Ferrari 12Cilindri vs Lexus LM 500H

What's the difference?

In the near future we’ll look back at the 12Cilindri and say it’s a shame Ferrari doesn’t make cars like that any more. But if this is the last proper, naturally aspirated V12 Ferrari ever, it’s definitely a worthy one. One day you’ll enjoy seeing this in a car museum.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Lexus LM 500h is luxurious, comfortable, practical, easy to drive and expensive. While it may appear to be the ultimate family car, with only four seats it's limited in terms of how many kids and their friends you can carry. On top of that, the privacy screen introduces accessibility issues to the kids you wouldn't encounter on other vehicles. If you are thinking of a Lexus people mover as your next family car I'd suggest looking at the LM 350h which has seven seats and no privacy screen. If you’re looking at a business class executive van the LM 500h would be perfect. 

So, while I’ll admit a vehicle with such a massive, phallic bonnet and a cabin that seems to sit over the rear wheels is never going to be my favourite Ferrari, personally, it’s impossible to see how you could make a giant-bonneted V12-powered, heritage-hugging grand tourer look better than this.

Yes, it does look striking in pictures but in the flesh it is absolutely gob smacking, a thing of real beauty from some angles, and outrageous showiness from others.

Following one from behind, its massive, hunkered rear end actually brings to mind a Lamborghini Diablo, although I wouldn’t tell the many passionate Ferrari designers I met that.

They have a lot to say about why the 12Cilindri (and can we just discuss that name - yes, it is silly, in English, but when an Italian says it - Dodici Cilindri - with the properly poetical pronunciation, it really does make sense) looks as outrageously lovable as it does.

They reckon they were inspired by the exciting era of car design in the 1970s, but also by science fiction movies, and the desire to build something modern that also feels classic.

Take the black banded front end where the headlights live. “Our intent was to lose the human expression that cars have, to not have an actual human gaze, so it doesn’t have eyes.”

Of course, no car has actual eyes, but you get the idea, they didn’t want it to look like it has them, the way most vehicles do. 

There’s also a lot of talk about dihedrals and monoliths. The 12Cilindri also has an incredible clam shell bonnet, which not only creates a sense of theatre when you open it but means there’s no cut line through the bonnet, adding to that sense of the whole front end being monolithic. 

Then there are the many aero features, including two Batmobile-like flaps on the rear wing that activate to provide downforce when required - some 50kg of it at 250km/h.

I could go on and on, surely they did, but let’s just say this is one hugely impressive piece of car design. I know some people find it a little weird looking in photos, but they are simply wrong. It's beautiful in the flesh.

The LM 500h doesn't look real. More like a concept vehicle with its vertical face wearing that enormous grille. Feels like if you watched it for long enough you’d catch it transforming into some kind of robot. Yet, at the same time its styling is elegant and prestigious.

I have a confession to make. I used this Lexus as my office. Its interior is that comfortable and spacious. I'm also a parent and there were times where it was the quietest place to get some work done.

It also let me observe people's reactions as they walked past with their dogs not knowing what was going on inside behind those tinted windows. The people that noticed were clearly car enthusiasts as they knew what they were looking at and couldn't pass without gaping it awe.

The LM 500h’s interior is superbly plush with thick carpets, beautiful copper metallic trim and nappa leather seats.

As I’ve said, the cockpit up front is less luxurious than the extravagant first class section in the back behind that dividing wall.

And yes, I’ve seen large screens before but nothing that stretches the width of the vehicle.

For what it is, a two-seat grand tourer/rocket ship, the space inside is perfectly functional, and there’s a large kind of overgrown parcel shelf where you can throw a back pack or your jackets if you need to.

You also get a 270-litre boot, which is, you guessed it, just big enough for a set of golf bags.

Keep in mind that there is literally no one on Earth who will buy this as their only car.

You might be able to take Lexus out of Toyota but it's very hard to take Toyota out of Lexus and this particularly applies to the practicality of the LM 500h.

Every day I discovered new compartments, tray tables and storage areas. There are so many cabinets, lockers and hidey holes that we almost left my belongings (an entire family of plushie toy capybaras) behind because there are so many places to check.

Of course, I'm talking about the rear compartment here because up front there's not much storage. In fact, it proved to be quite a problem in that I had nowhere to put my bag with somebody sitting next to me and no area behind the front seats to stow it, either.

Talking of seats, the LM 500h only has four of them, with two up front and two in the rear. Up front, the seats are supportive and large, but the rear seats - those are, well... have a look at the images.

We’re talking two large captain's chairs that look as though they’ve been removed from the first class section of a plane.

And while this might be suitable for businesses shuttling a couple of executives to and from meetings, for a family, even with two children, the extra couple of seats a third row offers would come in handy.

The LM 350h has seven seats over three rows and no privacy screen. A far better choice for families.

For device charging there are USB ports up front and in the rear. There are wireless phone chargers for those in the back seats but not up front.

