The Ferrari 296 GTB is something of a legend in the MotorTrend offices given that it's the quickest rear-wheel-drive production car we've tested to date. The 296 GTB is something of a line in the sand for Ferrari: a mid-engined twin-turbo V-6 with an electric motor. Its halo SF90 may have two more cylinders and three electric motors as opposed to the single one in this
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00:00That V6 gets humming, it really sounds great, don't you think?
00:20Well welcome now to the Ferrari 296 GTB and can you hear that?
00:27No, that's the point.
00:29It's a hybrid V6 Ferrari.
00:32We're doing 25, 26, 30 miles per hour now, 31, 32, we're still in electric mode, 40 miles
00:38per hour.
00:39When's this going to kick in?
00:4045.
00:41All right, enough of this.
00:42There you go, 50 miles an hour, oh here it comes.
00:48Wow, that was fun, wasn't it?
00:56Yes, the first non-Dino Ferrari-badged Ferrari to be V6 powered and not just that, it's a
01:04hybrid.
01:06One electric motor, so it's kind of like a baby SF90, of course the SF90 has that monstrous
01:17V8 and three electric motors, this is a V6.
01:23This car is actually something of a legend in the MotorTrend offices because it is the
01:28quickest rear-wheel drive car we have ever tested.
01:38The engine is a three litre twin turbocharged V6, which along with the hybrid powertrain
01:44produces 818 horsepower.
01:47Jeez Louise, the speed this car can deal out at a moment's notice, it is so immediate and
02:01precise, goodness me.
02:06Wowee.
02:09Wowee.
02:13Doing a lot of cars today, this one's got the best power delivery.
02:19Goodness gracious me, this is a V6, that's insanity.
02:26Gearshifts are appropriately aggressive, oh a little bit of curve there, oh my goodness
02:35me, this is the one, this is the one, bloody hell.
02:46Gosh almighty it sounds good, don't you think?
02:57Oh my hands are sweating.
03:06Alright focus Joe, got to talk, talking and driving, that's the job, I've just been driving,
03:13not talking.
03:14Okay, let's talk about it, so 296 GTB, this is the Assetto Fiorano version, that pack
03:20of course was the first introduced on the SF90, now available on the 296, and you get
03:27things like Multimatic dampers, a lot of carbon fibre, a bit of weight reduction, you know
03:32all that good stuff.
03:35The SF90 was great, right, but you kind of felt like it was trying to do too much, it
03:41almost had too much power too quickly for you to be able to really put it down, and
03:47whilst this is still monstrously powerful, it still is a little bit of a pain in the
03:53butt to drive.
03:56It feels so much more predictable.
04:00The brakes, it's brake by wire, again SF90 did that too, and some of my colleagues here
04:08have said that it does feel a bit wooden, I wouldn't say as though I feel that necessarily,
04:14but it does feel a bit wooden.
04:18And some of my colleagues here have said that it does feel a bit wooden, I wouldn't say
04:22as though I feel that necessarily.
04:29Wow.
04:31Wow.
04:43Gosh, I wish second gear was a little bit taller, you sort of add a second gear by the
04:49time you're at 60mph, in the GT3 I feel like that's more like 80mph and it makes a difference.
05:01I mean for a car that's not laden with aerodynamic do-hickies and what's-its, and you know, it's
05:06a beautiful car, you don't look at it and think well that's a rolling science experiment
05:10that's going to generate more downforce than the Black Star, but considering all of that
05:16it's still remarkably planted around the corners, there's like a ridiculous amount of downforce
05:23being generated, it does have active aero at the back, and of course everything is aerodynamically
05:28inclined, but what I'm saying is I guess it's a beautiful car first, and an aerodynamically
05:37toned and tuned machine second, and yet it's still really aerodynamically efficient, so
05:43you know, take what you want from that.
05:47On that actually, on its design, it's gorgeous in my opinion, a bit of an opinion splitter
05:52I feel like, I really like the way it looks, and I also think its size is really impressive,
05:57it's a little bit smaller than some of its contemporaries, and it kind of just wears
06:03that a little bit better, you know, it just kind of looks a bit better, and when you're
06:08in it, it feels kind of petite, it feels petite.
06:17And it is just so directional, between the rear wheels pushing you, pushing, pushing,
06:24pushing, pushing, and this front end which is just so pointy and darty and, oh, it's
06:30insane, it's so good, I was kind of ready to be disappointed by this, I have a feeling
06:39this car could go far in this competition, it's going to go long and deep, like this
06:45corner, of course it has to sit below the SF90, it can't go upstaging, it's more expensive
06:55brother, but I tell you what, if you can find me three good reasons that you need more power
07:03than this car's got, to do what this car does, and still be, at its core, a really
07:14very pretty car, a really petite, small, beautifully packaged machine, with a fairly
07:24nice interior, and I don't mean nice as in the material, the materials are lovely, what
07:28I mean is, it's kind of, you know, sporty and carbon-fibery and whatnot, but it's still
07:36Grand Tourer adjacent, you could still do miles in this car, and it does everything
07:42that you could want it to.
07:49Very, very impressive Ferrari.
07:54Ferrari really showed up with a contender, didn't they? Wow.
07:58And look at that, we drop down and we're back into electric mode, e-drive, wow, what a thing,
08:10very, very impressive. Best hybrid on sale today? Well, that's probably going some stretch,
08:17but it's the quickest probably.