Ferrari’s famous V12 engine continues to live on in the new 12Cilindri. James Baggott has been behind the wheel to see what it’s like.

What is it?

In an age when every other new car arrival heralds the birth of yet another electric or hybrid model, Ferrari’s glorious new V12 is a welcome breath of fresh air for petrol heads.

The Italian car maker claims to be the last one producing a naturally aspirated, V12 engine – and this is the firm’s breathtaking 830bhp new addition: The 12Cilindri. You’ll need to brush up on your Italian to say it properly, though. It’s pronounced: ‘Doe-dee-chi Chill-endree’.

In the words of the manufacturer’s famous founder, Enzo Ferrari, the 12-cylinder Ferrari will always be the ‘original’ and the carmaker has vowed to continue developing the legendary unit for as long as it’s allowed.

What’s new?

Ferrari says everything has been refreshed when compared to the 812 Superfast that this model replaces. Some four years in the making, the 12Cilindri is slightly heavier than the 812 – around 35kg to be exact – but that’s down to a lack of carbon seats, bigger 21-inch wheels and tyres, active aerodynamics and a powered rear boot (among other things).

Previously, the V12 of the Ferrari range was designed to be the pinnacle, but that crown now resides with the SF90, so designers were given the opportunity to dial down some of the outright madness. That doesn’t mean this is anything less than furious to drive, but it does mean it can still behave as a comfortable GT car too.

What’s under the bonnet?

The spectacular 6.5-litre V12 is as tuneful as you’d hope. Ferrari calls it a ‘hallmark howl’ and as the revs rise to a heady 9,250rpm, it’s a symphonic cacophony that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

With 830bhp to play with, the 12Cilindri can hit 60mph in around 2.7 seconds and will go on to a top speed of 211mph. It’s brutally quick and drivers can dial in and out the anger with different settings, accessed by a dial on the steering wheel. In ‘Race’ mode with the suspension set to comfort, it’s close to perfect.

Some 80 per cent of the 678Nm of torque available is delivered at just 2,500rpm which equates to plenty of punch in the mid-range. The dual-clutch, eight-speed gearbox (that eighth gear is a new addition to this model) rapidly fires through cogs with savagery. So much so that on some occasions the shunt through the transmission is stark.

What’s it like to drive?

What I love about this car is its breadth of character. When you want it to be a sedate, cruising companion it’s comfortable and easy to drive. Around town, the visibility is surprisingly good and while it looks huge on the outside, when you’re in the cockpit it feels manageable and is easy to place on the road.

But it’s the car’s dark side that’s really intoxicating. Select the manual option for paddle shifts, bury your foot to the floor and the 12Cilindri picks up like the thoroughbred Ferrari it is. The V12 soundtrack is heavy metal addictive and it is incredibly rapid. It never feels heavy or overweight, either, with perfect balance and delicately weighted steering.

How does it look?

The 12Cilindri looks positively space age – and that’s no mistake. The designers took cues from 1970s wedge-like supercar designs and combined them with a homage to models like the Ferrari 365 GTB4. If you’re not familiar with the latter, it’s worth a Google, as the family resemblance is clear.

The new model has a long, imposing nose with a clamshell bonnet that wraps around the front-mounted V12. The cabin sits back, nearer the rear wheels and is dominated by an arrow-shaped, body-coloured sash across the roof. Bold rear haunches and a dramatic rear diffuser give the GT car real drama while dynamic aero flaps on the rear quarters flick up under braking.

What’s it like inside?

Ferrari has designed the cabin with two distinct sides that wrap around both the driver and the passenger. Three screens dominate the cabin with the driver dials and information behind the steering wheel, a second screen centrally mounted for heating controls and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, and a third (optional) screen in front of the passenger.

The latter can display the car’s speed, g-forces and revs as well as allow the passenger to manipulate some of the car’s controls. We found the seats a little uncomfortable, but they have plenty of adjustment and come with optional heating and cooling options, as well as a massage function (£8,957).

What’s the spec like?

Standard specification is understandably generous for a car costing £366,500 and includes full matrix LED headlights, 21-inch alloy wheels, rain and light sensors, climate control, rear parking camera, car cover, battery maintainer, wireless smartphone charger and lots more.

There’s also an incredible array of personalisation options with everything from gold brake callipers (£1,512), carbon fibre rear boot trim (£4,478) to special paint colours that will set you back £8,316. Get tick happy on the options list and owners will easily be able to add £50,000 and more to the price tag.

