But it’s not all V-12-powered fire and brimstone. Thanks to a full carbon-fiber roof and other weight-saving measures, the faster F12 will have a dry weight of just 3,120 pounds, which is an incredible 220 pounds lighter than the standard car. Handling will be further improved with a new rear-wheel steering system — a first for Ferrari. Like the 2014 Porsche 911 GT3 (and 1987 Honda Prelude), the system will turn the rear wheels opposite the direction of the fronts to enhance low-speed agility and in the same direction at high speeds to improve stability.

Tentatively called the F12 ‘GTO’ — though it’s highly doubtful the final car will use that name — it will use a 780-horsepower V-12, which is likely to be a new version of the 6.3-liter engine from the F12 and 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari. The extra 40 horsepower over the regular F12 should drop its 0-60 time to below three seconds and increase top speed to nearly 220 mph.

The 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta is a car that defies categorization. It convincingly plays the role of continent-crushing grand tourer, but a few turns of the Manettino later, it transforms into hair-on-fire-fast supercar that’s so, so much faster and more capable than any other front-engine GT car in the world. Now, according to German site Autogespot , the engineers at Maranello are working on an even faster F12.

It all adds up to a Fiorano lap time roughly two seconds faster than the standard F12’s time of 1 minute 21 seconds, which would put it firmly in LaFerrari territory.

Overall dimensions and appearance will be similar to the F12, but expect a new, lower front fascia with enhanced active aerodynamics and complementary side skirts. The rear will get new air outlets aft of the rear wheels, inspired by the Series II 250 GTO, as well as a pair of vertical fins with small winglets on the rear flanks, similar to the ones on the 2015 Ferrari FXX K.

Look for an official unveiling sometime in 2016.

Why it matters

If you were to chart the overall speed and capabilities of the cars that have rolled out of the Ferrari factory gates over the last two decades or so, you would probably be looking at an exponential function line. In other words, Ferraris are getting faster and faster at a ridiculous rate.

Keeping the throttle pinned in any of Ferrari’s current offerings on a public road is more than enough to land you jail and do some serious damage to your driving record. Even the best drivers would have a hard time extracting even 50 percent of an F12’s ability on the road, and now there’s an even faster one. There’s always the track, but how often do cars like these actually get taken out?

It makes you wonder where Ferrari, and the supercar genre as a whole, will go from here and what the point is. I certainly can’t answer that (which is why I got into writing and not engineering), but I look forward to finding out.

Read our full review here.

Source: Autogespot