At some point, automakers will realize there is more to life than horsepower, gearheads will see that eyeball-flattening acceleration is overrated and ... oh, who are we kidding? There will always be cars like the fabulously ferocious Ferrari F12berlinetta and we will always love them.

The new flagship Ferrari unveiled today is, the folks in Maranello say, the most powerful road car the company has ever built, producing more power than even the Lamborghini Aventador. The car, which replaces the 599 GTB Fiorano, makes its debut next month at the Geneva auto show.

Ferraris are, in many ways, all about the engine and the F12berlinetta (that's really the name, one word) delivers the goods. Ferrari pegs the 6.2-liter V12 at 740 CV, or cavalli vapore because, you know, horsepower just isn't Italian enough. Math was never our strong suit, but we peg that at 750 horsepower. The engine's got boatloads of grunt, too: 509 pound-feet. Ferrari says 80 percent of it is available at 2,500 RPM, providing "an unrelenting surge of acceleration."

Unrelenting is an apt description.

Ferrari says all that oomph can propel the 3,362-pound gran turismo to 62 mph in an impressive 3.1 seconds. Keep the throttle mashed and you'll double that speed in 8.2 seconds. Find a long enough stretch of road and sufficient courage to let 'er rip and you'll see something north of 210 mph.

At some point you'll want to stop, so Ferrari thoughtfully outfits the F12berlinetta – and from here on we will call it the F12 – with carbon ceramic brakes. You can get your F12 with any gearbox you like, so long as it's a dual-clutch unit derived from the unit Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have in their F1 cars. Ferrari thoughtfully provides the usual electronic nannies to protect people with more money than skill from irrational exuberance.

All this tech is packaged in an aluminum spaceframe chassis bodyshell designed by longtime Ferrari collaborator Scaglietti. Ferrari Styling Centre and Pininfarina handled the styling of the car. Something about that "S" curve flare on the side doesn't sit right with us, but everything serves a purpose. Ferrari says the car has 76 percent more downforce than the 599 and "significantly" less drag, with a drag coefficient of 0.299.

People who drop a truckload of money on a car typically aren't overly concerned with fuel economy, and it's not as if a car like the F12 is going to rack up more than a few thousand miles a year. Still, even Ferrari cannot ignore the relentless drumbeat of increased efficiency, and it claims the F12 has reduced fuel consumption 30 percent. Compared to what, Ferrari doesn't say, but presumably it's measuring the F12 against the 599. Whatever the case, the F12 is good for 15 liters per 100 km, which comes to 15.6 mpg combined.

No word on the price, but the car appears in European showrooms this spring and here in the states by the end of the year.

UPDATED 1:30 p.m. EST March 1 to clarify the roles of Scaglietti and Pininfarina.

Photos: Ferrari