Harder Better Faster Smaller
Much as we love Ferrari’s front-engined V12s, with their unmatched patrician nature and historical resonance, the Maranello centre of gravity is the two-seat mid-engined V8. It’s been that way ever since 1975’s rather lovely 308 GTB. But the 296 GTB changes all that. It’s got six cylinders not eight. It is a plug-in hybrid. And it’s a solid step up in price, complexity and power from what went before.
Like, about another 100bhp and a PHEV system. Now you might question, as I think I do, whether hybridisation of a vastly powerful, seldom driven and rare car is, environmentally speaking, any more than a fig leaf. So it’s about performance? Well you might question, as I certainly do, quite what is the rational point of 830bhp in a road car, other than the bragging rights that facilitate Ferrari’s relentless ascent through the price strata. Sufficient power liberates; excess power
