BMW has killed the V12! These are the only other cars with a V12 today...

CarExpert

I think we all shed a tear when BMW announced that it was killing the V12 engine. It had a good run. So with the BMW V12 dead - what is left on the market that still features a sumptuous V12 engine? Paul Maric investigates!  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Maybach S680 1:23 Rolls Royce 2:47 Bentley 4:03 Lambo 5:49 Aston Martin 7:08 Ferrari 8:56 Outro 10:43  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #v12 #bmw #lamborghini

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So BMW has just announced that it is killing the V12 engine.

00:05 Hello darkness my old friend.

00:08 I know, cue sad face. That is bad news because it means that other brands are probably going to

00:13 start killing the V12 engine pretty soon. I thought we'd sit down and have a look at the

00:18 other brands on the market at the moment that do sell a V12 engine and what the future has for

00:22 them and where the V12 engines are going to end up. Now before we get started, if you haven't

00:26 done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out every

00:30 single time we do one of these videos. But let's get started. So the V12 engine, it's been around

00:36 for a while and growing up it's always been the realm of super sports cars and also that high-end

00:42 luxury car setup. It always meant that you had power, torque and it was just the ultimate. If

00:48 you were going to buy the most expensive S-Class, it was always going to be the V12 powered version.

00:53 Same story if you went to buy a Lambo or something like that, you always wanted the one with the most

00:57 cylinders. But today, V12 engines are less useful because you've got hybridization, electrification

01:03 and emissions laws. They are really just killing all of these fun engines. So let's run through

01:08 the cars on the market today that do have V12 engines and these are mainstream produced cars.

01:13 I know we have brands like your Gordon Murray Automotive with the T50 and the T33,

01:17 but I'm going to stick to just mainstream brands that do still have V12 engines. And we'll start

01:22 off with the Mercedes-Maybach S680. I know it kind of just looks like an S-Class because it is based

01:29 on the S-Class, but this is the only Mercedes-Benz product at the moment that has a V12 engine,

01:35 which kind of surprised me because when you think of AMG and all that kind of thing,

01:39 V12s are pretty pronounced. So the S680 uses a Mammoth V12 engine. It's a 6-litre turbocharged

01:47 V12, produces 463 kilowatts of power and 900 newton-metres of torque. And I was a little

01:54 surprised by this. It only uses 13.6 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres. I was expecting it to

01:59 be way higher than that. One of the big benefits of a V12, yes, you do get that power and torque

02:05 because you are effectively just taking a six and eight-cylinder engine and just adding more

02:09 cylinders that burn more fuel and turn a crank. Whereas this, on the other hand, is all about

02:15 noise, vibration and harshness. When you look at a 12-cylinder engine like this, you really do have

02:20 a smooth configuration there. And then when you do go for the hammer and you want to pick up and get

02:25 moving, it does so quietly, but powerfully and elegantly. So that is one of the big benefits

02:30 there of the twin-turbo V12 powerplant in the Maybach. And of course, this is a luxury car,

02:36 so they have the issue of having a V12 engine that is noisy inherently and making it super quiet.

02:42 And I think they have achieved that. It is a really good integration into that product.

02:45 Next up is Rolls-Royce. So while BMW, who owns Rolls-Royce, has killed the V12 engine from

02:52 production, Rolls-Royce will continue with a V12 until they go full electric, which is from 2030.

02:59 And Rolls-Royce has a synonymous history with V12 engines. And I love the fact with Rolls-Royce,

03:05 it is a company that is meticulous in every single way. The V12 engine, it is 6.75 litres,

03:11 and Rolls-Royce refers to it as 6.75 litres, just because it is Rolls-Royce. It also produces a

03:19 mammoth amount of power, 441 kilowatts of power and 900 newton metres of torque. The most interesting

03:25 part is it produces that 900 newton metres of torque from the twin-turbo V12 at just 1700 rpm.

03:32 That is a really low figure, and it does show you that you have inherent torque from the 12-cylinder

03:38 engine that is simply backed up then by turbochargers. And just like that Mercedes Maybach,

03:43 these have to be dead silent. And you can kind of see here that brands like Rolls-Royce, Bentley,

03:47 Mercedes-Benz, when they move to an electric platform, it kind of fits the brief where you

03:53 need it to be quiet, because they want these V12s to be quiet, unlike supercars where they want them

03:58 to be loud. So these are brands that will benefit from electrification in the sense that they'll be

04:02 quick, but also quiet. Another one of my personal favourites, Bentley, and they do things a little

04:07 bit differently. Instead of doing a traditional V12, which is a 12-cylinder engine in a V

04:13 formation, they do what's called a W12. Now a W12 is slightly different to a standard V12 setup.

04:20 What they've done is effectively taken two of Volkswagen's famous VR6 six-cylinder engines and

04:25 arranged them in an offset configuration. Now what that means is instead of them all being lined up

04:31 next to each other, they're split into an offset design as they go down that bank. One of the big

04:35 benefits of this arrangement is packaging. You're able to push the engine further towards the cabin,

04:40 which improves your weight distribution. You've got more room at the front of the car.

04:44 It really just has a lot of benefits. Cooling is a little harder because everything is closer

04:48 together, but they do have improvements in handling and performance in comparison to a

04:52 vehicle that has a standard V12 setup. It also has a fairly unique sound. We had a chance to test the

04:58 Continental GT with the W12, and this is what it sounded like. It is a seriously cool engine.

