Ferrari F12 quickly moves to the front as most powerful street car

James Raia

No other auto manufacturer attracts more attention than Ferrari, and when the Italian carmaker is touting its newest offering as the most powerful street-legal car it's likely to attract further attention.

But if you get Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winnning journalist, to write about the new Ferrari, then sit down in your favorite chair with a beverage of choice and go along for a journalistic ride with the wondrous wordsmith.

Neil's review the F12 appears in the Aug. 4 edition of the newspaper is his weekly column titled Rumble Seat.

Ferrari F12 quickly moves to the front as most powerful street car 1

In an early review paragraph, Neil writes:

"Ferrari says the F12 is its quickest, most powerful and most dynamic street car to date: 740 horsepower, a top speed of 212 miles per hour, and zero to 124 mph in 8.5 seconds, which is about as quick as an all-wheel-drive Bugatti Veyron. With its carbon-ceramic brakes glowing like the hinges of hell, the F12 will decelerate from 124 mph to zero in 426 feet. Gesundheit."

And further in the review, the author writes:

"The kinesthetic quality of the F12 is therefore that of a supremely civilized, well-tempered GT: easy to drive, supple, frictionless, balanced, undertaxed, impeccable, imperturbable. Compared with a raw-as-a-wood-chipper race car, or even one of Ferrari's midengine sports cars, this thing is a comfy couch."

To read Neil's review, visit: The Wall Street Journal/Rumble Seat

And to view Ferrari's test drivers' track review (in Italian with subtitles) of the F12, see the video below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5agUWoxmLQ

Article Last Updated: August 5, 2012.

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