for the standard seats.
This machine is something truly emotional. As the rest of the industry, including top-end performance brands, pivot to electrification, this car feels like a final love letter to combustion. Ferrari's first EV arrives next year, but can anything battery-operated make your heart race like this?
While we wait to find out, the 12Cilindri – the worthy inheritor of the 1970s Daytona – has found its way back into the space I display my current obsessions, only this time it's my desktop background.