Ferrari set tongues wagging when they announced the F12tdf back in October. Now the Italian
automaker has dropped an official promo video for the bright yellow beast.
Based on the F12 Berlinetta, the Ferrari F12tdf pays homage
to the Tour de France – not the two-wheeled one that’s famous today, but the
original endurance road race that Ferrari dominated
in the 1950s and 1960s. The F12tdf boasts a 770 horsepower V12 with a 7-speed
F1 Dual-Clutch gearbox, which you can see in all its glory in the video above.
This is Ferrari doing what Ferrari does best. Top
performance (0-60 in 2.9 seconds), sensual styling and a limited edition
production run of only 799 units have already set the F12tdf to be something
special.
And in a post on their own
blog, Koenigsegg wants to remind the world that its supercars would
absolutely dominate in any of these comparisons, and they realize that humble
bragging about themselves isn't always the most flattering thing, but sometimes
it has to be done.
Disclaimer: It would normally be considered somewhat
impolite for a company such as ours to talk about our vehicle's performance
this way. This is why we don't usually talk directly about competitor cars when
we do performance tests. We let the figures speak for themselves. However, in
this instance, with one of our customers writing to us directly about this, we
thought it important to say something, primarily to provide reassurance to our
customers about the cars that they are buying.
Koenigsegg says that the manufacturer-listed 0 to
186 mph times for the 918 (19.9 seconds), P1 (16.5 seconds), and LaFerrari (15
seconds) would be destroyed by their cars, especially after the recent video
tests showed these cars run
up to seven seconds slower than the times the manufacturers claimed.
We are on the record – with video support – as having
achieved a 14.53 second time for a 0-300kmh sprint. That time
is half-a-second faster than the fastest manufacturer-claimed time
from the #HolyTrinity cars.
That was with an Agera R in 2011.
We are also on the record – with video support – as having achieved an11.922 second
time for a 0-300kmh sprint. That's a full three seconds faster than
the fastest #HolyTrinity claimed time.
That was earlier in 2015 with the One:1
There is no doubt that the One:1, Agera, and the upcoming
Regera are insanely fast. Now we just need to see them go up against the rest
of their competition in a straight fight.
ONLY AFTER the phone calls and arm twisting had ended,
disputes over tyre choice were settled, the fee for hiring the Portimao race
circuit had been agreed and enough hotel rooms were booked could battle
commence between the Ferrari La Ferrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder.
All three cars were supplied by the respective manufacturers
and represent the pinnacle of their engineering know-how. The referee for the
shoot out between the so-called Holy Trinity was Chris Harris, motoring
journalist and You Tube video presenter.
Actually, that's not quite true; the ultimate referee was
the VBOX data logging equipment that was fitted to each car for recording its
timed hot laps. Also present were racing drivers Tiff Needell and Marino
Franchitti.
The objectives seemed simple enough: find out which supercar
went fastest against the stopwatch on a flying lap of the 2.9 mile of the
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve - better known as Portimao near the southern
coast of Portugal; and decide which of the million pound machines was the most
enjoyable to drive.
Setting the lap time was Chris Harris - and if you don't
want to know the result, don't read on. In the end, the McLaren P1 posted a
best of 1 minute 53.57 seconds, the Porsche 918 Spyder was just behind it, at 1
minute 53.98 seconds and finally came the flying Ferrari, with a time of 1
minute 54.25 seconds.
Harris sums up the staggering performance of the Holy
Trinity cars, saying "I have never driven cars like these; no racing cars,
nothing."
Tiff Needell confesses he's never driven any of the three
cars before, and says he's looking for driving pleasure and "couldn't give
a doodle about what's underneath".
Marino Franchitti, a professional sports car racer, admitted
that it took a while for his brain to catch up with their speed, saying
"they are so savagely fast," and adding "The moment I'd driven
all three I said, 'Yep, I need all three.'"
Harris declares the four-wheel drive Porsche 918 Spyder - reviewed here by Jeremy
Clarkson - to be "a bit scary at times. You're aware there's
computers and people with big foreheads have been playing with things, and I'm
not entirely sure what it's doing at times - but my, my, is it effective."
Whereas the Ferrari gets his vote for sheer acceleration in
a straight line. "The straight line performance I think is the greatest
here. It feels the fastest but it also feels the most exciting. You can't match
this for majesty."
