2024 Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider - Images, Specifications and Information

The main objective of the Ferrari 12Cilindri’s aerodynamics was to produce a sober, elegant car without compromising on performance. The 25-mm nolder on the boot lid and the active aero are the two signature elements of the tail section. The former guarantees the recompression required to maintain the car’s aero efficiency when drag is minimal while the flaps permit two different configurations, Low Drag (LD) and High Downforce (HD) respectively.

In the low drag position, the flaps are flush with the bodywork so that the air runs over it uninterupted, making them invisible to the flow. This configuration is retained until a speed of 60 km when downforce is not very relevant to the performance of the car, something that is also the case over 300 km/h. In between these two speeds, however, downforce plays a central role and the spoilers’ movement depends on the car’s longitudinal and lateral acceleration. In high downforce configuration, the Ferrari 12Cilindri generates maximum downforce and guarantees that the car is aerodynamically balanced.

The underbody is designed to maximise efficient vertical load generation, also by managing the airflow out of the central radiators. The plan form and profile of the louvres in the central opening of the underbody minimise the impact of the hot air which is not highly energised. Two louvres have been created in the low-pressure area behind the front wheels which, by reducing overpressure inside the engine compartment, increase the efficiency of the radiating masses, lowering drag and increasing downforce generation.

As was the case with the 812 Competizione, downforce on the front underbody is generated by three pairs of vortex generators optimised in the wind tunnel. The front underbody also contributes to brake cooling by delivering a flow of lower-temperature air from the front splitter.

The central underbody was designed to correctly channel air flows to retain the available energy all the way to the rear diffuser. To that end, the transmission tunnel opening was reduced to balance the amount of air that would flow inside it. A raised section ahead of the rear wheel shields the tyres and deflects the flow towards the rear.

The rear underbody sports a pair of vortex generators which are used to produce efficient downforce and channel the flows towards the extractor. In line with Ferrari’s philosophy of transferring innovations from the racing world to the road-going sports cars, the engineers designed an air inlet near the outer edge of the rear fence to provide ventilation for the silencer’s electronics.

The heat dissipation requirements of the engine and ancillaries demanded a redesign of the car’s entire cooling system which resulted in front underbody evacuation being optimised, with no fewer than seven openings in the front bumper. In particular, the space between the longitudinal elements of the chassis houses the engine coolant radiator and air-con circuit condenser, which are fed by the central opening, while the oil radiator has been split into two separate elements, lying ahead of the front wheels. The two side air intakes are divided in two: the outer part is designed to cool the engine oil radiator while the inner one cools the brakes.

A generous brake cooling duct is fed by two openings, one between the radiator intakes and the other on the lower part of the front splitter. The entire system is integral to the oil radiator intake to optimise the routing of the front brake intakes. The side intakes are framed by an L-shaped element designed to maximise the amount of air entering the opening whilst simultaneously correctly channelling the flow along the car’s flanks.

The air in the engine bay exits through two vents on the bonnet which reduce overpressure, improving cooling efficiency. Thanks to the latter, there are fewer openings on the underbody, thereby maximising efficient downforce generation. On the wing behind the front wheels there is also a vent for the air from the wheelarch which minimises overpressure on the underbody caused by the cooling duct for the brakes and front diffusers.

The Ferrari 12Cilindri boasts the very state of the art in front-engined berlinetta dynamic controls. The introduction of brake-by-wire allowed the latest innovations from the range to be adopted, including ABS Evo that debuted on the 296 GTB and the 6D sensor that guarantees optimal precision to the Virtual Short Wheelbase (PCV) 3.0 and Side Slip Control (SSC) 8.0 systems, together with reduced braking distances and a more accurate repeatability of braking. The Aspirated Torque Shaping, an entirely new control logic, also emphasises even further the smoothly linear power delivery from the legendary naturally-aspirated engine, thanks to electronic control.

The SSC 8.0, a new evolution of the famous Ferrari control unit, allows the systems to talk to each other using a shared language that calculates the optimal operating mode for each one in order to maximise the car’s overall performance. The SSC 8.0 integrates the Ferrari 12Cilindri’s controllers and creates natural synergy with the new ABS Evo.

The SSC 8.0 is Ferrari’s proprietary system and has been optimised to further improve estimation accuracy and learning speed (+10% compared to previous applications), as well as control on very low grip surfaces. Grip estimation is flanked by the contribution of the grip recognition logic: by using the information from the EPS CPU and the side-slip angle estimated by the SSC 8.0, the Ferrari 12Cilindri can estimate the tyre-road grip level even when steering. Thanks to this approach, the grip can also be estimated in normal use conditions and not just on the limit, making it faster for the system to learn real grip levels.

The Ferrari 12Cilindri features the four-wheel independent steering (4WS) that debuted on the special series 812 Competizione, which manages the movement of every wheel independently to improve yaw management in cornering and responsiveness during rapid direction changes. The rear-wheel steering has innovative mechanical characteristics that significantly improve precision of control of the position of each single actuator, giving faster axle response time and consequently improved responsiveness through corners. Optimum handling is also ensured thanks to a near-ideal weight distribution – 48.4% front and 51.6% rear and the car’s responsiveness also benefits from the 20-mm reduction in the wheelbase compared to the 812 Superfast.

The Ferrari 12Cilindri can be fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport S5 or Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tyres, both of which were developed in a new size for the Maranello company: 275/35ZR21 at the front and 315/35ZR21 at the rear. Development benefited from physical and virtual sessions, the latter carried out through simulator testing to reduce the number of physical prototypes and, consequently, development times and cycles.

Performance has been optimised thanks to the adoption of the latest technologies in terms of compounds, tread design concepts and casing characteristics. Extensive testing has led to improved performance, dry grip levels and balance, stability on the limit and in the wet, as well as improved comfort and noise characteristics both internally and externally, including a 10% reduction in rolling resistance compared to the previous Ferrari front-engined V12 berlinetta applications.

The Ferrari 12Cilindri’s all-aluminium chassis, featuring a 20-mm reduction in wheelbase compared to the 812 Superfast’s, is completely new: specific attention was focused on the geometry of cast components such as the shock towers and A and C pillars, to improve torsional rigidity whilst simultaneously reducing weight.

The greenhouse topping the new chassis guarantees superb NVH and safety performance in addition to clean load lines which allowed stiffness to be improved without increasing weight compared to previous Ferrari 12-cylinder applications. The result was an increase of 15% in torsional rigidity compared to the 812 Superfast which ensures more predictable dynamic behaviour, with consequent benefits for suspension precision. Lastly, thanks to more extensive use of castings, the number of extruded components requiring assembly has been significantly reduced, making the assembly process more efficient.

For the first time on a Ferrari production car, a secondary alloy with 100% recycled material has been used to make the shock towers of the gearbox subframe: its introduction allows a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 146 kg of CO2 for every car produced. Thanks to an extensive development phase, it was possible to guarantee that the mechanical characteristics are the same as non-recycled alloy, exploiting the slight differences in chemical composition. For the validation of this new alloy, extensive testing was undertaken to assess the static and dynamic behaviour of the components and ensure excellent results in fatigue and crash tests.

Ferrari’s unparalleled quality standards and increasing focus on client service underpin the extended seven-year maintenance programme offered with Ferrari 12Cilindri. Available across the entire Ferrari range, the programme covers all regular maintenance for the first seven years of the car’s life. This scheduled maintenance is an exclusive service that allows clients the certainty that their car is being kept at peak performance and safety over the years. This very special service is also available to owners buying pre-owned Ferraris.

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