![Ferrari 296 GTB](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2022/03/04/288002421_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqHdA9DsWaBwqJp2PM9ETsE_MBc_-0dr3DVyZQOWajUz0.jpg?imwidth=680)
Ferrari 296 GTB review: a plug-in supercar that’s about performance rather than saving the planet
A hybrid system plus a twin-turbo V6 combine to provide a visceral, fast and furious driving experience for your quarter of a million pounds
![Ferrari 296 GTB](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2022/03/04/288002421_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqHdA9DsWaBwqJp2PM9ETsE_MBc_-0dr3DVyZQOWajUz0.jpg?imwidth=680)
What does 818bhp feel like? There’s a 960-metre straight at the Monteblanco circuit near Seville in Spain. Get the nose round the last corner carrying as much speed as you dare and gingerly press the accelerator as the car straightens itself. Then floor it and the battery squirts its 150kW into the 163bhp electric motor while the 654bhp twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre petrol V6 shrieks up to 8,000rpm.
There’s little sensation of gathering speed, none of that unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object impression you get from a conventional supercar, you simply press the pedal and you’re there. Think of a speed and the new Ferrari 296 GTB just does it, with little sense of jeopardy and just a few seconds to listen to, if not exactly savour, what Ferrari calls the “piccolo V12” (little V12) off-beat engine noise before you’re trailing the brakes into the next corner. That’s almost a kilometre in less time than it takes to read this; stirred but far from shaken.
How does it do that? Well, you didn’t think Ferrari was going to tip five times the output of a typical family hatchback into a tail-happy (distributed 40.5 /59.5 per cent front to rear) super coupé, did you? You are being monitored all the time in the new 296 GTB, to the extent that even if you switch everything off in “CT-off” mode, the myriad electronic systems aren’t actually off and will, if at all possible, claw you back from the brink.
![Ferrari 296 GTB](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2022/03/04/288002439_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqyuLFFzXshuGqnr8zPdDWXtRIAe4E5iIN5B7rPrfGGGk.jpg?imwidth=350)
And while this Big Brother element of the car isn’t as obvious as it was, say, in the predecessor SF90 Stradale plug-in hybrid supercar, it’s there all the same. Just as well really, for those of us who remember the terrors of the Eighties mid-engined supercar, when only your chest wig and talent stood between you and a high-speed, rear-end-first exit into the scenery.
And a plug-in hybrid? Seriously? Even a company making 10,000 or so supercars a year can’t hide from an environmental reckoning these days. Aston Martin, McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari are all having to look at electrification and eventually full battery-electric models – Ferrari’s first all-electric car is scheduled for 2025.
Under the skin
So, after playing with hybrid (LaFerrari and FXX K) and plug-in hybrid in four-wheel drive form (SF90 Stradale), Ferrari is now offering the 296 GTB, a plug-in hybrid which drives only the rear wheels.
It is also, with its 120-degree V6, the first roadgoing V6 Ferrari-badged car – the V6-engined Dino of 1967-74 didn’t carry the famed prancing horse motif. The company’s first V6, a 65-degree, 1.5-litre unit, appeared in the Dino 156 monoposto racing car of 1957.
Adding to the V6’s efforts is a 6kWh net, 73kg lithium-ion SK Innovation battery running across the back of the seats, with a 164bhp Formula One-derived electric motor sitting between the engine and the eight-speed twin-clutch transmission.
The top speed is quoted at 205mph, with 0-62mph in 2.9sec and 0-124mph in 7.3sec. There’s an electric range of up to 15.5 miles at up to 84mph, while recharging the battery using a 7.4kW home wallbox will take one hour. With a Combined fuel consumption of 21.7mpg and CO2 emissions of 149g/km, it’s clear that the complete 170kg hybrid system is adding performance far more than it’s saving the planet.
Styling
Citing the egregious Sixties 250LM prototype racer as an inspiration, Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s vice-president for design, then draws back, saying, “that doesn’t mean we have looked back”, before pressing the button on the random-word generator with an evocation of “formal purity and a bold personality”. Of course it is, Flavio.
