Enzo Ferrari did not suffer fools lightly. “The client,” he famously quipped, “is not always right.” This is indicative of how Ferrari is still run today. To wit, owners have been complaining that the F12berlinetta is too fast, too hairy for the road and downright nasty at the track. So, Ferrari did the good and righteous thing: Told those sexless wimps to shove it, made a faster version.
This is the new Ferrari F12 TDF. It retains the berlinetta’s 6.3-liter V12, but heaps on more. More juice (769 horsepower) and more torque (520 lb-ft). More downforce, 87 percent more, thanks to revised bodywork. The seven-speed dual-clutch ‘box has also been sharpened, 30 percent quicker on upshifts, 40 percent on downchanges. The gearing is shorter, the track wider, wheels wider. The brakes are pinched from the $1.3M LaFerrari hypercar. It’s got a new four-wheel steering system, Ferrari’s first, and sheds 240 pounds off the berlinetta’s curb weight. The TDF name? That’s a nod to the Tour de France auto race of the Fifties, which Ferrari dominated for nine years. Seems about right.
Only 799 examples of the Ferrari F12 TDF will be built. Maybe if we complain about it, they’ll make a few more.
