2025 Ferrari 12Cilindri Ice Drive

We take to the ice in the latest V12 offering from the Prancing Horse. Is the 12Cilindri your next skid car?

Rarely, if ever, is how often we get to helm Ferraris. So it was an extraordinary occasion when we recently found ourselves strapped into the new 12Cilindri. However the low-grip location for such an event wouldn’t have been our first choice to unleash an 830hp monster. But hey, beggars and choosers as they say.

Ice driving is a unique experience and there are few places one can partake in such a thrill in relative safety. However, the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground near Wanaka is one of them. We found ourselves there, guests of Ferrari, to explore the throttle response of its newest 6.5-litre with a dozen cylinders. What could possibly go wrong? Well hopefully nothing as we’d signed a waiver stating there was a $15k excess to pay should we do something stupid in the $704k 12Cilindri. No stress then.

Elements challenging

With ice driving, you are at the mercy of the weather. Rain is bad for any driving experience but it’s truly a bummer for snow conditions. It had been raining days prior to our event, causing the previous group to miss their shot on the ice but them’s the breaks. There are no guarantees, just like booking a holiday to Fiji (or the Maldives if you’re an actual Ferrari owner). If the weather is foul, too bad, as there’s no money back. Plan B sees participants out on a road drive, and having a nice lunch, so not a total loss. Anyhow, the rain did cause a delay to our proceedings, the snow field not ready for activities until later in the day. The usual running of events sees you up early to get the best of the day when it’s cold and the snow is stable. You then slide around for a few hours, lunching at the snow farm before enjoying a scenic helicopter ride back to Queenstown.

The Downforce team that runs the Ferrari days here managed the situation well, rearranging things to include lunch at the Plan B restaurant, a beauty too, hardly a hardship. Though some did mention it was trying not to partake in the wine, but you can get tanked at lunch any old time. 

Instead of a chopper flight home, we took to the skies to get there. Our pilot mentioned it has been warm this year, hence the apparent lack of snow about. It still felt plenty cold enough though, and certainly the contingent of Australian owners that made up our group were feeling it. 

The snow drive is a big undertaking for the brand with eight groups, mostly Aussies, over two weeks taking to the ice flats in a fleet of eight 12Cilindri models, a couple of those the Spider; nothing like a cool breeze in the hair. Despite the delay to proceedings, we fortunately did get to spend some time on the snow. So mission actually accomplished.

Slide time

The 12Cilindri has the latest version of Ferrari’s Side Slip Control traction system, which has been optimised to further improve control on very low grip surfaces. Working with the myriad other electronic aids, it’s said to estimate the tyre-road grip level to enhance traction. Pretty sophisticated stuff but of no real use for what we were doing; all the 12Cilindri traction and stability enhancing aids were switched off completely. 

Despite the rear snow tyres, measuring a foot in width, having some 300 studs affixed to them, the 12Cilindri’s 6.5-litre V12, with its 610kW and 678Nm, meant traction was easily overwhelmed. 

Ice driving involves looking to where you want to go (a simple idea, not always easy followed), applying a few degrees of steering to point you in the right direction followed by a burst of throttle to get the rear rotating. The first tricky bit is managing the slide; don’t kill it too early, or leave it hanging out too long, or that’s when you’ll spin out. Then there’s the transition, winding the steering in the opposite direction to get you pointing where you are looking, then hitting the gas again, managing the slide and then that transition. Easy.    

As we were doing most of the steering via the throttle, the 12Cilindri’s four-wheel independent steering wasn’t much use to us. The 12C has an eight-speed DCT with 30 per cent faster shift speeds than the old model, but we never got out of first gear. Still, you’ll never have more fun going so slow than in one of these on ice. What we did appreciate is the 12Cilindri’s balance, 48.4 per cent of the weight said to be on the front axle, making it somewhat easier to manage as it slid around. With confidence rising, participants were keen to touch the V12’s heady 9500rpm limit, the titanium con rods and the valvetrain with its sliding finger followers getting a good workout as the engine bounced off the limiter. While not the best sound that the exhaust, with its equal-length tracts and 6-in-1 manifold, will emit, it sure made those inside the car smile. 

The cost for the experience is $15,000 for two, and for that the Ferrari owners receive two nights at Millbrook, two rather splendid dinners and free flowing beverages (late into the night for some on the second night in Arrowtown). However, just one person is allowed to drive on the day.

Whether you can use the term value when referring to anything related to Ferrari is moot but those in attendance all seemed very happy with their experience.