The new 790 horsepower 2020 Ferrari 812 GTS is the first series production front-engine V12 Ferrari convertible in almost 50 years, and it’s sadly probably the last time the stars will align to grace us with such a perfect combination.
To be clear, there have been front-engined V12 Ferraris a few times in recent years, like the 612 Scaglietti of the mid-2000s. But the new 812 GTS sees a return to V12 convertibles that we haven’t seen in some years. (Remember, the California was V8-only; there’s also the 575 Superamerica, which was intentionally limited to only a few hundred cars.)
As Car And Driver noted, the last time a Ferrari considers it sold a front-engine V12 spider before the company really leaned into the special edition marketing gimmicks was the 1969 365 GTS4.
The 812 GTS keeps the 790 horsepower 6.5-liter V12 with 530 lb-ft of torque from its hardtop sibling. It’s said to be the most powerful convertible currently in production.
It loses a solid roof for a folding hardtop design, as well as dropping air ducts in the rear fenders, having to adjust the aero on the rear diffuser to compensate. And of course, Ferrari curiously dropped spelling out the Superfast name for the GTS as well.
It gets from 0 to 62 mph in less than three seconds, allegedly just a split second longer than the hardtop Superfast, and has a claimed top speed of 211 mph, which is too fast to not be called the Superfast, in my opinion.
The only thing missing from this dream Ferrari equation is a manual, but what else did you expect? Instead, the 812 still has a 7-speed dual-clutch, supposedly tweaked for shorter gear ratios and faster shifts now.
It looks much better than the new F8 Spider Ferrari showed off yesterday, and I have a strong bias for looking at this car from the rear, where you can fully appreciate the dual buttresses stretching from the seats to the taillights.
Car And Driver reports the fixed roof coupe starts at $335,275, so this new GTS is likely priced somewhere north of that. The only thing holding it back from being a special edition is the marketing team, because that’s a pretty special price tag.
