Ferrari 296 GTB review: it’s perfect

I love this superb hybrid supercar so much, I’m giving it the perfect score.

Head-turner: the Ferrari 296 GTB

People often stop me in the street and, after they stop gibbering with excitement, the question they most often ask is, “Why don’t you ever give a car five Australian-shaped maps out of five?” The answer is that I’m just a mean person, but also one who believes that, apart from my two angelic children, perfection does not exist. In all seriousness, though, some cars come close, but those that do usually lose half a map because of the value equation. Great cars are often just too outrageously expensive.

Today, then, is a historic day, not because the new Ferrari 296 GTB is a bargain, but because I love it so much that I could actually justify paying $568,300 for one. Indeed, and I have never thought this before of any supercar, I would give just about anything simply to drive it again.

It’s beautiful on the inside, too

Yes, the 296 is a contender for the most beautiful inanimate object I’ve ever seen (with apologies to Van Gogh) and yes, the fact that it combines a V6 engine with an electric motor, a “6-way Chassis Dynamic Sensor” and twin turbochargers that spin to 180,000rpm all appeals to my nerdy side, but it’s the way it drives that has utterly undone me.

My first contact with this profoundly powerful Ferrari (with 610kW, it’s got 80kW more than the V8 F8 Tributo I’m very fond of, and 22kW more than the prancing horse’s own V12, and yes, that is incredible) was on the plains of Spain, which were verily covered in rain. It felt planted, yet potent to the point of frightening, and its new, stiffer steering system, which “signals a new generation of feeling in terms of connection with the car”, felt so sensitive and direct that it made my hands a bit nervous.

While the conditions made enthusiastic cornering seem unwise, I was able to enjoy the sound of the engine, which simply should not be possible. Ferrari told us it had come up with a V6 that didn’t just sound as good as a V8, it possessed the deeper, bassier bellows you get from its V12s – they dubbed it a “piccolo V12”, in fact, which sounds like a very impressive wind instrument, or a dangerously strong coffee.

I didn’t believe them, but you’ll have to believe me that they weren’t joking – it’s absolutely, unfeasibly glorious, unless you choose to run the 296 in its Hybrid or eDrive modes, in which it is completely silent (handy for entering the historical centres of European villages, apparently).

Side on

When the rain finally stopped I found myself on an hour-long section of grippy and gripping road where I fell utterly in awe of this 296 GTB. I have never enjoyed a driving experience more, nor felt more completely connected with a car. Using the smaller, 3.0-litre engine – which makes up for its lack of displacement by using electric-vehicle style shove – means the 296 can be shorter, lighter and more nimble than its V8-engined forebears. Once you’re dialled in, its steering is spectacular, its chassis planted, its acceleration second to almost none (Ferrari’s SF90 is quicker, yet not as much fun). And, partly thanks to its ingenious software, it is not only easy to drive very fast, it encourages you to do so. Indeed, that would be its only failing, and perhaps a fatal one on our shores; you really have to be attacking a road at warp speed to appreciate just how good it is.

Stephen Corby in action

Then there are the brakes, which are powerful enough to get you out of the trouble you can so easily find yourself in when piloting a car that can hit 200km/h in just 7.3 seconds, and provide the kind of pedal feel and modulation that make you feel completely in control.

Yes, other Ferraris have been fast, but the genius of this plug-in hybrid is not that it can drive 25km at up to 135km/h using its battery alone – I think I’d be more likely to drive it naked and blindfolded – but that the engineers have chosen to use its hybrid abilities to abolish the idea of turbo lag.

From the rear

Plant your foot, at any point, in Performance (or the truly bonkers Qualifying) mode and you’re getting the electric-car-familiar torque shove off the line at the same time as the engine is winding up to its peak-power point. It’s intoxicating, almost ridiculous, and spectacular. Throw in aerodynamic elements that make you feel magnetised to the road and you find yourself experiencing the giddy peaks of driving joy at a whole new altitude.

I expected to enjoy the Ferrari 296 GTB – I could tell that from reading its specs on a sheet of paper and looking at photos. But I would never have expected to actually want one. And I really do.

Ferrari 296 GTB

ENGINE: 3.0-litre six cylinder, plus electric motor (610kW/740Nm). Average fuel

6.4 litres per 100km (theoretically)

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic, rear-wheel drive

PRICE: $568,300

STARS: 5 out of 5