Thing is, it’s just so big. At 4,565mm long, 1,958mm wide and 1,187mm tall, it’s almost half a metre longer than the old V12-engined 250LM, 258mm wider and 72mm taller (it’s also, at 1,560kg in standard road trim with a full tank of fuel, almost twice as heavy).
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Yet that’s the way with modern cars and their crumple zones and wide tyres, and while the 296 GTB’s V6 engine saves some space compared with a V12 or even a V8, there’s also the plug-in hybrid to package, which adds heft and size.
And you can see elements of the 250LM in the all-aluminium body, with the cut-off rear of the cabin, the Kamm tail (inspired by engineer and aerodynamicist Dr Wunibald Kamm) and the curvaceous rear wings, about which Manzoni extemporises: “These are not the usual romantic and sinuous curves, but are instead muscular and functional.”
But while Ferrari asserts that this car is compact because of its short wheelbase, in fact it’s only 46mm shorter and 21mm narrower than the V8-engined F8 Tributo which it replaces. And just as the same technical challenges tend to throw up a series of similar solutions, so it is with industrial design and as you move around the car you can see bits of Ford’s GT and even Alfa Romeo 4C in the lines.
Interior
The cabin is a combination of glassy instrument binnacle with all-digital switches and displays combined with the improbable luxury of a tan leather floor which, while certainly different, does make one wonder at the lifestyle of the average Ferrari owner who never gets their shoes muddy. In the end, it all feels like the fabled leather apartment of Lenny Henry’s comic creation lounge-singer Theophilus P Wildebeeste.
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After generations of mid-engined cars with 5/8ths of bugger all storage space, this is more practical than I expected. The 201-litre front “boot” will just accommodate a couple of airline carry-ons and behind the seats, on top of the battery, there’s a 113-litre shelf wide enough for a designer handbag or two.
The views out from the front are good, even with the thickish windscreen pillars, and the domes of each front wing help sight the car through the curves. Looking backwards is not such a great story, with door mirrors filled with air intakes and a few bright sunlight reflections obscuring the view through the rear-view mirror.
For all that, there’s no real perception of where the car is on the road and the rear parking sensors are going to be essential.
The huge one-piece digital instrument has a series of touchscreen-activated functions, but the transmission is operated with steering column paddles and a trio of strange-looking sliders on the centre console that wouldn’t look out of place on a sound engineer’s mixing desk.
The optional carbon-fibre backed seats are supportive without pushing your shoulders too far forward, although the lumbar support pushes into your spine with the forcefulness of a baby elephant at bath time.
On the road
Out on the sinuous public roads around the circuit, there’s less of a sense of being chaperoned, more of extraordinary speed. Tempering your enthusiasm is the normal squad of individual wheel brakes, an electronic differential and the management of the engine’s torque, but also the electric motor which can be used as a drag on the drivetrain which also tops up the battery. It means you are never exactly sure what this car is doing to rein things in.
And since the systems even estimate tyre grip along with all the usual dynamics, while there’s little doubting that peak power figure, it’s seldom attainable, and then not for long. Moving the drive selector into Hybrid mode soon drains the battery, requiring you to select the Performance or Qualify modes so the engine can recharge the battery, which as we know isn’t the most efficient way of saving CO2 emissions.
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And if all these systems guard against the uneven weight balance’s tendency towards instability, they also allow that configuration to work in favour of steering response. The way this car changes direction is quite simply stupefying, more race than road car. And the dynamic control, which allows the brake-by-wire, carbon-ceramic brakes to be trailed into a corner (which would have been a no-no on the old generation of cars), feels really quite alarming at first.
Focus and intense concentration are essential. The steering feels light, darty and with the accuracy of a fly-fishing rod casting into that tiny downstream eddy. It’s almost too much for public roads, although the road tyre option (rather than the Cup tyres used on the track) calm things a little and the softish response of the damping provides a sense that you have some control even if that’s an electronically-orchestrated illusion.
