12 Of The Most Iconic V12 Classic Cars Ever Made

Every high-performance engine sings its own song, whether it’s the penetrating wail of a turbocharged inline four, the aggressive growl of a V6, or the bone-rattling rumble of a big-block V8. But one song is rarer and more exotic than all the rest: the symphonic roar of a V12. Since the age of gasoline-powered engines may be drawing to a close, these mechanical choruses become increasingly precious. Soon, the visceral sounds and heady smells of ignited fuel might fade into history, but for now, we can still appreciate some of the finest and most powerful internal combustion engines built, including those with 12 cylinders.

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V12s have a special place in enthusiasts’ hearts for many reasons. For one thing, some of the best V12 engines ever made have found homes in some of the most beautiful cars ever built. Then there’s the technical accomplishment, since getting as many as four cams and 48 valves to work together is tricky. Yet the payoff when it works is spectacular: tons of power, delivered smoothly, with an amazing exhaust note.

Whether a V12 rests under the long hood of a stately pre-war luxury car or amidships in a modern-day exotic, there’s just something special about 12 cylinders firing with perfect timing. What follows is a list of iconic V12 classics from Detroit, Italy, Bavaria, and elsewhere, each of which is powered by its own take on 12 cylinders, from vintage hand-built creations to high-tech modern wonders.

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The power, smoothness, and balance of V12 engines made them ideal for luxury cars in the years before World War II. The first production car with a V12 engine was the Twin Six from Packard. The engine entered development in 1913, under the guidance of Packard’s chief engineer Jesse Vincent. It began as an aircraft engine, but Vincent recognized the potential for a luxury automobile engine due to the inherent smoothness that a V12 offered. His engine consisted of two blocks of six cylinders at a 60-degree angle. There was a simple reason why the V12 ran so smoothly: six impulses for each crankshaft revolution blended into one smooth motion with no detectable pauses.

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The Twin Six generated 88 horsepower, a very respectable figure for 1916. Its torque made it extremely flexible, allowing the car to accelerate from 3 mph to 30 mph in the top gear of its three-speed transmission. Its tractability and near-silence impressed the automotive world. Surprisingly, despite the engine’s size, its construction meant it actually weighed less than Packard’s previous six-cylinder motor. The same refined engineering went into the entire car, right down to the precisely cast brake and clutch pedals. Packard set the standard that other luxury car makers would follow.

The Cadillac V12 went into production against the headwinds of the Great Depression in 1930. It was a derivative of Cadillac’s V16, a spectacular powerplant that featured groundbreaking technology, including the first hydraulic lifters on a car engine. The cylinder banks were set at a 45-degree angle to one another, and the engine had been carefully styled to be as aesthetically appealing as it was powerful. Having built a V16, Cadillac then lopped off the two cylinders at each end and increased the bore slightly on the remaining cylinders to produce the V12.

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The result was 135 horsepower and 284 lb-ft of torque in an engine that idles softly and pulls strongly to 50 mph and beyond. While the V12 was essentially its own model designation, it found its way into a number of Cadillac bodies. Two of these were revealed in one of the most spectacular barn finds of modern times, in Texas: a 1932 Cadillac 370B V-12 Victoria Convertible and a 1933 Cadillac Model 370C V-12 Town Coupe. There was also a 1938 Fleetwood V16 limousine in the collection. Another V12 model was the 1934 Cadillac 370-D V-12 Five-Passenger Sedan. The V12 would remain in production until 1937, despite the travails of the Depression.

An article about V12s could focus exclusively on Ferraris, so we’ll only hit some of the high notes in Maranello’s amazing history of 12-cylinder cars. This one goes back to where it all began, with Enzo Ferrari’s very first car, the 125 S. Signor Ferrari built his racer after having been the director of Alfa Romeo’s racing team, so he had the credentials. Yet he astonished the racing world by building a V12 with only 1.5 liters of displacement. This enabled him to take advantage of new Formula One rules, which permitted cars with 1.5-liter engines or smaller to use superchargers.

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Ferrari reunited with a former colleague from Alfa Romeo, Gioachino Colombo, to design the engine. Colombo’s design produced the amazing Ferrari engine sound that became as legendary as its performance. Ironically, despite Ferrari’s intentions, Colombo’s V12 ended up not being supercharged in its initial version, which produced 118 horsepower. The rev-happy 125 S won six of the 10 races it took part in during the 1947 season. In 1948, it finally got a supercharger, boosting it to 230 horsepower, followed by a dual-stage supercharger in 1949, which boosted it further to 280 horsepower. Enzo Ferrari’s gamble on a V12 launched the legend of Ferrari automobiles.

We’ve seen Ferrari’s origin story, so now we come to the genesis of its long-time rival, Lamborghini, with the beautiful and powerful Lamborghini 350 GT. This was an astounding first car from Ferruccio Lamborghini, a man who had made his fortune building tractors. In fact, legend has it that he decided to build his own sports car after bringing his Ferrari in to have a defective clutch repaired, only to have Enzo Ferrari say, “What does a tractor maker know about supercars?” 

