I recall Ferrari did release a video of Alonso giving an F12 prototype a spin. I'm sure the drivers' is definitely taken into account during development.
Pretty sure Alonso did give input on Ferrari's latest and greatest. It's a Ferrari tradition after all; Schumacher helped with countless models, including the Enzo if I recall correctly.
Ferrari F12 Berlinetta (2012) CAR review By Ben Barry 29 July 2012 23:00 Here it is, then, CAR Magazine's long-awaited first drive review of the new Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, replacement for the 599. The F12 is an all-new car, but the basics remain familiar: a powerful, naturally aspirated V12 sits ahead of the driver, while power flows to the rear wheels only. What are the key features of the new Ferrari F12 Berlinetta? The 6262cc V12 features the same bore and stroke as the four-wheel drive FF, but the bottom end is new, plus the top end has been extensively re-worked, says Maranello. The result is 720bhp and 509lb ft torque, and not a turbo or supercharger in sight. The engine – like the seats and dashboard – also sits lower in the chassis, lowering the centre of gravity and improving handling response. Click here for a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta video. At the back there’s a transaxle arrangement, with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and electronically controlled mechanical limited-slip differential taking drive to the rear wheels. The benchmark 0-62mph sprint is dispatched in just 3.1sec, while the top speed is said to lie somewhere north of 211mph. With that incredible performance in mind, 18.8mpg – that’s 30% more efficient than the 599 – and 350g/km isn’t quite so bad. Just bear in mind that you'll need the optional HELE stop/start system to achieve those economy figures, though. Do Ferrari drivers care? Probably not in the UK, put they might in places with particularly punitive CO2 legislation, such as Denmark and the Netherlands. Elsewhere there’s an evolution of Ferrari’s carbon ceramic brakes and the magnetorheological adaptive suspension system. Are the new F12 Berlinetta's dimensions the same as the outgoing Ferrari 599? No, just the basic concept. The F12’s wheelbase is 30mm shorter, plus, at 1525kg without fluids, it’s 70kg lighter than the car it replaces – and both, remember, are aluminium. However, the dimensions themselves are only part of the story: the new car has 20% more structural rigidity, while clever honing of aerodynamics – born out of computational fluid dynamics and tested in the wind tunnel – has boosted downforce by 76% and cut drag. The clever aero has a real impact on the car’s look: the ‘aero bridge’ channels air through a scoop in the bonnet, which then exits behind the front wheel, helping to push the front end of the car into the ground at speed while also reducing drag behind the wheels. Meanwhile, active aero – as seen on the Ferrari 458 Italia with its flexing front splitter – is at work too, only opening the brake cooling ducts when the brakes require cooling, thus minimizing the drag that the cooling ducts create. What’s the new 2012 Ferrari F12 like to drive? It’s amazing, and a big leap over the previous 599 – GTO special edition included. Part of the key to this is the hyper-quick steering, which uses the same funny-fast ratio as the 458 – you very rarely feel the need to move your hands from the quarter-to-three position, even in hairpins. This combined with tyres that are wider and have stiffer sidewalls than the 458, and suspension that’s both very supple and incredibly controlled gives the nose an extremely responsive and darty feel. The shortened wheelbase adds noticeably to the sense of agility too: power out of a bend and there’s an almost four-wheel steering kind of feeling as the electronic differential sends power to the outside rear wheel, pushing you through the corner and compressing the felt-size of the F12. Does that darty eagerness make the F12 feel nervous? It can do at first, but you quickly get used to it. I found myself using a gear higher than was necessary, bringing the rear tyres closer to their adhesion limit and making this feeling worse, simply because I initially tried to drive the F12 as I had the 599 GTO, the ultimate road-going evolution of the 599. However, the responsiveness of the F12’s engine, the fact that its seven gears are more closely stacked than the 599’s six and the extra low-down torque means it’s possible to be in, say, fourth when you initially thought third was appropriate. Hook the higher gear and the car calms down, and you start to work the front end harder, using the car’s impressive stability and reserves of grip to carry big speed through turns. Tell me about the F12’s engine and gearbox The seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox is fantastic. It manages to combine perfect manners during low-speed manouevring with instant shifts when you’re banging through the gears at the redline. It doesn’t have the engaging thump of, say, a Lamborghini, but I don’t miss that, and the instant shifts and explosive downshifts mean you never tire of pulling those paddles. The engine is a masterpiece. Climb into the cabin and right before you sits a central speedo that reads to 10,000rpm and is redlined at 8500rpm. Peak power comes at 8250rpm, but there’s some breathing space before the cut-out, so you never find yourself clattering the rev limiter unless you’re fooling around and spinning the tyres up out of a bend. The result is an engine that feels endless, that climaxes in an F1-like yelp and has the kind of electric throttle response that