V12 for victory: Aston Martin Vanquish vs Ferrari 12Cilindri vs Lamborghini Revuelto

Three hundred and three kph down the main straight. That was the last glance I dared take. One hundred and eighty eight miles per hour in, what, sixth gear? I couldn’t really care less, because I’d given myself over to the Revuelto by then, just wanted to luxuriate in the noise, the fury, the fire and drama of the V12 for as long as possible.

Sat back and bathing in an experience I never want to stop, I find it tough to snap out of my dream state and remind myself to nail the brakes for Turn 1. Oh well, back to reality and I’ll deal with some corners if I must. But then I need another hit. Maybe one more rip snarling flyby for the people on the pitwall. Or two. Or maybe I’ll go and see if the Aston Martin has the same effect on me. And then the Ferrari.

The V12. We kept being told the party was over, that the fun police were moving in, imposing cylinder shutdown and forever impounding the world’s greatest engine configuration.

Photography: John Wycherley

Reader, please hear our interrogation room confession – we did some of the telling. Back in late 2015, almost precisely 10 years ago, we gathered what we then believed were potentially the last majestic V12s we might ever see, and took them on a roadtrip. There was the Lamborghini Aventador, the Aston Martin Vanquish and the Ferrari F12 and off we went to Scotland and when we came back Sam Philip wrote sentences like this... 

“I fear we’ll look back on these as the last days of the huge engined, naturally aspirated supercar... emissions regulations are close to rendering the big, free breathing V12 extinct”, and “I’d put a shiny pound on the Aventador being [Lambo’s] last turbo free V12”.

It was a more innocent time (although I’m not above getting Sam to pay up). But here we are, almost exactly a decade down the line from our doom mongering, with the exact successors of those three cars gathered again and each and every one still has a 12 banger under the hood. Ferrari is so buoyant about the whole thing it slapped the fact on the badge. Vai a quel paese, fun police.

But (as you might already have realised) Sam wasn’t actually that far off the mark. Only one of these three still retains the purity of natural aspiration. The Ferrari. And as we’ll come on to discover, its 6,496cc, 65°, 9,500rpm F140 motor – that traces its roots back to the Enzo and is now well over 20 years old – is also the best engine here.

The opposition has had to capitulate, Aston with turbos, Lambo with electric motors. I know, right. Lambo/electric, that’s a pair that’ll work together as effortlessly as Trump and Musk, but I’d rather retain the V12 and add electric than do an SF90. Thing is, to make the V12 fit for electrical partnership, it had to be modified. The L539 had been a new engine for the Aventador in 2011, but now the 6,498cc, 60°, 9,500rpm L545 has been spun through 180°, lightened and fettled.

For V12 longevity, look no further than Aston. The same basic motor has been in service since the DB7 V12 Vantage in 1999. It’s done the lot for Aston over the years, was turbocharged in 2016 for the DB11 and now develops pretty much twice the horsepower it did back then – and it’s the power gains that electric and turbos provide that have reshaped the V12 landscape most.

Back in Scotland the 730bhp Ferrari was the most potent, now, with 819bhp, it’s the least. Across the decade it’s gained just 90bhp while the Aston has packed on 259bhp and the Lamborghini 311bhp.

But should the Revuelto be here at all? Mid-engined and 4WD it’s clearly the sharp nosed joker in the pack, handed an advantage before the wheels have even started turning. It’s a supercar, the others are super GTs, so when we stage a drag race, the result is the foregone conclusion we anticipate. The Lamborghini sods off into the distance. But that wasn’t the battle here.

I’m in the Ferrari and convinced I’m going to thrash the Aston. Better traction control, better torque management and let’s hope a quarter mile isn’t enough for the Aston’s 200lb ft torque advantage to tell. But it’s the other way round – the Aston’s faster off the line than I expect, but from there on the advantage is with the 200kg lighter Ferrari.

But we didn’t do the drag race to discover the fastest, we just wanted to see if 36 cylinders sound better than 12. Turns out they do. Because the best things aren’t overthought, and a main straight ripped apart first by the contralto Revuelto’s dirty, naughty thrash, pursued by the higher, purer, more musical Ferrari and then rounded off by the thunderous Vanquish, well, it’s a place to be.

All of these cars have more power than they can deal with, but none makes it more challenging for the driver than the Ferrari. This has nothing to do with the powertrain, everything to do with how excitable the chassis is when pushed. But this monster of a V12 remains the world’s greatest powerplant.

The throttle response is peerless, the big capacity means oodles of instant torque, it’s a complete aristocrat of a V12, immaculately mannered, cultured and smooth, yet yelpingly unhinged as it homes in on 9,500rpm. The Lambo runs it close, but the Ferrari’s purity and clarity are unmatched. Yet matched by the equally masterful gearbox and brakes. Yep, going and stopping are the Dodici highlights.

