Category Archives: NEW CARS

NEW CARS

Ferrari Tailor Made 12Cilindri

Ferrari’s Tailor Made program has always flirted with excess, but this latest creation—a one-off 12Cilindri developed exclusively for South Korea—doesn’t just push the envelope. It hand-weaves, lacquers, screen-prints, and sonifies it. If most bespoke Ferraris are haute couture, this one is closer to a traveling museum exhibition that just happens to have a naturally aspirated V-12 up front.

Called simply the Tailor Made 12Cilindri, this car is Ferrari at its most self-aware: a brand that knows its engineering is untouchable and therefore feels confident enough to let artists, designers, and cultural curators take the wheel aesthetically. The result is less about horsepower figures and more about storytelling—though the fact that the story is wrapped around one of Ferrari’s most important modern flagships makes it all the more compelling.

The project took nearly two years and spanned three continents. Maranello handled the hard bits, naturally, while COOL HUNTING®—the New York–based design and culture publication—acted as creative conductor. The real stars, however, are the South Korean artists whose work defines nearly every surface of the car. This isn’t a Ferrari with a theme; it’s a Ferrari that is the theme.

Start with the paint. Ferrari calls it Yoonseul, a newly developed transitional finish inspired by a Korean word that describes sunlight shimmering across water. It’s not marketing poetry either. The color genuinely shifts as light moves across the body, flowing from green to violet with blue undertones. One moment it recalls celadon ceramics rooted in Korean history; the next, it feels like neon reflections bouncing off the glass towers of modern Seoul. Ferrari has played with complex paints before, but this one feels unusually alive.

Inside, the collaboration becomes even more ambitious. Textile artist Daehye Jeong, known for her ethereal horsehair weaving, brings traditional Korean craft directly into the cabin. Her patterns appear in a newly developed 3D fabric used on the seats and flooring—the first time Ferrari has employed such a material. The same motif is screen-printed onto the glass roof, turning sunlight into a shifting pattern of shadows. Most striking of all, a handwoven horsehair artwork sits on the dashboard itself. This isn’t trim pretending to be art; it is art, permanently integrated into the car.

Ferrari’s engineers had to work closely with designers and suppliers to make that possible, and it shows. Nothing feels tacked on. The materials respect the car’s architecture, rather than fighting it.

Artist Hyunhee Kim takes over the visual identity. Known for her translucent reinterpretations of traditional Korean objects, she reimagines Ferrari’s most sacred icons—the Prancing Horse, the wheel caps, the Scuderia shields, even the long “Ferrari” nameplate—in a semi-transparent finish. It’s a bold move, and one Ferrari would never attempt on a production car, but here it works. The center tunnel inside carries the same translucent treatment, joined by a hand-crafted dedication plate rendered in traditional calligraphy.

Kim’s contribution even extends to the trunk, where she designed a custom case that doubles as luggage and houses a Ferrari key reworked in her signature visual language. It’s the kind of detail that feels excessive until you remember this is a car likely destined for climate-controlled storage anyway.

White, a color Ferrari usually treats cautiously, becomes a statement thanks to contemporary artist TaeHyun Lee. Drawing from traditional Korean lacquer techniques, Lee inspired a series of elements finished in brilliant white—including the brake calipers and the shift paddles. Yes, white brake calipers on a factory Ferrari are a first, and no, they don’t feel like a gimmick. Against the iridescent bodywork, they read as intentional punctuation marks.

Then there’s sound—visualized. The South Korean duo GRAYCODE (jiiiiin) translated the 12Cilindri’s V-12 soundtrack into a graphical waveform that’s subtly rendered across the bodywork using a darker variation of the same transitional paint. It’s a literal expression of the engine’s voice, frozen in motion, and it might be the most Ferrari idea of all: turning mechanical noise into visual drama.

What makes this Tailor Made 12Cilindri remarkable isn’t just the craftsmanship or the novelty of its materials. It’s Ferrari’s willingness to step back and let external creative voices reshape its most recognizable symbols. The company didn’t dilute its identity in the process—it reinforced it. This car still looks unmistakably like a Ferrari. It just happens to speak fluent Korean design language while doing so.