turbo motors can only dream of. Yes, it’s around 70bhp more powerful than the GTO, but it’s the lowdown responsiveness and extra torque – 52lb ft of it – that strikes you more. Thank you, Ferrari, for sticking with natural aspiration. Verdict Comfortable, fantastic to drive, dripping with raw emotion and combining a decent helping of practicality, the F12 is a giant leap over the 599 GTB. It’ll be interesting to see how it compares with Aston’s new Vanquish, but it’s clear that the Brits will have their work cut out on this evidence. Performance 5 stars Handling 5 stars Feelgood 5 stars Overall 5 stars PRICE £239,736 ENGINE 6262cc 48v V12, 730bhp @ 8250rpm, 509lb ft @ 6000rpm TRANS Seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, rear-wheel drive SUSPENSION Double wishbone front/multi-link rear PERFORMANCE 3.1sec 0-62mph, in excess of 211mph, 18.8mpg, 350g/km (with HELE stop/start system) WEIGHT/MADE FROM 1525kg (dry)/aluminium LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4618mm/1942mm/1273mm http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives...rives/Ferrari-F12-Berlinetta-2012-CAR-review/
First drive review: Ferrari F12berlinetta The Ferrari F12berlinetta's greatest strength and biggest surprise is not how unfathomably fast it is, but how usable this supercar remains. The Ferrari F12berlinetta is the fastest, most powerful product ever offered by the world’s most fabled supercar constructor. by Andrew Frankel 29 July 2012 11:10pm What is it? The Ferrari F12berlinetta is the fastest, most powerful product ever offered by the world’s most fabled supercar constructor for use on the public road. The 119bhp increase in engine power over the 599GTB is the largest hike in output of any Ferrari over its immediate predecessor and, with that, comes a 60kg reduction in weight. But for all its new found urge, the F12 is a traditionalist Ferrari at heart. It places its normally aspirated V12 engine in the nose, its gearbox between the rear wheels, leaving space for just two occupants inside. And you could have said as much about the 275GTB, almost half a century ago. And just like that old Berlinetta, with this new one it is the engine that dominates the headlines. You can pore over its active brake cooling ducts and its downforce-enhancing aerodynamics all you like, but they won’t divert your attention from that motor for long. From less than 6.3-litres it generates no fewer than 730bhp at 8250rpm. That’s 70bhp more than a 599GTO and 39bhp more than its closest rival, the Lamborghini Aventador. Even comparison to the million pound Bugatti Veyron is not as irrelevant as you might expect: sure the Ferrari can’t compete with its 987bhp output but factor in weight and you’ll see the Ferrari’s 448bhp per tonne is not that far from the two tonne Bugatti’s at all. The F12 costs £239,736, an increase of £27,640 over the 599GTB or, put another way, a smidge less than a BMW 320d SE. Then again that’s also the amount of money the typical customer is likely to spend just on options, which means that for almost all owners, the F12 is a quarter million pound motor car. What is it like? Engine aside, the F12’s greatest strength is its least obvious. It’s not just lighter than a 599, it’s smaller too: however you measure it – length, width, wheelbase or height, there’s just less of it, making it feel a substantially more compact car. This is just as well because when that V12 lets rip, you won’t need the car’s size adding to the intimidation. For this is a car that will beat a McLaren F1 to both 60mph and 125mph. And it will do it in one, seamless, its double-clutch gearbox ensuring literally no pause between shifts. And when you hear how it works above 8000rpm, you’ll wonder not how the 8700rpm limit got to be so high, but why it seems so low: this engine feels like it could go on forever. How do you harness that? How do you transmit 730bhp to the public road through the the rear wheels of a front engined sports car? Ferrari has done astonishing work here. Thanks in varying degrees to an even more rear-biased weight distribution (46/54 per cent front to rear), new suspension, Ferrari’s E-diff and specially developed Michelin, Pirelli or Bridgestone tyres, the F12 puts its power down better than you could imagine. Of course you can leave the electronics to identify the adhesion limit but the F12 is so clean in its power transmission, at times the black lines in the mirror are the clearest indication that you’ve broken traction. In corners it is, of course, a very different matter. It should be said that the F12 is not a particularly easy car to drive very fast on road or track, and not just because the scenery is so accelerated by that engine. Then again if you leave the manettino control in ‘Sport’ or even ‘Race’ it looks after you so well, it’s perhaps too easy to forget the exact nature of the beast with which you’re dealing. Turn off the electronics, let the car be itself and you’ll soon find out. This is a car that understeers a little and then oversteers a lot and, at first acquaintance, it’s quite disconcerting. Your disquiet comes not from the power but the steering. Ferrari has not only shortened the car’s wheelbase, it has also substantially increased the speed of the rack which, in my view, is a mistake. The big reaction you get to any given input might give the car some superficial sportiness, but it also makes the car more difficult to drive, requiring more precision from the driver in general and in particular when the back gets loose. You don’t want a rack so slow you can’t get the lock off in time but within reason, the slower the