The supercar cognoscenti would probably still be in awe of all that now, if it weren’t for the models that Ferrari has unveiled since: specifically, one headline-stealing 950bhp hybrid.
Although Ferrari has been making front-engined V12 grand touring sports cars for the road for almost six decades, the car to which the new F12 owes its biggest debt is probably the 275 GTB of 1964 Overshadowed or not, though, the Ferrari F12 Berliner is a landmark in its own right, and having been to Italy to sample it, witnessed it disdainfully dismiss the equivalent Lamborghini in a comparison test and seen it come painfully close to scooping our 2013 Best Driver’s Car title, it’s time to get well and truly under this car’s ingeniously sculpted aluminium skin.
Since the 275, Maranello has made equivalent front-engined V12 models in the form of the 365 GTB/4 (Daytona), 550 Maranello, 575M and 599. But during a 23-year gap between the Daytona and 550, it abandoned the front-engined V12 concept to experiment with mid-engined flat 12 models like the Testarossa.
It’s not just those with a cool quarter of a million pounds of vested interest in this car who will be interested to discover the full breadth and scope of the Ferrari F12’s talent and stature however, and nowhere will you get a fuller picture.