Michelin tyre engineer Julien Levray explained that during the development of this car, the front tyre carcasses had to be softened and the rears’ hardened to calm the responses. It sort of goes against the grain that you reduce the grip of the rear tyres on a mid/rear-engined car, but it’s all about balance and there’s no denying its effectiveness.
After only four laps on the circuit I was sweating, not because the gearbox or the steering are heavy to use; they aren’t, in fact a Ford Fiesta probably has heavier major controls. But the loads being imposed on your body are immense, like a racing kart, every side slip, every jolt you feel in your back and arms. Corners are quite literally breathtaking; this is hard physical work.
Verdict
Marc Gené, the charming and eloquent former F1 driver, Le Mans winner, race commentator and Ferrari test driver, took me around the circuit to show me what this car would do. He danced it around, stood it on its nose and explained that almost inexplicable technique of trailing the brakes into the apex of a tightening corner and then accelerating out. I sat alongside, thinking I was going to die.
“It is a racing driver’s Ferrari,” he said as he tore another few millimetres of tread off the Michelins.
And so it is, as well as being £241,550. And if you chose the £25,920 Fiorano pack and a few extras like the £7,104 special paint or £14,400 racing stripe you are accelerating hard past a third of a million. But for all its electrifying performance and responses, there isn’t quite a concomitant level of feedback from this new Ferrari; driving it felt a bit like a speeded-up arcade game. Floor the throttle, look down at the speedometer and goggle, how did that happen?
Indeed, I’d go further than Gené, as well as being a race-driver’s Ferrari, the 296 GTB is also a computer gamer’s Ferrari, one for the Gran Turismo generation, in which seat-of-the-pants feel, chassis balance and bravery are less important than understanding just how fast it can go in any situation.
I’ve got a feeling this is the future for supercars and while I admire the engineering and skill that goes into them, I’m not entirely sure I’m going to enjoy driving them that much.
Telegraph rating: Four stars out of five
The facts
Ferrari 296 GTB
On test: Ferrari 296 GTB
Body style: two-door, mid/rear engined coupé
On sale: now
How much? £241,550 (optional Fiorano pack £25,920 extra)
How fast? 205mph, 0-62mph in 2.9sec
How economical? 21.7mpg (WLTP Combined)
Maximum system power/torque: 818bhp @ 8,000rpm/546lb ft @ 6,250rpm
Engine & gearbox: 2,992cc, 654bhp, 120-degree petrol V6 with twin turbochargers; eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, rear-wheel drive
Electric powertrain: 164bhp/122kW AC motor between engine and gearbox with 7.4kWh gross (6kWh net) lithium-ion battery behind the seats
Electric range: 15.5 miles at up to 84mph
Charging times to 1-100 per cent: one hour on 7.4kW home wallbox, 36 minutes on 11kW street charger
CO2 emissions: 149g/km
VED (provisional): £210 first year, £490 next five years, then £145
Warranty: four years unlimited mileage (additional five years cover available for £4,080)
The rivals
McLaren Artura, from about £185,500
![McLaren Artura](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2022/03/04/288096834_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdGLvJF5WfpqnBZShRL_tOZw.jpg?imwidth=350)
If you took the 3.0-litre turbo V6-engined Atura spec sheet and placed it alongside the Ferrari’s you’d swear you were looking at the same car. No one’s kidding themselves that they’ll save the planet and the plug-in system is used for performance as much as economy, so take your pick, although with the McLaren you will save you enough money to buy a decent conservatory.
Lamborghini Huracán STO, from £260,000
![Lamborghini Huracán STO](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2022/03/04/288096853_TOM-SALT-tomtomsaltcom_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqjZCqkh21MTy1LvXE-PcUNXlS6YSfQWFkft4A8pSEFYM.jpg?imwidth=350)
Lightweight version of the starter Lamborghini doesn’t faff around with electricity except to power the lights and ignition. Still, the 630bhp 5.2-litre V10 engine is capable of providing similar performance to the Ferrari and possesses one of the most spine-chilling exhaust notes ever.
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