Drag races continue to hold a special appeal, especially when true automotive icons line up for a standing-start quarter-mile showdown. This is exactly the case with the latest comparison published by carwow, one of the most popular YouTube channels dedicated to acceleration races, which brought together three high-end grand tourers: the Ferrari 812 Superfast, the Aston Martin Vanquish, and the Bentley Continental GT.
What links these cars is a shared element of both technical and emotional prestige: the twelve-cylinder engine. As a result, the 400-meter battle delivers not only impressive performance figures but also an intense sensory experience, particularly from a sound perspective. The acoustic character of V12 engines has long represented one of the highest expressions of automotive engineering, a language Ferrari has turned into a defining part of its identity over the years.
Faced with such an elite lineup, the question naturally arises: can the two British contenders put the Maranello grand tourer under real pressure? Before finding out, it is worth taking a closer look at the main players in this multi-round drag race.
Ferrari 812 Superfast vs British V12 rivals in carwow drag race
The Aston Martin Vanquish enters the contest as the most powerful car of the group. Under the hood sits a 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 delivering 835 horsepower and a massive 1,000 Nm of torque. Power flows to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission, while the car carries a total weight of 1,835 kilograms. These figures describe a highly muscular grand tourer, engineered for top-tier performance.
Alongside it stands the Bentley Continental GT, which follows a different technical approach. Its 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 produces 635 horsepower and 900 Nm of torque and represents the only forced-induction engine in the trio. Bentley pairs this unit with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox, a setup designed to ensure maximum stability and effective power delivery in all conditions. However, this configuration comes at the cost of weight, which reaches 2,169 kilograms, the highest figure in the comparison.
Completing the trio is the Ferrari 812 Superfast, now discontinued and replaced by the newer 12Cilindri. The Prancing Horse coupé relies on a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 producing 800 horsepower and 718 Nm of torque. An ultra-fast and precise seven-speed automatic transmission sends power to the rear wheels, while the relatively low weight of 1,630 kilograms stands out as one of the car’s key strengths. Adding to the package is a mechanical soundtrack that remains among the most thrilling ever created.
A closer look at the specifications shows that the Aston Martin leads in outright power, while the Ferrari benefits from a more favorable power-to-weight ratio. The real question, therefore, is which philosophy will prevail over the quarter mile, and which car will also come out on top in the braking test.
