How driving the Ferrari F12berlinetta feels like magic: Motoramic TV

Malcolm Gladwell famously posited that to be a master in your field, you need to spend 10,000 hours practicing your craft. When it comes to perfecting front-engine, V12-powered two-seaters, Ferrari probably passed the requisite 10,000 hour mark sometime around 1973, when the Daytona stalked the streets. The peril inherent in sustained success is that it can create an echo chamber of cheerleading and backslapping that warps one's perspective, subsuming the healthy self-criticism that helped foment excellence in the first place.

This happens all the time — to bands, to movie studios and yes, to car companies. But from my drive of the Ferrari F12berlinetta, I'm pleased to say it hasn't yet happened to Ferrari. Every time we think they're just cruising —h ell, that they might've earned a breather —Ferrari unveils another rolling superlative generator.

For instance, Ferrari's never built a road car with 700 hp, so that surely would've been enough to blow people's minds. The F12 has 730 hp, out of 6.3 naturally aspirated liters, with no turbos. You get the idea they're not leaving anything on the table, and I respect that immensely.

The F12 is so strong that its 0-60 mph time is almost irrelevant. It's 3.1 seconds, incidentally, but that's basically at the traction-limited edge of what can be accomplished with a front-engine, rear-drive car. The more telling number is the 0-124 mph time, which is a mere 8.5 seconds. Think about that for a moment. Count to nine and imagine you just went from a standstill to more than 125 mph. If that sounds like it might be a stat belonging to the fastest Ferrari ever, you're correct. The F12 laps the Fiorano test track in one minute, 23 seconds, which is two seconds faster than the Enzo (or 458 Italia, for that matter). The F12 tops out at 211 mph. It is the meanest car yet from a company that was a legend long before an F40 poster graced my bedroom wall.