“Nice car, what’s the retail on one of those,” he asks from behind the wheel of his hopped-up Supra. “More than you can afford pal, Ferrari…” responds the driver of the F355 Spider. Whether it is a joke line from a movie or real life, the name Ferrari evokes the pinnacle of performance and panache. Ferrari’s latest venture into supercar horsepower is the Dodici Cilindri Spider, otherwise known as the 12 Cilindri Spider. When a car is named for the engine under the hood, you quickly understand that said engine is probably going to be special.

Engineering Explained recently went through this new 6.5-liter V12-powered car on their YouTube channel. Unlike most modern supercars, this $510,000 Ferrari is naturally aspirated, so there is no waiting for the boost to spool up; you get unadulterated tire-shredding action from the jump. Developing 830 magical metric horsepower (that’s 819 to us lowly SAE-types), the 65-degree V12 revs to 9,500 rpm, singing a grammy-worthy song of pure delight. On the bottom end, you get 500 lb-ft of torque at 7,250 rpm, with over 80 percent of that delicious torque hitting the tires at just 2500 rpm.

Based on the F140B in the Enzo, the new V12 revs higher than its predecessor thanks in large part to the reduced weight of the rotating assembly. Like the entirety of Hollywood, Ferrari put the V12 on Ozempic, using titanium connecting rods and a new aluminum alloy for the pistons to shed every possible gram they could, saving 40 percent of rotating mass. The valvetrain uses a unique sliding-finger follower, taken from Ferrari’s F1 engines, which saves even more mass. The sliding fingers use DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon)-coated steel, to reduce friction and wear as the sliding motion has more inherent friction than a roller. All of these innovations were aimed at optimizing the torque curve to deliver maximum FITA (Foot In The Ass) kick from idle to redline.

Induction is handled via a newly designed short plenum for high-revving horsepower. You might be thinking, “but don’t short intake runners reduce bottom end torque? I thought they were focused on torque, as you said in the previous paragraph, Jefferson!”, and you would be correct. However, that is where Ferrari got all “nerd” about it. The intake runners are not sedentary, rather, they are quite active. The inlet tracts continuously adjust the geometry of each tract to change the runner length based on demand and conditions.

This is handled through a complex (pretty sure “complex” is an understatement) software program that is a first for NA engines. The ECM adjusts the engine’s parameters to maximize torque based on the current gear selection. It is like having a different engine optimized for each gear so that every single rev in every gear delivers equally. In essence, the 12 Cilindri doesn’t stop accelerating until you get scared and let off, hit 9,500 rpm, or 217mph, whichever comes first. Considering the 0 to 62 mph time of 2.9 seconds and 0 to 125 of 7.9 seconds, we’d bet that you’re gonna lift WAY before the V12 yields.

Ferrari utilized an old-school trick, renaming it “Dynamic Ram Effect”, which is basically intelligent ram-air, drawing air in from the front of the car to push the prancing ponies a little further. From there, the patented Active Torque Shaping smooths out the torque curves providing that constant acceleration in third and fourth gear, which are the main “driving gears.” While there is a “slight” power loss from the ATS, it is made up for with the consistency of acceleration.

One of the more odd characteristics of the new V12 is that is a 65-degree engine. In order for all 12 cylinders to fire, the crank must complete two full rotations. With an even firing order, the engine should fire every 60 degrees, but this one doesn’t, instead, it fires every 65 degrees and then every 55 degrees. This means that two cylinders on a shared journal fire at 65 degrees, and the next pair fires at 55, then 65, 55, etc. This makes the Ferrari 12 Cilindri sound just a little different than every other V12, and that is how you get an instant classic. Ferrari is Italian, not German, so little imperfections such as a 65-degree versus 60-degree crank angle is not an issue. Italians don’t care about engineering perfection; it is the artistry of engineering that they love, and this is a symphony of slight imperfections that comes together to form a perfect engine.

Whether you love or loathe European supercars, you cannot deny that the engineering and development is impressive. Ferrari has always been on the bleeding edge of tech, even when others said it can’t or shouldn’t be done. If Brian O’Conner had pulled up to a Dodici Cilindri on his way to Race Wars, you can bet he wouldn’t have had a chance.