05:04 Bentley's six-litre W12 produces 467 kilowatts of power. It is also turbocharged, 900 newton

05:17 metres of torque, and it's actually more efficient than the V12 we see in the Mercedes-Maybach coming

05:21 in at 12.2 litres per 100 kilometres, which I think is pretty impressive. Bentley is also moving

05:26 to an electric future. From 2030, all of their cars will be electrified, and the first one coming

05:31 out in 2025. And that'll be sad because the 12-cylinder engine has a huge heritage at Bentley,

05:37 but again, they try and make them as quiet as they can, unless it is a sport model,

05:41 and that electric future really will hit the nail there in terms of quietness,

05:45 and also the performance you come to expect from a W12 drivetrain. Now, Lamborghini. So,

05:50 I think if you talk Lamborghini, a lot of people just instantly think V12. It is a brand that is

05:56 synonymous with the 12-cylinder engine, mainly because they can just make it sound like nothing

06:02 else on the planet. An Aventador makes such a unique sound, you can hear it coming from a mile

06:06 away. And in this application, they've really gone to town on extracting as much as they can

06:21 from that V12 engine. If you look at the Aventador and the Ultimate, which is the final version of

06:27 the 12-cylinder before it goes to hybridization, they've been able to get 573 kilowatts of power

06:34 and 720 newton-metres of torque out of that 6.5-litre V12. Now, you might be thinking to

06:40 yourself, "Why does it not produce as much torque as the Bentley or the Mercedes-Maybach,

06:44 as an example?" And that's because it's naturally aspirated, it's not turbocharged. So,

06:49 that gives them the ability to have lots of power, but not as much torque. But it doesn't

06:53 make the car any slower. These things are absolute missiles. We do know that Lamborghini is moving

06:58 towards a hybrid future, but they have committed to the next generation of the Aventador still

07:03 featuring a V12 engine. So, it'll have a V12 plus some form of hybridization.

07:08 Aston Martin, one of my favourite brands from not only a design point of view, but a sound point of

07:13 view. I remember the previous generation V8 Vantage, it sounded absolutely incredible. And

07:17 they've continued that through to their latest cars. I know the V8 is sheared with Mercedes-Benz,

07:21 but the V12 is unique to this. And it's a 5.2-litre turbocharged V12. And they use that

07:28 in the DB11 AMR and the DBS Superleggera. And that produces 533 kilowatts of power and 900

07:39 newton-metres in the DBS, while the DB11 AMR is slightly less at 470 kilowatts and 700 newton-metres.

07:46 Both of them sound really impressive. Once you get up them, the noise that comes out of

07:50 them just gives you tingles. It is such a cool setup.

07:53 But where they've gone to the absolute extreme is with their hypercars. They're doing two cars

08:05 called the Valkyrie and the Valhalla. And these are both produced in conjunction with Formula

08:11 One engineers to create an engine that is just out of this world. We're talking about a redline of

08:16 11,100 rpm. And that comes out of a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 that makes 746 kilowatts

08:27 of power and 740 newton-metres of torque. And in addition to that, Aston has paired this engine

08:33 with an electric motor from Rimac. Rimac, of course, makes the Navira, which is the world's

08:37 quickest accelerating vehicle. And that basically puts the system output up to 865 kilowatts of

08:44 power. So these things are going to be absolutely mental when they finally hit the road. And I think

08:48 when you do see one of them on the road, which will probably be rare given they're producing

08:51 barely any of them, you are going to snap your head turning around to look at it. And then hearing

08:56 it, I think will just be another experience altogether. Finally, Ferrari. So this is a

09:05 brand that's dabbled in a number of electrified applications, but they still use a pair of V12

09:11 engines. And the V12 engines Ferrari makes, I think, are simply the leaders on the sound game.

09:17 The exhaust system that Ferrari puts together in their cars is next level, especially their

09:22 non-turbocharged cars. And here in the final set of V12s they're doing before they go to

09:27 hybridisation, I think they've really nailed it in terms of this application. There are two cars in

09:31 the Ferrari stable at the moment that still use V12 engines. So one is the 812 Competizione,

09:36 I know I'm probably pronouncing that wrong, and that's a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12. That

09:41 screams all the way out to 9,250 rpm, 610 kilowatts of power and 692 newton metres of torque.

09:50 It'll do over 340 kilometres an hour.

09:53 The other one is the Daytona SP3. So this is a limited production car, just 599 units.

10:04 And unlike the 812 which has the engine at the front, the Daytona has the engine in the rear.

10:09 So you do have its own unique configuration there, but it's a brand that's also moving

10:14 towards hybridisation. So we will probably see in the not too distant future a gradual and further

10:20 use of hybridisation before this brand also does go full electric. So they are joining Lamborghini

10:24 in trying to get an exemption in Italy to continue producing internal combustion engines. But with

10:29 the way the world is heading, I'd be really surprised if they will get an exemption because

10:33 beyond 2030 there really won't be all that many services to support these vehicles. So I'll be

10:38 curious to see whether they get away with that. They do have a lot of swing there with the Italian

10:42 government. So let me know in the comments section below, are you a luxury kind of person or a sports

10:47 car kind of person? And what do you think about the end of the V12 engine? I think now that BMW

10:52 is doing it, the rest of these manufacturers will gradually signal their way to the end of V12

10:57 production. And look, personally it makes me sad because I grew up with the V12 engine being the

11:02 pinnacle, the halo. And now it is one of the things that is very hard to find in a mainstream

11:07 production car today. So if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you share it with your

11:10 mates. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

11:15 But until next time, take it easy.

11:17 [Music]

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