Kinda like the first time Godzilla caught a glimpse of King Ghidora ( you know – the 3 headed flying dragon…..). Well – actually – the F12 owners are going to be scared you know what when the see the C7 Z06 and ZR1….more on that later….
As far as we can tell – this was the first time the C7 was captured alongside the Ferrari F12.
Where: In field of Laguna Seca Racetrack.
When: August 18, 2013 during the ROLEX Monterey Motorsports Reunion weekend where Corvette was the honored marque. It was after all, the 60th anniversary for Corvette!
How: It was a fluke occurrence – each car apparently needed to be fueled – and parked for filling at the infield VP Racing fueling station – right be side each other!!!
I had just finished taking nearly 300 pictures of Corvettes at the main Corvette display area. As I walked away from the main ‘Vette display area – I scanned for the pits – and What The Heck – is that an F12!!!
I had never seen an F12 in the flesh before. I skipped last year’s Pebble’s Beach Concours D’elegance event where the car made its US intro. Rich people overload. I had seen one grey FF in the skin last year – I knew immediately that this wasn’t the 4 seater. The medium red (Rosso Corsa) car in front of me sent me flipping through my memory banks for mental images and specs….THE VERIFICATION CHECKLIST. If you’re a car nut, you know the drill. 365 side profile, FF like front grill – air extraction vent in the hood, closeable front brake inlets, AIR BRIDGE - CHECK – it’s an F12! I immediately turned my trusty NIKON D3200 back on and started snapping away.
Wait – what just pulled up? A CYBER GREY C7 – NICE!!!
I had to put my camera down for a second and take it in. Which looks better? Hmmmmm. The C7. Although the F12 is dimensionally smaller than the outgoing F599, it doesn’t look it. Surprisingly, the F12 doesn’t look that much trimmer either. In person, the 599 looks bigger than it does in pics – and the same is true for the F12. The C7 is more sculpted from nose to tail – the deeply tucked in sides just aft of the coves really give it a ‘waist’. By comparison, the F12’s nose is more blunt (very similar to the aforementioned 365), the sides are somewhat bulkier and flatter. The Airbrake side coves are smallish – and all the surfaces are smoothly contoured – in stark contrast to the multi- surfaced, raked and straked, sharp edged, taught C7. One the strongest visual elements of the F12 are the headlights – and they look SOFT compared to the C7’s. Don’t get me wrong – the F12 looks beefy. It looks like a top dog FERRARI. The C7 beside it just looks edgier, leaner and decidedly more wicked compared to the F car. The surface treatment of the C7 also makes it more visually arresting – it always seems to appear that it’s got more light sources hitting it than ALL the other cars around it. Again, that’s due to the surface treatment. The ‘Vette has lots of sculpted flat surfaces/planes that intersect. You know – like a stealth fighter. Speaking of which – the big F12 packs a whopping 730ish brake horsepower naturally aspirated V-12. Bigger horsepower numbers are ABSOLUTELY necessary from the ‘one upmanship’ game that’s THE main factor in people shelling out the cash for any hyper car. You know – it CAN’T make less HORSEPOWER than others costing less – AND IT CAN’T MAKE LESS THAN THE TOP DOG (erhhhh BULL) LAMBO!!!
BOTTOM LINE – The C7 looks great next to the F12. If somoen from mars saw the two cars parked to each other, they'd asusme they cost about the same. They wouldn't have a clue that the F12 costs 6x what the Vette does.
Well done TEAM Corvette!
Well done TEAM Corvette!
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