The McLaren comes in for praise for its handling. Harris
feels it's the easiest handling McLaren yet - quite a feat for a 903bhp,
rear-wheel drive machine.
While the Ferrari 599 GTO is the hardcore variant of the 599
range and the Lamborghini
Aventador LP700-4 is the entry-level version from the expanding
Aventador range, the two are rivals in every sense of the word. Just which of
the two is fastest however?
Well GTboard recently had the opportunity to gather a black
599 GTO and pitted it against an Arancio Argos Lamborghini Aventador on the
drag strip. While both cars utilise naturally-aspirated V12 engines, the
Aventador manages to pump out 30 hp more thanks to its additional 0.5-litres of
capacity.
Due to the Aventador’s all-wheel drive system, it has an
obvious acceleration advantage from a standing start. To overcome this
significant drivetrain difference, a rolling race was conducted starting from
50 km/h.
We won’t ruin the result but rest assured, it is very, very
close!
The Ford GT is among the most legendary cars to emerge from
an American stable in the history of, well, cars. Born on the circuit (and not
just any, but the equally legendary Le Mans Circuit de la
Sarthe), the GT transcended popular volume-sellers like the Corvette, Mustang,
Charger, and other local muscle of the day.
“Since 1969, if it’s sleek, mid-engined, and American, it
better be as good as the Ford GT40. It looked so good that when Ford unveiled
the [later iteration of the] GT, it looked almost identical to its 40-year-old
predecessor,” said Derek Sapienza in our profile of the beast.
“Its dominance on the track was so impressive that it’s one of the few
Americans mentioned among the all-time performance greats, and it’s
stranger-than-fiction story is so impressive, that in the annals of automotive
history, it could be the greatest automotive tale to ever come from our
shores,” he continued.
Source: Motorbooks
Source: Motorbooks
There’s no better time to revisit the history of such an
incredible car than now, as Ford plans its return to Le Mans in 2016. Thanks
to Motorbooks, doing so hasn’t been possible in such a thorough and
well-illustrated manner:Ford GT: How Ford Silenced Critics, Humbled Ferrari,
and Conquered Le Mans is a comprehensive review of how this icon of
American engineering was initially created. If you know of a gearhead with
a penchant for American cars, it’s a must-have companion to that engine block
coffee table in his or her living room.
Author Preston Lerner compiles the ridiculously detailed
history of the greatest American race car ever, but here’s the rundown. Again,
Derek Sapienza:
The GT40’s story begins in 1963. This was a pre-Mustang
Ford, when its hottest car was the giant “R-Code” Galaxie 500, a 450
horsepower monster tuned to meet NASCAR and NHRA standards. But the
company was already aiming higher — it was in the final stages of
buying Ferrari from its mercurial namesake, a move that would have
turned the Blue Oval into an international powerhouse overnight. Enzo Ferrari had
long resented his company’s production cars and saw them as little more than a
necessity to raise funds for his racing team. Ferrari was eager to sell, but
with one stipulation: that he retain control of racing operations. But he had
met his match in the equally difficult Henry “Hank the Deuce” Ford II, who
wanted all of Ferrari, and said he would refuse to compete Ferraris against
Fords in races like the Indianapolis 500. Outraged, Ferrari broke off the
talks, leaving Ford with nothing but millions of dollars in lawyer and
auditing fees. The Deuce retaliated by issuing a directive to his
performance department: develop a car to destroy Ferrari on the track, and do
it now.
Source: Motorbooks
America had a vibrant racing culture at the time, but
internationally, the scene was dominated by the Italians, Germans, and British.
The GT not only put Ford on the map, but put America on the radar as a force to
be reckoned with on the international race scene.
Lerner, who is a regular contributor for Automobile
Magazine, spins a compelling narrative that not only provides the history of
the car, but offers a window into the divisive politics that dominated
manufacturer-backed racing in the 1960s. Had Enzo Ferrari not been the “vain,
domineering, and egotistical” man that he was, and had Henry Ford II
not taken Ferrari’s rejection as a personal insult, we’d probably be without
one of the greatest legends of American racing today.
Source: Motorbooks
The GT lives on — it was revitalized in 2005, and the
brand-new model was dropped at the 2015 North American International Auto Show
earlier this year. The latter dropped the traditional V8 for a
twin-turbocharged V6 engine, but in true Ferrari-beating form, it’s expected to
make in excess of 600 horsepower in legal street-spec.
