The ten best V12-engined cars in the world

V12 engines are on a knife’s edge, but we wanted to pay tribute to them by choosing the ten best V12-engined cars in the world. Need more?

Car manufacturers have long sought a compromise between performance and refinement. They have often chosen the V12 engine design, with two banks of six cylinders sprouting at an angle from a common crankcase. The economic and emissions benefits, at least in official tests, of having an engine with fewer cylinders and one or more turbochargers mean the days of the V12 seem to be numbered, but the design has fallen and revived in the past and could do so again.

Here is a selection of models that featured ‘real’ V12 engines spanning just over a century.

Lamborghini 350 GT

The first road car produced by tractor manufacturer Ferruccio Lamborghini had a V12 engine. Designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, it first appeared as a 3.5-litre in the 1964 350GT, and two years later, now at 3.9 litres, powered the Miura, widely considered the first mid-engined supercar.

With much development and continual size increases to eventually 5.2 litres, it was still available to power the Lamborghini Countach, which remained in production until 1990.

Jaguar E-Type

Although Jaguar began thinking about a V12 engine in the early 1950s, and built many prototypes thereafter, it did not put one into production until 1971, when its 5.3-litre unit debuted in the E-Type. The company was being cautious here; it wanted to introduce the engine in a low-volume sports car rather than one of its major saloons.

However, the V12 Saloon followed quickly. The XJ12 and the mechanically identical Daimler Double Six (named after the 1920s model) arrived in 1972. With the usual increases in capacity and technological improvements, the V12 engine was sold until 1997. The engine was fabulously smooth, although like most V12 powerplants it had a prodigious thirst for fuel, which is why many users switched models.

BMW M70

BMW made two attempts to design V12 engines in the 1970s, but neither was considered suitable for production. The M70 powerplant, whose block and cylinder head were made of aluminium, struck the ideal balance of performance, refinement and low weight.

It first appeared in 1987 in the BMW 750i – which had an even 50-50 front-rear weight distribution, and was one of the first German saloons that could be driven at 250 km/h. The BMW 850i would follow later.

Ferrari F116

The Ferrari F116 V12 and its higher-performance derivative, the Ferrari F133, were used in a variety of front-engined Ferrari for almost two decades. The first was the Ferrari 456, launched in 1992, and the last was the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, which remained in production until 2011.

In between, 5.5- or 5.7-litre examples were used in the Ferrari 550 and the Ferrari 575M. A six-litre version producing 605 CV was created solely for motorsport use, where the Maranello marque has marked several milestones in automotive history.

Lamborghini Diablo and Murciélago

Although many sources insist these cars used a development of the Lamborghini V12 designed in the 1960s, motoring historian Karl Ludvigsen has pointed out that they actually used an engine originally designed for the LM004 off-road prototype.

Starting at 5.7 litres in the Lamborghini Diablo, it peaked at 6.5 litres and 670 CV in the final version of the Lamborghini Murciélago, which we describe as the “Sant’Agata hammer” in reference to the town where Lamborghini is based.

Mercedes-Benz M120

Like BMW and Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz spent a long time considering V12 engines before putting one into production. The Mercedes-Benz S600 of 1991 was the first car to use the new unit known as the M120. It was noticeably faster than its rival, the BMW 750i, but it was also much more expensive.

The M297 powerplant was a development of the M120 engine modified by AMG and enlarged to 6.9 litres for use in road and racing versions of the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. Other versions with sizes up to 7.3 litres and outputs of up to 760 CV powered the Pagani Zonda.

BMW S70

Loosely based on the M70 V12, the S70/2 was the engine that BMW supplied to McLaren for its 1992-1998 F1 model, a car we describe as “the best driving machine ever built for public roads”.

Without the benefit of turbocharging or supercharging, the S70/2 produced 625 CV from 6.1 litres, and actually had to be detuned to allow the F1 to compete in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, which it incidentally won.

Ferrari F50

The Ferrari F50 was the only Ferrari road car to use a V12 engine that is otherwise only found in race models. The Ferrari F130B began as a 3.5-litre engine fitted to the 641 F1 car driven in 1990 by Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, and was then enlarged to 4.0 litres and detuned for the sports car Ferrari 333 SP.

When it appeared in the Ferrari F50, it had grown to 4.7 litres and its power had dropped from the roughly 690 CV of the 641 to 525 CV, which remains an impressive figure for a road-legal car from the mid-1990s. Furthermore, this model has become one of the most legendary of the Italian Cavallino Rampante marque.

Toyota Century

Almost unknown outside Japan, the Toyota Century is a limousine that has been produced in three generations. The first had a V8 engine, as does the current one (aided by an electric motor), but the second, on sale from 1997 to 2017, was equipped with the 1GZ-FE V12 of the Toyota .

Measuring five litres and with an official output of 280 CV, it has never been used for any purpose other than powering the Toyota Century. What would you think if the Japanese brand revolutionised the market with the launch of a new model powered by a V12 engine?

Aston Martin DB7

The V12 engine that first appeared in the Aston Martin DB7 in 1999 was derived by Ford (which owned Aston Martin at the time) from the Duratec V6 engine, which was created partly with the help of Porsche. The Duratec first appeared in the Ford Mondeo and was then used in other Ford models and by Lincoln, Jaguar, Mazda, Mercury and Noble.

The famous V12 engine was fitted to the Aston Martin Vanquish and the Aston Martin DB9 but was abandoned in favour of new engines for the Aston Martin DB11.