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Enraged by Ferrari’s dismissive attitude and frustrated with the car’s lack of reliability, he decided to build a supercar (after fixing his Ferrari’s clutch on his own). The result was the 1963 350 GTV, a concept car styled by Franco Scaglione and built by Carrozzeria Touring. It went into production the following year. Under the car’s long hood was a 60-degree, 3.5-liter V12 built by the engineer Giotto Bizzarrini. 

The GTV prototype’s engine produced 360 horsepower from a four-cam design, but this was reduced to a more street-friendly 270 horsepower for the production version. We ranked the 350 GT as one of the most underrated Lamborghinis ever made, since it’s often overshadowed by Lamborghini’s next car, the Miura.

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When Ferruccio Lamborghini’s second car, the Miura, debuted at the 1966 Geneva auto show, the world had never seen anything like it — at least not on the road. It owed more to the racetrack than to any road car that had gone before. Today, we have a well-established image of a true supercar: very low, wide, and curvy, with the engine — preferably a V12 — mounted amidships, behind the driver’s ears. The iconic history of the Lamborghini Miura is the genesis of modern supercars. That very first Lamborghini Miura was restored a decade ago in honor of its history-making and paradigm-shattering introduction in Geneva.

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A young designer named Marcello Gandini penned the Miura’s voluptuous lines, and Giotto Bizzarrini engineered the 4.0-liter V12 that sits beneath the louvred engine cover. The engine produced 350 horsepower in the 1966 model, and it was mounted transversely to keep more of the Miura’s weight at the center of the car. Horsepower increased to 370 in the 1968 Miura S and 385 in the 1971 Miura SV. The SV could hit the 0-60 run in 5.8 seconds on its way to a 180 mph top speed. The price was about $20,000, or a bit under $200,000 in 2025 dollars. This was a small price for driving history’s first supercar.

The Ferrari 365 GTB/4, nicknamed the “Daytona,” is a car of legend. It was also Ferrari’s last front-engine V12. The 365 GTB/4 may be remembered by many as one of the coolest grand touring cars ever built, but it earned its nickname on the track, finishing one-two-three in the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race. Yet, Ferrari consciously designed the 365 GTB/4 for the roads of North America, where its cars were becoming popular. However, make no mistake: Its 4.4-liter Colombo V12 was born for the track first.

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With 352 horsepower, this engine pushed the Daytona to 174 mph, making it the fastest Ferrari built up to that time. The engine sat well behind the front axle under the car’s long hood, giving it a terrific weight distribution and excellent handling for a front-engine car. Its style was a break with Ferrari tradition, featuring an aerodynamic wedge-shaped front end that flowed into curving rear haunches that have almost a hatchback profile, although it had a trunk rather than a hatch. A character line ran from the front wheel wells all the way around the rear of the car. A convertible spider version was available, intended mainly for the California sunshine.

One of the most iconic V12 supercars of all time, and arguably one of the most iconic cars, period, the Lamborghini Countach debuted more than 50 years ago, wearing wedge-shaped, scissor-doored bodywork that may as well have just landed from a distant galaxy. It’s tough to pick just one example from its long production run for detailed specs, but the original of the species — the 1974-1978 Countach LP400 model — is a good starting point. Its 3.9-liter V12 produced about 375 horsepower. 

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Octane Magazine drove a restored 1977 LP400. Its peak horsepower arrives at the supercar’s 8,000 rpm redline, showing how this Lambo loves to be driven to the limit. Driving a car this low to the ground with effectively no rearward vision comes with challenges of its own. The LP400 was also called the “Periscopio” because it was originally intended to feature a periscope connected to the rearview mirror. But all the driving compromises are worth it for the V12’s 192 mph top speed, along with its exhaust note; Octane’s reviewer reports that “there’s a deep underlying bellow that penetrates your inner being.”

The hedonistic 1980s were tailor-made for supercars, and the decade saw Ferrari jump back into building V12s, this time mounted amidships in a car made famous by “Miami Vice.” Perhaps the Ferrari cognoscenti weren’t impressed by its pop-cultural fame at the time, but in recent years, the Testarossa has become a sought-after classic. Of course, some considered the Pininfarina design brilliant all along, with its curves parting and meeting again like waves, and its side strakes giving the illusion of speed even when standing still. To those of us who grew up with the Testarossa’s poster on our bedroom walls, it was a car that became an instant classic.

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It was also one of the highest-horsepower sports cars of the 1980s, thanks to its 4.9-liter, 385-horsepower flat-12 engine. Its red-accented valve covers give the car its name (“Red Head” in Italian), which is also a nod to the 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa. This redhead wasn’t just fast in a straight line either, as its 6.5-foot width and the downforce generated by its aerodynamic body helped it to corner like few cars of its era.