Though its looks unmistakably like the GT40 and GT road cars of
the past, the new model doesn’t capture the grit, sweat, and fervor that went
into developing the original GT. There were no obvious politics aside from
wanting to resurrect a legend, no spat with Ferrari that drove the company to
develop it. It was designed with 3D modeling, in clean workshops with
cutting-edge equipment and industrial wind tunnels. The original was done
out of the parts bin, in pit lanes through trial and error. You don’t see that
kind of engineering anymore these days.
This is the Ferrari F12tdf, a faster, lighter and more
powerful special edition of the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
Ferrari says the car has been created in homage to the legendary Tour de France
road races, which it dominated in the 1950s and 1960s with the likes of the
1956 250 GT Berlinetta.
The F12tdf is described as “the ultimate expression of the concept of an
extreme road car that is equally at home on the track”. Just 799 examples will
be built.
The car keeps the same 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine as the regular
F12 Berlinetta, but power has been boosted from 730bhp to 770bhp at 8500rpm,
while torque has increased from 509lb ft to 520lb ft at 6750rpm. But the
changes don't stop there.
Find out what they've done to make the incredible Ferrari F12 even better - and
join Matt Prior on board as he discovers what it's like to drive.
Un mostro? Ferrari’s F12 is
not a car that ever struck me as wanting for power. It really doesn’t feel like
it needs more nor, at least without significant modification, should it be
given it. But here we are: the Ferrari F12tdf, a special version of the F12,
limited in production but unlimited in ambition.
It’s called F12tdf to reference the old Tour de France road
race, which Ferraris won quite a few times, but only ‘F12tdf’ in name and not
actually ‘F12 Tour de France’. The two-wheeled, pedal-powered Tour de France
owns the Tour de France moniker, so only the Tour de France can actually say
Tour de France.
Follow?
Anyway, the F12tdf it is, and it gets lots more power than
an F12, and, thankfully, plenty of other modifications to go with it. Ferrari’s
special 12-cylinder car program has in the past provided us with the 599 GTO,
of which 599 were made.
Ferrari suggests the 799 tdfs that will roll away from
Maranello will be just as extreme, providing a front-engine Ferrari V12 with
hitherto unmatched levels of agility. There are several ways you can make a car
feel more agile, and Ferrari has done all of them.
One is adding more poke: so the F12tdf gets 770bhp instead
of 730bhp, thanks mostly to an easier-breathing inlet on the 6.3-litre engine
and race-derived mechanical rather than hydraulic tappets, which are noisier
but lighter and allow a higher rev limit – some 8900rpm.
Another method is to reduce weight, so the F12tdf is 110kg
lighter than the F12, thanks to the removal of much of the interior (Alcantara
and carbonfibre replaces leather and aluminum), and the replacement of much of
the aluminum bits on the outside with carbonfibre.
But the easiest way to introduce agility to a car is simply
to fit it with massive front tires. At the start of the development process,
Ferrari did just that - fitting 315-section F12 rear wheels to the front, and
then even slick tires to the front, to see what the result was like.
Hilarious but perilously unstable is the short of it, which
meant Ferrari couldn’t just leave it like that. And here its marketing men
rather like to use an aerospace analogy: in the same way that a modern fighter
jet is designed to be inherently unstable so that it’s incredibly agile, so too
was the F12tdf.
And where a modern fighter uses electronic control systems
to make it flyable, Ferrari uses active rear steering to make the F12tdf drive
able again. They call the system a ‘virtual short wheelbase’, or ‘passo corto
virtuale’ to be precise, although it’s not strictly accurate in either
language; it’s the wider front tires, 285 section rather than 255s, that
increase the agility and make the car feel like it’s shorter.
The ZF rear steer system, which weighs around 5kg, can add
up to a degree of toe in or out thanks to electromechanical actuators acting on
a toe link, and almost always turns in the same direction as the fronts (except
at maneuvering speeds), is used to put stability back in.
In effect, that lengthens rather than shortens the wheelbase
again, but semantics aside, the aerospace analogy isn’t unfounded. Either way,
Ferrari likes the system so much it’ll use it again in future. So significant
are these things that beyond them the changes are mere details.