The LM 500h has a cargo capacity of 752 litres with all seats in place.

The Lexus LM 500h sits at the top of its range and is without a doubt one of the most expensive people movers on Earth with its list price of $220,888.

As you would imagine the standard features list is as extensive as it is extravagant.

For starters, while the regular LM 350h has two rows of seating in the rear (seven seats all up, including the front two), the 500h has the third row removed and just two super luxurious and enormous fully reclining seats fill the entire space. It’s like a theatre back there.

That theatre theme keeps going with a media screen in the back so large it stretches the width of the vehicle. Seriously, it's a 48-inch screen to watch movies or connect to your device.

The sound system is probably the best I’ve experienced - a spine tinglingly incredible 23-speaker Mark Levinson set-up.

What else can I tell you? Those rear seats are upholstered in beautifully soft semi-aniline leather. They’re heated and ventilated with a massaging function and... ridiculously comfortable.

There’s four-zone climate control, windows which have an electronic shade that turns the glass opaque, there are wireless phone chargers in the doors and carpet throughout so thick you sink down into it as you step inside.

Our LM 500h was upholstered in the 'Solis White' leather which also brings contrasting and mesmerising copper metallic trim.

Oh, and there’s a wall with an electric glass screen that can be raised or lowered to separate the rear passengers from the driver.

I should have mentioned this earlier. The kids loved it, but these parents spent a lot of time telling the 10- and three-year old not to put the screen up again.

The rear occupants, aka the kids, can also lock the screen in place. Which they did, and so sound proof is the dividing wall that we can only just hear their uproarious laughter.

Up front, the cockpit is comfortable but it’s clear all the space and luxury is for those being driven around.

Still, the front seats are leather with heating and ventilation, there’s a 14-inch media screen and 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster, plus a head-up display. Sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard.

This stupendous, trumpeting, mid-mounted 6.5-litre V12 (it’s mounted just beneath the windscreen, effectively, which actually looks a bit weird when you lift up that big clamshell bonnet, but makes sense in terms of mid-engine balance for handling) is a further development of what was already a fearsome powerplant in the vehicle that precedes this, the Ferrari 812 Superfast.

This new version also gets an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, instead of the old seven-speed one, which theoretically provides better economy, as if the owners will care, but also provides “more driving enjoyment” as its shift times are now 30 per cent faster.

The V12 itself, naturally aspirated remember, now revs even higher, with maximum power of 610kW arriving at a very, very loud 9250rpm, just short of the 9500rpm redline.

What is incredible about that rev number is just how effortlessly and easily the engine will climb to those heights, repeatedly and addictively.

Ferrari says it’s also developed something called 'Aspirated Torque Shaping', which allows it to “sculpt” the torque curve in relation to engine speed and the gear selected, with 80 per cent of its 678Nm kicking in from 2500rpm.

The goal of this, on which it delivers, is to provide a sense of “seemingly endless acceleration”, particularly in third and fourth gear, where the car’s happy place exists. 

All that grunt will hurl you to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds or from a standing start to 200km/h in 7.8. No, it's not the fastest power plant Ferrari now makes, but in terms of its intended goal of being the greatest naturally aspirated V12 ever, it's a 10 out of 10 effort.

There is no way that Ferrari will get away with making another engine like this, so it’s fitting that it’s going out on an operatic high note.

The LM 500h is a petrol-electric hybrid with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine which makes 202kW/460Nm and works in concert with two electric motors.

The front motor makes 64kW/292Nm and the rear makes 76kW/169Nm. The combined maximum power output of the two motors and the petrol engine is 273kW.

The LM 500h is all wheel-drive and has a six-speed automatic transmission.

Move along, nothing to see here. Well, nothing you wouldn’t expect, except for the fact the Ferrari 12Cilindri is fully emissions compliant with the 2026 Euro-6-E standard. Incredibly. A ceramic catalytic converter is part of the magic, apparently, but a lot of effort has clearly gone into all areas of emissions.

Its CO2 emissions are claimed to be 353g/km, but then its fuel efficiency is a claimed 15.5 litres per 100km, and that’s just having a laugh.

Despite having a 92-litre tank, I was shown a predicted range of just over 415km when full, and was down to a predicted 300km to go after draining a quarter of a tank. Even EVs can do better than that.

Lexus says after a combination of urban and open roads the LM 500h should use 6.6L/100km. In our own testing we found consumption was higher at 9.4L/100km.

Worth noting my driving environment was mainly a hilly suburban one filled with school drop offs. Achieved some personal bests this week, with one long run to Sydney’s outskirts, only to return in nightmarish peak hour traffic.

Premium (95 RON) fuel is required and the tank size is 60 litres. In theory the driving range is a smidge more than 900km, which drops to around 640km using our real-world average.

To say that our first drive of the Ferrari 12Cilindri was impacted by nasty wet weather and standing water on slick and narrow European roads would be like saying that going outside naked when it’s snowing impacted your level of goose flesh.

