The new Ferrari F12 TDF is almost too sinister. It’s a faster, lighter, meaner version of what had been one of Ferrari’s lairiest cars to date, the F12berlinetta. And this new TDF version is the 769-horsepower answer to a question no one was asking. LaFerrari brakes, faster shifts, four-wheel steering; a lily gilded in giallo modena, Dracula with an extra set of fangs. It’s visage has haunted us for a week; now, we hear its gorgon yell.
The place to go? Soundcloud, because between amateur EDM tracks and R&B remixes is a freshly-stocked page of F12 TDF exhaust recordings. Want to hear what the car sounds like testing at Fiorano? In a word, vicious, but skip to 2 minutes, 20 seconds and hear for yourself. They miked the interior, the exterior, and did no small number of fly-bys. Like most Ferrari engines, the noise meshes mechanical perfection, the rat-tat-tat of a launch-control, with something organic-seeming; on the way to making all that power, the F12 TDF produces an unholy noise. What did you expect from a tuned Enzo V12?