The aerodynamics are improved – the car’s a little longer as
a result, while the rear track is wider because of the active toe changes. Gear
ratios are 5-6% shorter, enough to reduce the 0-62mph time to 2.9sec, and
spring rates are stiffer, by 20% – a difference you’ll feel “within a metre”.
The price, if you’ve been invited to buy an F12tdf – and
you’ll own at least five other Ferraris and be known by the company “very well”
if you have – is £339,000.
What's it like?:
Intriguing. And if that isn’t the word as immediately
positive as you’d expect about a car from a manufacturer that can do scarcely
little wrong at the moment, I share your surprise.
Ferrari admits that its special V12 models aren’t simple to
jump into and drive quickly – they’re not like the standard mid-engine V8s –
and the F12tdf takes some learning before you feel completely comfortable with
it on a circuit. I’ll come back to that.
Because on the road, of course, dynamic extremes aren’t such
a bother. Yes, you do notice the firmness of the ride and the fact that if you
flick the dampers to ‘bumpy road’ mode there’s seemingly less of a difference
than in a standard Ferrari. It’s always firm: not crashy, but you know what’s
beneath you.
The F12tdf retains the F12’s two-turn lock-to-lock steering
rack, but because of the wider front tires and stiffer suspension, it feels
more connected and responsive than a regular F12. So in many ways it’s easier
to drive; out in the hillside roads around Maranello the F12tdf steers with
ease and precision; it’s a big car but one that’s easy to place.
And it has an utterly magnificent powertrain. Untroubled by
turbochargers yet still developing 80% of the engine’s torque from 2000rpm, its
response is fantastic, it makes a glorious noise like an F1 car of old and the
seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox has had a few tweaks to clean up and
shorten the shift times.
At the top end of the rev range the response is on occasion
too sharp – even Ferrari’s test drivers think as much – but such is the
significance of the 'tdf' name and the program that the engineers and marketers
want the F12tdf to feel like there’s some racing car in it. Quite a few racing
drivers would be delighted to find their race cars had a powertrain as strong
and responsive as this. It is phenomenal.
It’s on a circuit, though, nearer the car’s limits, where
the idiosyncrasies of the F12tdf’s handling, and the response of the engine,
come further into consideration.
In most front-engine, rear-driven cars, you know what you’re
going to get on a track. You have to settle the nose on approach to a bend,
probably trail the brakes slightly to reduce understeer, which in turn can
unsettle the rear, and then you drive through nicely under power, applying just
the amount you want in order to adjust the attitude of the car. An Aston Martin
V12 Vantage, for example, is as simple as they get.
The F12tdf isn’t quite like that. Partly that’s because
there’s not really any understeer to drive around in the first place. The
additional front tire width makes it feel hyper-agile, so in faster corners it
darts for the apex, but then, when you expect the rear to become unsettled
because of the speed with which the nose has dived into a bend, the active rear
steer intervenes and makes the back end more stable, keeping the rear trimmed
to the same apex as the fronts at a speed a car without the system fitted just
couldn’t match.
Mind you, with any significant application of throttle – and
more or less any throttle application is significant in a car with this power
and response – it will still light up the rears, at which point the increased
speed at which you’re travelling, the electric response of the engine and
whatever the rear is up to conspire to make it feel not altogether
natural.
With more familiarity, you learn to anticipate the F12tdf’s
characteristics, drive with lighter, more finger tippy touches and smaller
inputs, and then it becomes a deeply rewarding thing. But it’s not a car – like
the docile 488 GTB is – that you can just enjoy easily.
Ferrari 488 GTE and 488 GT3 revealed during Finali Mondiali
at Mugello
Ferrari has taken the wraps off the 2016-spec 488 GTE and
488 GT3 racecars at Mugello this weekend during the Finali Mondiali 2015.
After coming out with the turbocharged488 GTB road-going supercar earlier this year,
Ferrari’s motorsport division has introduced two racing derivatives which will
compete starting next year in various series. The 3902cc V8 engine inside the
standard car is rated at 670 PS (493 kW) whereas in the GT3 version develops
550 PS (404 kW). As for the 488 GTE, this one has a larger 3996cc configuration
of the same engine with 485 PS (357 kW).