Verdict

New V12 Ferraris don’t come along very often, so when they do you expect them to be very special indeed. And the 12Cilindri does not disappoint.

Enzo Ferrari said the V12 could summon up a ‘harmony no conductor could ever create’ and he wasn’t wrong. While the savagery of the engine and speed of the gearbox are impressive, it’s the howl from that iconic powerplant that really makes this car an occasion.

Some might think a V12 engine is a bit of a dinosaur in an age dominated by EVs but, for car lovers, the continuation of a legend like this is vital if the world is still to be filled with pure, unadulterated automotive joy.

The 12Cilindri is available to order now with first deliveries arriving early in 2025.

Facts at a glance

• Model: Ferrari 12Cilindri
• Price: £366,500
• Engine: 6.5-litre V12
• Power: 830bhp
• Torque: 678Nm
• Max speed: 211mph
• 0-60mph: 2.7 seconds
• MPG: TBC
• Emissions: TBCg/km

James Baggott reports on how he’s ‘adjusted’ to life with an electric car over the last few months.

Like Brexit, electric cars have become such a hot potato of a topic that they divide opinion in fierce fashion. Don’t whatever you do mention them in the pub for fear of everyone giving you their opinion on them whether you like it or not.

There are those that hate the idea of being ‘forced’ into buying an EV by government mandate and targets, while others are embracing the new world of emissions-free motoring and swear they’ll never go back.

So where, then, after nearly six months of electric car driving, do I sit? Well, I am afraid to say it’s not completely in the positive camp.

While there are many things to love about the Audi SQ8 e-tron including its looks and comfort, there are a few things that I find hard to swallow for a car costing upwards of £120k.

Range is my biggest bug bear – the best I’ve seen on the dash after a full charge at home is 245 miles. The worst, in winter, was 195 miles. That’s a big difference and makes planning longer journeys a struggle.

I avoid public charging wherever I can. In fact, such is my dislike of not being able to plug in everytime I turn up at a charger because it’s either busy or broken, I’ve avoided doing it altogether.

That restricts use of this car to a 100-mile radius from my house – as I want to ensure I can get back without plugging in. There will be many people reading this that will find that utterly baffling, as they have managed to make public charging work for them, but I simply don’t have the time to deal with the added stress on a journey.

I find the roads in the UK are broken enough as it is, without adding in the fear of failure at finding a charging point when I need it most. And, EV fan or not, you have to admit there’s rarely that added stress on a journey when you need to refuel your petrol or diesel car.

To make me swap to an EV for good, I think I’d need a range of 400 miles. I could get to most airports and back again with miles to spare then and not have to worry about a 45-minute recharging stop along the way.

Since I’ve had the SQ8, I’ve made very few long distance journeys and have mostly used it around town. It’s here where an EV makes sense – short trips where range is not a consideration and improving air quality really is. I find I feel less guilty about popping to the shop in the car when it’s raining, knowing it’s not spluttering out harmful emissions.

I manage to get away with about one full charge a week. Unfortunately, due to my home tariff and switching penalties on a fixed-deal arrangement, those charges cost me about the same as the petrol was in my previous RS6, but I know that’s more my problem not the car’s.

What is an issue with the car, though, is its poor economy. I am lucky if I get two miles per kilowatt hour and often it drops below that. For comparison, colleagues running electric cars have been getting at least double that, while another with a Vauxhall Astra electric is getting nearer five.

I have also somewhat outgrown the SQ8. Well, my family has, at least. We’ve just welcomed a new addition to the clan and with two under two in ISOFIX car seats, the rear has become a very cramped place for my teenage daughter. Quite often, my better half climbs between the two car seats and finds it so cramped it’s hard even putting the seat belt in. For such a large car, I find the space inside is at somewhat of a premium.

The multimedia technology has also had a bit of a hissy fit of late and ‘forgotten’ me as a user. This means all my presets and favourites have been deleted, including the button I set up to turn the speed limit warning bongs off.

I now have to do this manually every single time I start the car up and cannot express quite how infuriating it has become. I honestly do not think the car buying public quite understands how annoying these warning bongs have become on new cars and the comments on my video showing how to turn it off prove many didn’t even realise it was now a mandatory option on new cars.

The media system has also, for some reason, now refused to connect to my mobile phone, rendering CarPlay a much missed old friend. I have no idea why, and whatever I do I can’t fix it.

This report might have come across as a bit of a moan, so in the pursuit of balance, there are many things I can praise about the Audi. I love the way it drives and the instant surge of power – and there’s no gearbox shuffling to worry about when you pull away, just smooth forward momentum.