Car and Driver magazine tested a 1985 Testarossa and achieved a 0-60 time of five seconds flat, a 176 mph top speed, and a 0.87 g skid pad rating. They concluded that “the Testarossa can cover more ground in less time than al­most anything else on four wheels,” even when not driven at its limit. The Testarossa’s production ended in 1991, after which it was succeeded by the very similar-looking 512 TR/512 M, which was produced through 1996.

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When BMW dropped a 5.0-liter V12 into the 7 series, it created a vehicle that Car and Driver called “an automobile for the ages.” The 750iL combined more horsepower than a Porsche 911 Turbo with the whisper-quiet interior that one would expect from a premium executive sedan. If you’re looking for a soul-shaking V12 rumble, you won’t find it here. What you will get is a car that can run from 0-60 in just 6.5 seconds despite weighing over 4,000 pounds. The quarter mile comes up in a tick under 15 seconds at 96 mph. This almost ruthlessly efficient velocity is what made BMW’s V12 engine so unique.

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Car and Driver provides an excellent explanation of why a V12 is a good choice for a luxury car: “A twelve­-cylinder produces a smoother power flow than a six of the same displacement be­cause its cylinders fire twice as often and with half as much intensity.” To make it even quieter, BMW’s engineers added rubber mounts to the intake manifolds, covered the fuel injectors to muffle their clicking, and modified the valvetrain with hydraulic valve-lash adjusters. Fans of V12s who want an engine that roars will have to stick with Italian supercars; This BMW is all about Bavarian efficiency, as well as power — lots and lots of power.

The Lamborghini Diablo was the follow-up to the Countach and became a legendary car in its own right. Upon its debut in 1990, it was the fastest car on Earth. Its style was just barely less outrageous than the Countach, with the sharpest edges rounded off, and yet with its low stance and massive rear haunches, it was still distinctive and every bit a Lambo. Like the Miura and the Countach before it, the Diablo was styled by Marcello Gandini, although after Chrysler purchased Lamborghini, Viper designer Tom Gale helped modernize Gandini’s design.

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As amazing as it looks, the real heart of any Lambo is its engine, and the Diablo got its fury from a 5.7-liter, 492-horsepower V12 with 428 lb-ft of torque. Dual overhead cams and multi-port fuel injection helped to wring stunning numbers from this powerplant, which powered the Diablo to 202 mph. The engine would be enlarged to 6.0 liters in later models; The Diablo SE30 Jota would produce 595 horsepower. All-wheel drive was available on some Diablos, too, bringing V12 supercars into the modern age. By the way, if you’re wondering about the meaning of Lamborghini car names, many of them are named for breeds of bulls, including the Diablo.

The Diablo’s reign as the world’s fastest car would last only a year until the reborn Bugatti company took the title with the EB110, giving birth to the age of the hypercar. The EB110’s 3.5-liter V12 had no fewer than five valves per cylinder, along with four turbochargers delivering between 1.05 and 1.2 bar of boost pressure. This engine was housed in a car with a carbon monocoque exterior that weighed only 275 pounds — a car so light that even the screws were made of titanium to further reduce weight.

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The EB110 featured all-wheel drive, a rear limited-slip differential, and an all-wheel viscous locking differential. This helped to translate the V12’s power into otherworldly straight-line acceleration, while active aerodynamics kept the Bugatti pinned to the road at high speeds. All of this technology helped the V12 propel the EB110 from 0-62 mph in 3.26 seconds, with a top speed of 218 mph. Both of these performance numbers were world records for a production car.

As if that weren’t enough, in 1992, Bugatti released the EB 110 Super Sport, which had even less weight and a top speed of 221 mph. Unfortunately, shifting global financial winds led Bugatti to close its Italian factory in 1995 after just 139 EB 110s were built. The brand would later resume production in France under different owners.

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Just as the Bugatti EB 110 snatched the title of world’s fastest production car from the Lamborghini Diablo a single year after the Diablo’s launch, McLaren F1 grabbed the crown away from Bugatti a year later. Built under the leadership of Formula 1 engineer Gordon Murray, the F1 hit 231 mph, with a version that lacked a rev limiter allegedly reaching 240 mph. It achieved this feat with a 6.1-liter, 627-horsepower version of BMW’s V12 engine, mounted in a mid-engine configuration.

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Unlike the Bugatti, the F1’s V12 sported no turbochargers, and its power reached the pavement through the rear wheels only. The F1 didn’t even have power brakes, let alone ABS. But in other respects, it was a high-tech hypercar. The BMW V12 under the hood used four cams, 48 valves, and variable valve timing to produce its prodigious horsepower, and the car’s body was made of lightweight carbon fiber at a time when that material was usually found only in race cars.

One of the F1’s most unusual features was also inspired by race cars: The driver’s seat was in the center of the cockpit. Passengers sat in a pair of seats, one on either side of the driver. Only 106 examples of this unusual car were built, which is why you’ll hardly find any McLaren F1s on the road today.

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