steering the wider the ‘catch’ window is opened. The good news is that, steering aside, the chassis is faithful and the engine which you might think could be the architect of your downfall, is more likely to be your saviour: so precise is its throttle response, you’re extremely unlikely ever to mistakenly call for more power than intended. We should not forget this is a dual purpose car. Unlike the purely sporting 458 or the dedicated GT that is the FF, the F12 has to place a wheel in both camps and while it rightly errs more to the sporting side, it has not forgotten its other role in life. Ride quality on rough roads is adequate thanks to a specific ‘bumpy road’ setting for its suspension available regardless of manettino position, while refinement is extremely good. You might think a 730bhp V12 might never know when to shut up, but at a steady 80mph on the autostrada, this is a commendably civilised conveyance. It’s spacious too with head and legroom aplenty despite its shrunken dimensions. Oddment stowage space on board is poor, but the boot is an excellent size and if you remove the shelf between it and the cockpit, utilising the space behind the seats, implausibly it’ll hold the same amount of clobber as a BMW 7-series. The interior design is less impressive, with too much plastic and a style too derivative of lesser Ferraris for this kind of money. Should I buy one? Have you got £239,736 to spare? If so and if you like the idea of traditional V12 Ferrari sports car turned up to about 27 then, yes, wake your dealer in the middle of the night and bag your space before that list gets any longer. Just remember this car is not a paragon of virtue, its steering alone sees to that. And while it is undoubtedly Ferrari's fastest to date, it’s still not its most exciting. Ferrari will be sick of hearing it, but Ferrari’s most thrilling driving weapon remains the F40. But as a device that can be used everyday (as 20 per cent of owners will), for taking long journeys laden with luggage and then, when you arrive, leaving the other half in the hotel and heading for the hills, I’m not sure it has an equal. A Veyron is not just four times more expensive, it’s less practical and not as fun to drive. An Aventador offers a greater sense of occasion while subjectively its engine is actually at least a match for the Ferrari’s, but it’s let down by its handling, its gearbox and relative lack of carrying capacity. Once you’ve vacated the car and let your pulse return to something approaching normal, it becomes clear that this car’s greatest strength and biggest surprise is not how unfathomably fast it is, but how usable the car remains. For all its McLaren-melting acceleration, the F12 is not a recreational plaything, but a deadly serious working tool. That is the key to this car’s extraordinary character and why it ranks as one of Ferrari’s finest achievements to date. Andrew Frankel Ferrari F12berlinetta Price £239,736; 0-62mph 3.1sec; Top Speed over 211mph; Economy 18.8mpg; CO2 350g/km; Kerb weight 1630kg; Engine layout 12 cyls in a vee, 6262cc, normally aspirated, petrol; Installation longitudinal, front, rear-wheel drive; Power 730bhp at 8500rpm; Torque 508lb ft at 6000rpm; Power to weight 448bhp per tonne; Specific output 117bhp/litre; Compression ratio 13.5:1; Gearbox 7-speed double clutch http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review...ves/first-drive-review-ferrari-f12-berlinetta
Jesus. At this point, Ferrari is not only miles ahead of it's competitors, they've gone so far ahead they're now beyond the horizon.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2013-ferrari-f12berlinetta-first-drive-review http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...t-drive-review-its-good-to-be-the-king-page-2
Finally!!! Evo's review From http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/286048/ferrari_f12_berlinetta_review_and_pictures.html
If the new F12 is so good, it is because it is built it "like" the LFA, compact with focus on performance and handling. Overall shape is similar. But the F12 offers better performance for less with a respected badge. Unfortunately quality/finish is not on Mercedes SL/Audi A7/Porsche 911/Lexus LFA level. It has some styling cues from the 575 Maranello, like the rear side window for example.
Now Ferrari'd "thank" Lexus!?!? ferrari fights against weight from many years, and a few years ago had also set up a scholarship for young engineers, just on this problem. size reduction is not a suprise. F12 has nothing in common with LF-A
More Photos High-Quality Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upcomingvehiclesx/sets/72157629480888367/
As utterly gorgeous this car is and as in love I am with the most beautiful exterior, I do not feel the interior!?!? I mean it's tactile-perfect, yet the layout + design does not move me at all. (Edit: photo #2 above...that elooongated bonnet/hood, man!)
I think yes becasue both have: NA H/R mid-front engine rear wheel drive transaxle gearbox for rear biased weight distribution 2 seats coupé hatch glass door for luggage compartement compact and low size for front engined supercar functional design supercar and GT mix in one
LOL Alex, you're deliring. Ferrari is doing this thing before Toyota, not to mention Lexus, where even making proper road cars. So Ferrari is not making them "like" Lexus, LOL. Stop drinking sake man, is doing you bad! Let's have italian wine and talk about Alfa better
Levi.......please check the facts thoroughly and a lot more frequently before you post anything in the future, and don't turn this into another LFA vs everything thread.