Both racecars come with a left-hand drive configuration and
benefit from an aluminum chassis along with a safety roll cage made from steel
while at the back there’s an adjustable single profile wing and diffuser.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Ferrari’s GT and Corse
Clienti racing director Antonello Coletta said the objective is to make 150
cars over a course of four or five years, emphasizing the main difference
between the 488 and the previous 458 is represented by the adoption of a
turbocharged engine while the increased aerodynamic efficiency is also an
important upgrade for the new 488 racecars. Coletta went on to specify the cars
will compete in the most important races in United States and in the FIA World
Endurance Championship.
Shot during this
weekend's Finali Mondiali Ferrari at Mugello Circuit, this video captures a
group of FXX Ks making amazing noises
Every
year, these Finali Mondiali events host the conclusions of various Ferrari
racing series from around the world. This year, the final rounds of the 2015
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific
championships all took place at the Mugello-held Finali, with a bunch of other
Ferrari-related showcases thrown in for good measure, including the debut of the F12tdf and
this display from a load of loud FXX
Ks. Sounds like a good weekend, no? source: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/this-ferrari-fxx-k-video-is-nothing-but-glowing-brakes-engine-noise-and-flaming-exhausts/ by Matt Robinson http://www.fzrestoration.com
The Ferrari factory
might not have initially realized the potential of the Daytona as a GT
competition car, but fortunately Luigi Chinetti did…
Out of the box
Ahead of the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours, Chinetti’s North
American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.) set about converting a regular Ferrari 365
GTB/4 Daytona into a brutal GT racing car. With no time to test or develop the
car, it arrived at La Sarthe unproven, but with a strong chassis and an
enormous V12, there was certainly potential. A begrudging ‘Coco’ Chinetti drove
the car (he’d expected to drive a five-litre 512 S) with Bob Grossman, and the
pair amazingly finished fifth overall, behind only the more powerful and
aerodynamic prototypes. Ferrari soon recognized the achievement, and began to
prepare a number of cars at the factory for privateer teams.
Now, this significant Ferrari is being offered for sale by
the Keno Brothers at their Rolling Sculpture sale, taking place on 19 November in New
York. The thought of returning the car to Le Mans for the Classic (for which it
is eligible) is tantalising. Estimated at an impressive 4.9-5.9m US dollars, we
think it might be worth it for the spine-tingling roar of the V12 alone. Watch
the video above and you’ll know exactly where we’re coming from.
One LaFerrari driver
ended up driving the rare supercar into three other cars in downtown Budapest
over the weekend. According to local news reports, the driver emerged from a Ferrari dealership
in the Hungarian capital and moments later lost control of the car.
It ended up hitting three parked cars before coming to a stop. Fortunately no
one was hurt and the damage to the car doesn’t appear too serious. No doubt it
will be a costly repair bill for the insurer.
This particularly LaFerrari was registered in neighboring Slovakia. Immediately
after the crash, the driver jumped out and removed the license plates—possibly
to save himself from humiliation on Internet forums around the world.
You can see more photos taken at the crash scene over at Wörthersee GTI-Treffen.
Ferrari only built 499 LaFerraris and this is the fourth crash that we know of
involving one of the cars. The first took place in Monaco almost
immediately after deliveries of the car commenced back in 2014. Two more took
place this year in France and China,
respectively.
As a motoring journalist, being able to drive a car that you
can sort of analyze through the eyes of its direct
rivals is perhaps the best way to stay objective.
Without making direct comparisons, there would be no point to seeing just how
fast, agile or well-built a car can be, and when we're talking about
Ferrari-levels of greatness, the reviewer definitely needs to know where the
limits are in order to compose himself and not sound like the ultimate
super-fan.
Chris Harris clearly has enough experience to do so, which is more than obvious
by him saying that he rather appreciates how McLaren managed to make the 650S
behave exactly the same in both Coupe and Spider form. He then points out how
the Coupe version of the 488 GTB feels
stiffer than the Spider; the question is, does this makes for a less
satisfying driving experience?
On paper, the 669
PS Ferrari 488 Spider is just as fast as its McLaren rival - both cars
sitting within 4 km/h (2 mph) of each other in terms of top speeds and with
both able to hit the 100 km/h (62 mph) mark in 3 seconds flat. However, it will
be even more interesting when the two Italian supercars get together for a
proper comparison test. Until then, this will have to suffice.