No price has been announced, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. This 12Cilindri isn’t about cost or collectability. It’s about Ferrari demonstrating that personalization, when taken seriously, can move beyond color palettes and stitching samples into something closer to cultural dialogue.

In a world where “bespoke” often means little more than a new shade of red, Ferrari just built a rolling argument for why craftsmanship, art, and engineering still belong in the same sentence. And yes, it still has a V-12. Some traditions are simply non-negotiable.

Source: Ferrari

NEW CARS

Apollo Evo: A Track-Only V12 Hypercar That Makes Subtlety a Casualty

Three years is an eternity in the hypercar world, but Apollo would argue the wait was the point. After first surfacing as a prototype, the Apollo Evo has finally emerged in production form—and it hasn’t mellowed with age. If anything, it’s gone further off the deep end. Limited to just 10 examples and designed strictly for the racetrack, the Evo is the logical, louder continuation of the already unhinged Intensa Emozione. The first customer car is now under construction, and the message is clear: this thing was never meant to blend in.

Freed from the burden of road legality, Apollo has designed the Evo with a singular focus on performance and spectacle. The result is a car that makes even the most extroverted creations from Pagani or Koenigsegg look almost conservative. This is not a machine interested in compromise—or subtlety.

At its core sits a carbon-fiber monocoque that tips the scales at just 165 kilograms (364 pounds). That’s a 10 percent weight reduction over the IE’s already feathery structure, while stiffness has increased by 15 percent. Apollo doesn’t just talk about weight savings in marketing terms—it engineers them into the foundation of the car.

Drape that tub in bodywork and the Evo’s intent becomes impossible to miss. Sharp LED lighting slices into the front and rear, while a towering roof scoop feeds air into the mechanical madness below. Out back, a massive diffuser and an active rear wing dominate the view. That wing isn’t just for show, either: Apollo claims it can generate a staggering 1,300 kilograms (2,866 pounds) of downforce at 320 km/h (200 mph). At that point, the Evo is theoretically capable of producing more downforce than its own curb weight—a stat that neatly sums up how far removed this car is from reality as most drivers know it.

The interior is no refuge from the insanity. Apollo has stripped away anything that doesn’t serve a direct function, exposing the car’s structural and mechanical elements rather than hiding them behind leather and trim. The dashboard itself doubles as a structural beam, and the control layout follows a logic dictated by track use, not convenience. This isn’t minimalism for aesthetic reasons—it’s functional brutality. The Evo doesn’t want to coddle its driver; it wants to involve them.

Then there’s the engine, and it’s the reason purists will pay attention. In an era increasingly dominated by turbochargers, hybrid systems, and silent electric propulsion, the Evo proudly sticks with a naturally aspirated 6.3-liter V12. Derived from Ferrari’s F140 engine family—the same lineage that powered cars like the F12 Berlinetta—it revs to 8,500 rpm and produces 800 horsepower and 564 lb-ft of torque (765 Nm). No turbo lag, no battery assistance—just displacement, revs, and noise.

Power is sent exclusively to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox, reinforcing the Evo’s old-school, driver-first ethos. There’s no mention of all-wheel drive, torque vectoring, or electronic trickery designed to make things easier. The assumption here is that if you’re buying an Apollo Evo, you already know what you’re doing—or you’re willing to learn the hard way.

The rolling stock matches the aggression. Forged wheels measure 20 inches up front and 21 inches at the rear, wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires—the kind of rubber you choose when longevity is irrelevant and grip is everything. Combined with the Evo’s low mass, the numbers get serious quickly.

Despite its dramatic aero and V12 soundtrack, the Evo weighs just 1,300 kilograms (2,866 pounds). That power-to-weight ratio helps launch it to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 2.7 seconds, with a claimed top speed of 335 km/h (208 mph). Those figures put it squarely in modern hypercar territory, but the way it gets there—naturally aspirated, rear-wheel drive, sequential gearbox—feels increasingly rare.

