Ferrari’s technical director is a rather professorial German called Michael Leiters. But behind that mild-mannered exterior the man is on a SAS-style mission to keep the world’s most celebrated automotive brand at the top of the tree. He is very committed.
How else do you explain the new 812 Competizione? As the car world pivots ever faster towards electrification, Leiters would be a rich guy if he had a pound for every time he gets asked how long Ferrari can keep making its signature V12 models. As long as possible is the answer and although the company recently confirmed that its first fully electric car would be arriving in 2025, the 812 Competizione keeps faith with the holiest strictures of internal combustion.
It’s also another Ferrari that isn’t all-new but somehow manages to boggle the mind with the manic intensity of the elements that have evolved. And it’s more proof that making cars with the Prancing Horse badge is good work if you can get it: the Competizione and open-roof Competizione A cost £430,000 and £499,000 respectively, but all 999 of the former and 599 of the latter were sold before the car was even confirmed.
GQ thinks this is likely to be money well spent, for several reasons. The first is fiscal: limited-series Ferraris traditionally appreciate in the short to medium term and rarely dip much below what they cost new in the longer term. Not exactly free motoring, but you get the drift. Secondly, these extreme iterations of regular Ferraris – if you can call them that – are used to showcase Maranello’s latest thinking, the result being a car whose extraordinary engineering smarts are matched by an astonishingly vivid driving experience. For the record, it’ll accelerate to 62mph in 2.85 seconds and on to a top speed of 211mph.
The existing 812 Superfast is not a blunt instrument or hiding its light under a bushel, yet its magnificent 6.5-litre V12 is subjected to a mind-bending makeover in the Competizione. This is the bit where Leiters’ spectacles steam up. The pistons have been redesigned, there are lighter titanium con-rods, a material called DLC (diamond-like carbon) has been applied to the piston pins to reduce friction and the crankshaft has been rebalanced. The 812 Competizione uses sliding steel finger followers on its valve springs to improve gas flow and combustion, a technique used on the most powerful superbikes (complete with similar throttle response). There are also variable geometry inlet tracts on the intake to maximise the might of the explosions going on in the combustion chamber. Magic.
The result is an engine that now delivers 819bhp (up from a paltry 789) and red lines at 9,500rpm. This is the crazy part and Ferrari claims that there’s no drop off whatsoever as the Competizione homes in on that figure. Look, we love electric cars and their instant and relentless thrust, but trust us when we say that a Ferrari V12 that can pull 9,500rpm will be a borderline miraculous experience, although you’ll need a circuit to really indulge. It’s also cleaner than before, but a new exhaust system and tailpipe design ensures that the Competizione will still bring the noise. All of it. (I happen to know that Leiters is more of a Rachmaninoff fan than a Public Enemy one.)
Formula One learning has been applied to the car’s aerodynamics: check out the bonnet blade and wheel-arch louvres, which cool the engine more effectively, and there’s enhanced cooling for the uprated brakes via “aero” calipers. The Competizione has 30 per cent more downforce at the front than the Superfast and there’s an extra-clever “blown” diffuser at the rear. Further up you’ll notice that the rear glass has been replaced by what Ferrari calls vortex generators to “redistribute the rear axle’s pressure field”. Yes, it sounds like something out of Star Wars and your problem is? Further refinements include four-wheel steering, the rear wheels now having the ability to steer individually for even greater agility and cornering poise. It’s also as much about software as it is hardware these days, version 7.0 of Ferrari’s side slip control bringing sideways heroics within the range of the less confident/crazy driver.
Finally, while based on the 812 Superfast, the Competizione also manages to look convincingly different. Ferrari’s chief design officer (a concert-standard pianist, but more of a Keith Jarrett fan than a Rachmaninoff one) and his team in Centro Stile have become very adept at turning the scientific demands of extreme aero into something that works just as well aesthetically. The late-1960s endurance-racing Ferrari 330 P3/4 is one of Flavio Manzoni’s lodestars and the Competizione’s reworked rear-end takes some of its cues from that car. It’s functional, almost brutal, by necessity, but within those constraints it’s another fascinating-looking Ferrari.
But this one’s all about the driving. No hybridisation, no electrification, just pure combustion. Get it while you can.
The new Ferrari Roma is la dolce vita distilled into its purest form
