Ferrari 812 GTS - The V12 Is Dying 24 Jan 2021
The last time Ferrari made a front engined V12 with a retractable roof was in the form of the 599 SA Aperta, just 80 of these mystical cars were ever produced and to say acquiring one was ‘by invite only’ would be somewhat of an understatement.
New Ferrari 812 GTS With Novitec Exhaust!
To even receive the elusive invite you had to of had a serious back catalogue of Ferrari ownership and to have made sure a decent amount of said catalogue was still present in your collection. Couple that with an outstanding relationship with your official Ferrari dealer and maybe even a race car in a Ferrari Challenge series and you may have been in the running for such a special car.
In the immortal words of one Nigel Tufnel, the 812 GTS is designed to take the Ferrari V12 experience and turn it up to…11
At that time it would have been a stretch to think that in the future Ferrari would produce what is essentially a production version of a very similar platform, the barrier to entry would be far lower and the production numbers far higher. It would also have been mad to think that one day we would witness the decline and near extinction of the naturally aspirated V12 and yet, here we are.
The Ferrai 812 GTS then is a celebration of the V12, an engine synonymous with the brand and a formula so well developed by the engineers in Maranello that the Ferrari V12 has become somewhat of a slice of the automotive holy grail.
Removing the roof off a sports car or, Super GT in the case of the 812, brings with it compromises in structural rigidity and overall weight penalties due to the additional strengthening required to tighten up the chassis and the addition of the motors that retract or deploy the origami roof mechanism. In fact so substantial is this additional engineering that the 812 GTS inherits 120kg of additional weight compared with the 812 Superfast - not what you want in a performance car.
That being said, while the Ferrari 812 GTS is the best part of 800hp its purpose is different to that of the 812 Superfast. It’s not really a track tool, it’s too heavy, it’s not even as good a grand tourer as the 812 Superfast due to the fact over half of the once useable boot space has been removed to accommodate the fold away roof. In the immortal words of one Nigel Tufnel the 812 GTS is designed to take the Ferrari V12 experience and turn it up to…11
In today’s video we do exactly that - drop the roof, open up the valves and immerse you in one of the most intoxicating engine sounds which thanks to the rear retractable window is pumped directly in to the cockpit, resonating your eardrums with a pitch so satisfying that the customer of this particular car took the experience a step further by fitting an incredible Novitec exhaust system!