It’s what happens between that’s not quite there, because the chassis seems to be resting on its laurels. We’re used to Ferraris being a bit edgy due to their sharp, direct steering and active rear steer, but the issue here is that at track speeds the body control isn’t good enough. You try to be smooth with your inputs, but the Dodici insists on magnifying every input. It makes the car feel alert and vivid – but arguably too alert and vivid seeing as it gave me the biggest moment of the whole test when it started to oversteer at the exit of the superfast last corner when I thought it was all hooked up.

I find the Aston not just less intimidating than the Ferrari, but more satisfying

Try to go fast in the Dodici and, to put it mildly, it’s a bit of a handful, oversteering everywhere with the back end behaving like the fat tyres have been swapped out for a pair of casters. And we’d be OK with that if it felt like the damping had your back, that you had full confidence in the Dodici, but I found myself wishing it would calm down a bit, that the suspension would settle and smooth out.

The lack of body control, a certain numbness in the feedback, used to be an Aston issue, but this new generation of cars, that started with the DB12 three years back and then gave us the two seat Vantage that was a bit of a hero at PCOTY last year, and now this Vanquish, has really moved the game on.

The back axles used to squirm under the torque onslaught, compressing awkwardly and buckling if bumps were involved. Progress could be turbulent. But the moment the Vanquish starts to squat and accelerate you feel the tautness, a direct connection between throttle and rear wheels. It’s really well supported, so you feel happier using more of the engine.

I thoroughly enjoy punting the Vanquish around Portimão. It’s not as much of a charger as the Ferrari. The steering isn’t as hyperactive, the noise is toned down, it’s heavier and less agile and its automatic gearbox is far too slow at shifting down into second for the tighter turns. But overall I find the Aston not just less intimidating than the Ferrari, but more satisfying.

Much of this is down to the engine. It’s not that it sounds as good as the Ferrari or responds anything like as well, because it doesn’t – and in fact turbo lag is an issue if the revs drop below 3,500rpm – but the torque is almost bottomless, giving the Vanquish a sense of weightless acceleration. The sheer amount of thrust on offer through the long travel throttle is epic, an ever expanding force.

The Aston is a simple car, easily understood. The Revuelto is thunderously complex. Three electric motors partner the V12, there’s a battery and the steering wheel is swathed in more buttons, knobs and controls than a DJ’s mixing deck. But you’ll spend more time figuring out what mode you want to be in than what sort of car the Revuelto is. That comes to you in an instant – it’s the best kind, a supercar that wants to have fun and knows how to play.

Let me caveat that early – it’s not a drift machine, but this is a car that knows what it is and what it’s for brilliantly well. And if you just tickle the surface it’s the same old Lambo. Noise, drama, garish visuals and an inability to pipe down and go quietly about the place. Even in EV mode.

What’s new and welcome is a level of handling nous, balance, chassis composure and control that we’ve very rarely seen. Sat low in that slender wedge of a cabin, with the windscreen stretching out beyond your toes, being hurled around Portimão by 1,001bhp, yet feeling confident and looked after despite the outward chaos and drama, well, that’s pretty special.

At the start I joked about just getting the Lambo round the rest of the circuit so I could lamp it down the main straight again. The truth is the rest of the circuit is the best bit. 

It has genuine depth and nuance, and a chassis that can keep pace with its engine

Two things to mention. All three cars are greatly enhanced by having a V12, which means that reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Mea culpa. A good V12 has such heart, such richness and texture that it feels creamy and yet has bite, is supremely cultured and yet makes every hair prickle. Forget the power figures, they are the ultimate experience engines.

I mean imagine any of these with a turbo V8 or V6 instead. Aston has other, similar cars packing V8s, and they’re very, very good. But the Vanquish is special. Look at the Revuelto. Now imagine it had a turbo V8. That’s not right is it? This is a triumphant, majestic car and it demands a V12. I can’t see a single reason why you’d have a Ferrari SF90 when the Revuelto is here. With a V12. And bootspace.

Ferrari needs to use its V12 in more places. It’s a transcendental motor, and in the future will rightly be remembered and celebrated. But the Dodici in which it’s mounted fails to move the game on in other areas against opposition that genuinely has.

The sales figures might not yet be as pretty as the Vanquish’s bodywork, and it’s a more demure car than the others here, but the masterful flagship Aston has not only pomp and presence, it’s connected and engaging in exactly the way you want it to be, with just enough of a roguish edge.

Our winner on track, however, is the Revuelto. You think it’s just going to be another arm waving enthusiast, as histrionic as its shape, but discover it has genuine depth and nuance, and a chassis that can keep pace with its engine. For as long as you dare keep it pinned.