It also looks fantastic and even after a few months the burnt orange paintwork still catches admiring glances from passers by. I love that it has a huge boot too that easily manages to swallow pretty much all of the small child paraphernalia I find myself transporting. It’s easily coped with our luggage for a weekend at Centre Parcs and is often put to the test with a trip to the garden centre.

There are lots of luxury touches to enjoy too. The soft close doors, for one, the powered tailgate another, and I find the seats superbly comfortable.

But is an electric car for me? Well, as it stands, I’d say it’s currently a no from me. While there’s much to love about this Audi, there are also plenty of things that frustrate me in equal measure. So, as my time with it draws to a close I’ll be trying my very best to make my peace with it.

Facts at a glance

• Model: Audi SQ8
• Price as tested: £118,105
• Engine: Electric motor with 114kW battery
• Power: 496bhp
• Torque: 973Nm
• 0-60mph: 4.5 seconds
• Top speed: 130mph
• Range: 265 miles (claimed)
• Emissions: 0g/km CO2
• Mileage: 5,689

James Baggott packs the crew from the local lifeboat station into his RS6 estate for a series of call-outs

Emergency services vehicles come in all shapes and sizes – but you certainly don’t see many Audi RS6s called into rapid response action.

However, after the failure of our lifeboat station’s usually-trusty Land Rover Defender, that’s exactly what I’ve been asking of my long term super estate.

As well as writing about cars for a living, I volunteer as a coxswain for my local independent lifeboat station, Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue Service, or GAFIRS as it’s known locally.

Operating in The Solent and Portsmouth Harbour, the service delivers the same frontline search and rescue service to UK Coastguard as the RNLI, but unfortunately without the enviable funding the national charity enjoys.

During our recent spell of early September sunshine, the lifeboat was called into action frequently and with our lifeboat moored in the local marina away from station for a while, we’d usually use our station Defender to get us there – but, just when it was needed, the S-reg model suffered a breakdown.

Enter stage left a stand-in from Germany. While it might not have the off-road capability of the Land Rover, the RS6 more than swallowed our crew, dressed in their bulky and rather hot dry suits, along with all their kit in the cavernous boot for a series of incidents.

We don’t have dispensation to speed to incidents in cars (on the water it’s a different matter), so we couldn’t really utilise the RS6’s 591bhp, or test out the 3.6 second to 0-60mph sprint time.

However, I can report the freezing air con is great at helping cool four crew sweating in their boil-in-a-bag drysuits. My colleagues all remarked how nice the interior was. I can’t disagree with them as after a few months behind the wheel of the Audi I really have no complaints.

While other long term test cars over the years have had little niggles that increase in annoyance as my time with the car increases, the RS6 has nothing to moan about. It’s wonderfully comfortable to drive and equally thrilling when you do get the opportunity to stretch its legs. For me, at least, it’s pretty much the perfect car.

It hasn’t just been lifeboat call-outs the RS6 has been helping out with either. Over the last few months a continuing house renovation saga has called it into DIY action too.

At the wood merchants it easily helped cart some 2.4m lengths for a new ceiling I was building. I was impressed it managed it with the rear seats down and the lengths poked between the front seats.

We’ve also been on holiday recently and I was delighted that the boot took four large suitcases and a push chair without the need to put any seats down when we travelled to the airport. I’ve struggled to get as much in some SUVs.

Without wanting to open up old internet arguments, I noted the huge debate that raged recently following Volvo’s decision to axe estates, like the V90 and V60, from its line-up in favour of SUVs. Some people bemoaned the decision, while others said they preferred off-roaders.

You can probably guess which camp I sit in – firmly on the estate’s side. While I can appreciate the driving position of an SUV, I much prefer the driveability of an estate and I’ve never struggled with their practicality.

Add in a monstrous engine like the RS6’s and, in my book at least, you’ve got an absolute winning formula.

It’s pretty safe to say I’m thoroughly enjoying my time with the Audi so far. Whether I can convince my colleagues at the lifeboat station that it would make a ‘sensible’ replacement for our Defender is another matter altogether.

Facts at a Glance

• Model: Audi RS6
• Price as tested: £106,020
• Engine: 4.0-litre V8
• Power: 591bhp
• Torque: 800Nm
• 0-60mph: 3.6 seconds
• Top speed: 155mph
• MPG: 22.4mpg (combined)
• Emissions: 286g/km CO2
• Mileage: 14,561

The new Spectre marks a brand new electric age for Rolls-Royce. James Baggott has been finding out what this luxury EV is like.