For the first 30 minutes I was breathing like someone who’d just been pushed out of a plane with no parachute. When trucks came towards me, and when the rear wheels scrabbled madly to find grip - bringing to mind the whirling legs of the cartoon Road Runner - I breathed in so severely that I think I now have a pair of boxer shorts stuck in my chest cavity. 

Fortunately, Ferraris have a 'Wet' setting, which is a work of genius, sensing the amount of grip you might not have and adjusting the power delivery to keep you safe. Remarkably, even in this mode, you don’t feel short changed on power in this wild V12-powered machine.

Unfortunately, the combination of my work ethic, professional pride and male ego meant that I could not allow myself to stay in Wet mode and would occasionally switch to 'Sport', when the rain eased up and the road almost dried out.

It was during these times that, after about an hour, I really started to gel with the Dodici Cilindri and found opportunities to enjoy its stupendously operatic soundtrack.

Much as the emissions laws have squeezed the engine, new sound regulations mean this V12 Ferrari must be quieter, in theory, than ever before, at least from outside.

But the sound designers have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure the sensational noise of this engine spinning its way to 9000rpm-plus finds its way into the cabin, and into your ears, and your very soul.

The temptation to give it plenty in the lower gears was thus overpowering and unending, but this grand tourer is so powerful that exploring the upper ranges in any gear means warping straight past speed limits, and sane behaviour. 

Fortunately, the 12Cilindri has stupendous brakes, and while its extreme length - almost 5.0m - causes some nose lifting under acceleration and diving under hard stopping, the car’s mid-engined balance means you always feel planted and in control. 

The steering is also super sharp and, while it takes some getting used to, the accuracy of its turn-in encourages you to push harder and harder. I had a fantastic time driving it through long sweeping bends, and a slightly more stressful time in sharp hairpins.

This Grand Tourer really is two cars in one, however, because if you leave the gearbox in Automatic it really does take all the effort away, riding its wall of torque and seemingly capable of driving at any speed from 40km/h to 240km/h in seventh or eighth gear. 

It is far more fun, and frightening of course, to change the gears yourself, and explore those higher, scintillating rev ranges.

So, it’s a great car, a collector’s piece, because they’ll never make another one like it, and a moving piece of visual drama. The only problem I have with the 12Cilindri is it’s just not the best Ferrari a huge whack of cash can buy.

Indeed, the Ferrari 296 GTB is not only the best Ferrari I’ve ever driven, it’s the best car I’ve ever been lucky enough to sit in, and it’s more than $100K cheaper.

Apparently the thing to do, if you’re a Ferraristi, is to have one of each. Sounds good.

Quite simply, driving the LM 500h is like piloting a limousine on stilts. Superbly comfortable, but with an elevated driving position that offers outstanding forward and side visibility, the LM 500h is an easy vehicle to drive for long periods of time.

A digital rear vision mirror means visibility behind is good and unobstructed by the privacy screen or the seats.

The drawbacks are down to the lack of space up front, with the driver’s chair limited in its ability to recline or slide back due to the bulkhead behind it.

And that's compounded by the lack of cabin storage for bags if the front passenger seat is taken.

As for the rear passengers there aren't many people movers offering this level of comfort, except perhaps the Zeekr 009.

Variable suspension that adjusts continuously keeps the vehicle composed and provides a high level of comfort for those in the rear. At the same time, the LM stays nice and flat through roundabouts while remaining civilised over speed bumps.

And then there's the acceleration, which, while not supercar-like is incredibly brisk for a van. The all-wheel drive system provides outstanding traction in wet and slippery conditions, too. 

Our family used the LM daily for everything from school runs to shopping trips and weekends away and not only was it fun to drive, our lucky rear passengers enjoyed sitting high and being able to see clearly out their windows along with the luxury of a giant movie screen.

The Lexus  LM 500h is yet to be tested by ANCAP so it doesn't have a safety assessment score. There is, however, a high level of safety tech onboard including AEB which can detect pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other vehicles, emergency steering assist, lane keeping assistance, road sign recognition, rear cross-traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors as well as six airbags.

For child seats there are ISOFIX points and top tether anchor mounts on the two rear seats. We have a forward facing child seat and found it easy to install.

A space-saver spare wheel is located under the boot floor.

Like all Ferrari’s, the 12Cilindri comes with a seven-year, unlimited km warranty and a free-of-charge seven-year maintenance program covering all regular maintenance for the first seven years of the car’s life.

Service intervals are once a year, or every 20,000km.

Lexus covers the LM 500h with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. 

The Lexus Encore Platinum program is complimentary for LM owners for three years, providing 24-hour roadside assist, a loan vehicle or pick-up/return service at service time, 'On Demand' vehicle evaluation options, valet and airport parking benefits as well as exclusive offers and event opportunities.

Servicing is recommended annually or every 15,000 kilometres, and impressively, pricing is capped at $695 per service over five years.