As exclusive as the hardware is, Apollo is pushing individuality even further. Every Evo will be a one-off, with each owner choosing their own combination of materials and finishes. Pricing starts at €3 million (about $3.5 million) before taxes, and first deliveries are expected in the first half of this year.

The Apollo Evo isn’t trying to be the future of performance cars. It’s a defiant celebration of excess, noise, and mechanical purity—a reminder that sometimes the most exciting answer to modern automotive trends is to ignore them entirely.

Source: AutoExpress

NEW CARS

Refreshed VW ID.4 Aims to Become the Electric Tiguan

Volkswagen’s electric strategy in the U.S. hasn’t exactly been lighting up the sales charts lately, but the brand isn’t retreating. Instead, it’s doubling down on its most successful EV. The ID.4—one of just two VW models to post a sales increase in America in 2025—is getting a substantial mid-cycle refresh that goes well beyond a new bumper or fresh wheel designs. Internally, it’s already being framed as something more ambitious: an electric Tiguan for the EV age.

Spy shots of the updated ID.4 reveal a crossover that’s familiar at a glance but noticeably more assertive in the details. The front end adopts a squarer, more upright look that mirrors Volkswagen’s next-generation design language, closely aligning the ID.4 with the upcoming ID.Cross. It’s a subtle but deliberate shift away from the softer, almost egg-shaped aesthetic of the current model, and one that gives the electric VW more road presence.

The changes continue along the sides, where the doors are new and finally feature proper pull-style handles instead of the current flush units. Around back, the revisions are quieter but still meaningful. The tailgate panel now curves inward rather than outward, the D-pillar has been re-profiled, and the overall effect is cleaner and more conventional—again, very Tiguan-like in execution.

This isn’t a clean-sheet redesign, and it doesn’t pretend to be. The basic structure appears unchanged, which is exactly what you’d expect from a mid-cycle update. But Volkswagen’s designers have clearly spent their time massaging the surfacing and proportions, tightening up the ID.4’s stance so it feels more in step with VW’s latest combustion and electric crossovers alike. Think of it less as a reinvention and more as a maturity phase.

If the exterior tweaks are evolutionary, the interior overhaul sounds downright apologetic—and that’s good news. Volkswagen is bringing back physical buttons and switches in a big way, including a real, honest-to-goodness volume knob. A redesigned dashboard, upgraded materials, and a revised user interface promise to address some of the loudest criticisms of the current ID.4. We’ve already seen hints of this new interior philosophy in the recently revealed ID. Polo, and if that preview is accurate, the ID.4’s cabin should feel more intuitive and less like a software beta test.

The tech upgrades don’t stop there. The digital gauge cluster, long criticized for being undersized, is expected to grow, and the infotainment system will benefit from updated software and a more capable AI-powered voice assistant. Volkswagen seems to have finally accepted that touch sliders and buried menus aren’t a substitute for usability—especially in a family crossover.

Underneath, the refreshed ID.4 will ride on a revised MEB Plus platform. The headline change is the likely adoption of LFP battery chemistry, which should improve efficiency and potentially extend range, while also offering better long-term durability. Don’t expect lightning-fast charging, though: the architecture remains 400-volt, not the 800-volt setup that’s becoming the gold standard for next-generation EVs.

Powertrain updates are expected to be incremental, and that’s probably fine. Volkswagen already gave the base single-motor ID.4 a significant boost in 2024, raising output to 282 horsepower—an 80-hp jump over earlier versions. With that improvement still fresh, the facelifted model is more about refinement than raw performance.

Timing-wise, this updated ID.4 should arrive toward the end of 2026, carrying the model through to about 2028. At that point, Volkswagen plans to launch a fully new successor on a true 800-volt platform. Whether this refreshed model officially becomes the ID.Tiguan remains an open question. VW could decide the changes are extensive enough to justify the name for the 2027 model year—or save it for the all-new version later on.

Either way, the message is clear. Volkswagen isn’t giving up on the ID.4 or the U.S. EV market. Instead, it’s reshaping its electric crossover into something more familiar, more usable, and more Tiguan-like—qualities that may matter more than ever as the EV market grows up.

Photos: SH Proshots