What is it?

Back in 1900, Rolls-Royce co-founder Charles Rolls predicted in a magazine article that electric cars would be ‘very useful’ when ‘charging stations can be arranged’. Fast forward 123 years and the brand is finally launching Spectre, its first fully electric car, despite the fact no one could quite yet describe the UK’s charging infrastructure as being ‘arranged’.

Rolls-Royce says the century-long wait for its first EV wasn’t through want of trying. The car maker dabbled in electric propulsion with the 102EX Phantom back in 2011, but surmised after that project that charging would take too long and batteries weren’t good enough. But in the last decade technology has advanced quickly – and now the 329-mile range Spectre is ready for the road.

What’s new?

Pretty much everything on the Spectre is new – even the Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet emblem has been redesigned with a more aerodynamic profile to reduce drag.

The famous Rolls-Royce star-light headlining, which uses tiny LEDs to twinkle at night, has now been extended to the doors and it’s the first Roller to go fully electric. The Goodwood-based business has said it will never produce another car with a combustion engine again.

What’s under the bonnet?

Ditching the firm’s famous silky smooth V12 was never going to be easy, but Rolls-Royce believes it has found the ideal solution with this electric set-up. The 102kWh battery can be charged from zero to 100 per cent in 5 hours and 30 minutes on a 22kW charger. While most home chargers are 7kW, Rolls-Royce says it expects owners to have access to faster chargers at home and work.

Owners have told the car maker they actually prefer the benefits of charging as it means they won’t have to visit petrol stations any more and, presumably, be forced to mix with the hoi polloi. Buyers have, on average, access to another seven cars in their garage so when a trip could potentially cause range anxiety issues they’re expected to use something else.

Performance-wise the Spectre hits 60mph in 4.4 seconds, is limited to 155mph and produces 576bhp and 900Nm of torque.

What’s it like to drive?

This is a car that’s as good to drive as it is to be driven in – and before you ask, yes, most buyers drive themselves around. There were three important character traits that Rolls-Royce wanted its new Spectre to demonstrate: Silence, ‘waftability’ and a magic carpet ride. The designers are convinced this is what owners want – that and the ability to accelerate and brake ‘without spilling a drop of champagne in the back’. Yes, really.

While the champagne test wasn’t performed, we did get a good opportunity to drive it on the road and it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between this and a V12. Both are silent and power delivery is remarkably similar. Engineers were told to design a ‘Rolls-Royce first, an electric car second’ and on the road, it’s clear they’ve nailed it. Power is delivered smoothly with no sudden explosive bursts as you’d expect in an EV. It’s linear and relaxing.

As for the wafting, magic carpet ride – these terms describe Spectre perfectly. It’s sumptuous and cosseting on all road surfaces. Our only slight complaint would be the steering – at times it lacked a tiny little bit of feel, but it hardly blots the copybook.

How does it look?

Spectre is the spiritual successor to the Phantom Coupe and was drawn to resemble luxury sailing yachts. It certainly has similar elegant lines and looks incredibly imposing on the road. The designers told us they were looking to recreate the slab-sided, single hull of a boat.

Up front, there’s the huge trademark grille and it’s available in a whole multitude of colours, including stunning two-tone paint jobs.

What’s it like inside?

Spectre is packed with clever, luxury touches. These include powered doors that open and close at the touch of a button, or when the driver puts their foot on the brake.

Rolls-Royce has redesigned the digital dashboard to match the colours of the car and even the sounds have been curated – the indicator noise is said to be a combination of ‘whisky tumblers and the ping of metal from the car’s air vents’.

What’s the spec like?

Rolls-Royce buyers are ultra-wealthy and used to having whatever they want – and the firm will give it to them. The car maker is cagey about the price, explaining that it’s quite uncouth to even speak about it, but when pushed the firm says Spectre starts at around £330,000.

Few will leave the factory costing less than £450,000, though. That’s down to the huge range of colours, finishes and options users can pick. You name it, and you can get it on a Spectre.

Verdict

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is simply joyful to drive. The marque set out to make the world’s most luxurious electric car and has excelled. The ride is wonderful, the power delivery sublime and its looks are a work of art. There are few cars on the road that are quite as perfect as the Spectre – but you’ll certainly have to pay for that privilege.

That said, if you need to ask the price, even Rolls-Royce admits you’re probably not the sort of person it’s looking to sell to. For the rest of us, it’s simply a desirable electric car we can only dream of owning.