The 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta: What the critics say

Automobile

The new F12 Berlinetta perfectly embodies the “continual performance evolution” we’ve come to expect from Ferrari. Supercars of this caliber are often challenging to drive, and efforts to tame them for road use have come at the expense of making the driving experience “slightly clinical.” The F12 is the fastest car the Italian automaker has ever produced. “But more important, it’s the most fun Ferrari in years.”

Car and Driver

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It also might be the first designed with daily drivers foremost in mind. With its 730-hp V12 engine, it’ll be Ferrari’s most powerful car ever—at least until a new, limited-edition Enzo is unveiled. But it has a pleasing way of “slowing down physics.” At high speeds, the handling induces “no hint of nervousness, just euphoria.” The F12 “strives to be a usable and comfortable supercar, and it succeeds.”

The Wall Street Journal

Once again, Ferrari “has transcended the limits of what seemed possible” in a road-going two-seater. While money alone could buy the “suavely modern, leather-to-the-hilt” interior, it’s the brilliant use of software that makes “touch-the-sky” performance accessible to us average drivers. Maybe that’s progress, but even at 165 mph, taking a corner in it is “as drama-free as a quickie Las Vegas divorce.”