Chevrolet Camaro vs Ferrari 12Cilindri

What's the difference?

Nobody really needs to drink beer and absolutely nobody needs to go skydiving. You don’t need tattoos nor to eat ice cream, nor put art on their walls, and absolutely nobody needs to play Stairway to Heaven, badly, on guitar. Likewise, nobody needs to buy a Chevrolet Camaro.

And there’s your answer if anybody has a go at you for arriving home in this big American muscle car, because if we only did things we needed to do, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be having as much fun.

The Chevrolet Camaro has been the Ford Mustang’s recurring nightmare since 1966, and this latest, sixth generation of the Chevy icon is available to continue the fight here in Australia, thanks to some re-engineering from HSV.

The SS badge is also legendary and was emblazoned on our test car, although it’s really a 2SS, and we’ll get to what that means below.

As you’re about to see, there are many good reasons to buy the Camaro SS and a few that might make you reconsider, but think about this – within the next two decades it’s entirely possible a car like the Camaro, with its 6.2-litre V8, may be banned because of emission regulations. Outlawed. You also never know how much longer HSV will continue to sell it in Australia. Maybe that’s reason enough to get one? Before it's too late.

The Ferrari 12Cilindri should not exist. Everything about it shouts of excess to the point of illegality. Surely, one would assume, emissions regulations have made a vehicle with a naturally aspirated V12 engine as socially, and indeed legally acceptable as asbestos sandwich wrapping. 

The work it must have taken to somehow squeeze this thing through the regulatory net is clearly more than any other company could be bothered with - the 12Cilindri is the only new atmo V12 a lot of money can buy. 

Ferrari made the effort because this car, with this layout, is an integral part of the brand’s heritage, dating back to 1947, the rock on which it is built. Old Enzo Ferrari himself said the V12 is the Ferrari engine “everything else is a derivation of the original”.

And, of course, they made it because there are plenty of purists out there who will pay big, big dollars to have one. We flew to an unfortunately soggy launch for the car in Luxembourg to see what a V12 that can now rev to 9500rpm would feel, and sound like.