Ferrari has filed a patent for a new V12 engine with oval-shaped pistons

You're already imagining what it sounds like. We are. Looks like Ferrari has submitted a patent design for a new V12 that uses oval-shaped pistons. Pistons, as you're probably aware, are famously not oval. By giving the once-circular internals flat sides, they fit more neatly alongside one another. And that, says Ferrari, means it can make the V12 smaller.

Of course, this being PatentSpeak means it's phrased way more complex than that. Deep breath...

"As pistons have a cylindrical shape, the driving engines for vehicles of known type have some drawbacks, mainly deriving from the fact that the group of cylinders and of relative pistons has a relatively high longitudinal footprint, measured parallel to the rotation axis of the crankshaft.

Pictured above: Ferrari 12Cilindri

"The object of the present invention is to provide a driving engine for vehicles without the drawbacks set forth above and which is simple and inexpensive to produce."

Technical story rendered normal, by reducing the footprint of the thing Ferrari reckons it can shrink it, and shrink it without a huge cost attached. Relatively speaking, naturally. And the myriad benefits of smaller, compact V12s need not be repeated here, especially to a carmaker like Ferrari.

Of course this isn’t the first time we’ve seen lozenge-shaped pistons on an engine. Honda developed a four-stroke motorbike engine back in 1979 to make a return to the World Motorcycle GP series with the NR500. When speaking to colleagues recalling that project, Honda engineer Toshimitsu Yoshimura said: "When I look back at it, I'm not sure if we were experimenting with cutting-edge technologies or obsessed with foolish ideas."

With hindsight, it was clearly a trailblazing moment. Yet Honda was dogged with fabrication difficulties back then, struggling to machine the oval parts. Now, with the evolution of 3D printing (Porsche's already done it with pistons), Ferrari could have far more success with this more compact V12 approach. Of course it could do nothing at all with it.

But you're already imagining what a small, shouty V12 with oval pistons sounds like, aren't you.

Ferrari's drawing of how its stadium-shaped piston-driven V12 would align