Once again the title of best performance engine in the International Engine of the Year Awards goes to Ferrari. This time it is the 740 horsepower V12 engine from the F12 Berlinetta that is chosen as the winner. It also won the  best engine award in the Above 4 Liter category.

Ferrari had also won the best performance engine awards in 2011 and 2012 with the 458’s V8 powerrain. If you are wondering what is so special about the engines Ferrari makes, well, for starters they are immensely powerful for their size. They put the same V12 you find in the F12 in the new LaFerrari hyper car, and in there is makes 800 horsepower.

But there is more to a Ferrari engine that just raw power. it has a special and very swell character, brought on by the noise it makes, the way it responds, and the way it revs beyond 9,000 rpm like a Formula engine. If you have watched National Graphic’s piece on how Ferrari makes its engines, you know that it is a combination of old and modern methods. And it’s that old ways that grant a Ferrari engine its soul.

The F12’s engine was chosen as the winner by a panel of 86 motoring journalists from 35 nations. Basically, it is the same V12 that they put in the Enzo almost a decade ago. It then powered the GTB and now the F12 and LaFerrari. Sadly, it is going become a hybrid this engine, if it is going to survive. But that would do little damage to the character of the engine. It will still be very Ferrari!

F12berlinetta technical specifications