I've been hearing the same thing over and over again, that this is a great car. Not just from this thread (you know, with folks that actually drove it), but in every review I've seen. Many here however lament the technological progress, in short, they argue Maranello has neutered the car and made it an appliance and/or not a Ferrari anymore. What did you think? Do you consider it a real Ferrari? It will be a month before I can judge myself.
I'd say the the car is thought provoking. Maybe it's the uncanny timing of gas prices right now combined with the fact that I daily drive the V12 Lusso that's compounding the impact the 296 is having on me. What I said earlier still holds true today, after driving the 296, all I want to do is drive it again. Perhaps it's because it has so many interesting modes to enjoy, perhaps it's the re-entry of amazing sounding Ferraris back into the new car market, or the incredible ability of the car to go from true GT sports car to a truly fun to drive (yes it's so cheesy, but it's the best way to describe it!) supercar. I think Ferrari is making a big statement this year with this car. Not everything they're doing is landing with me (fashion line is awful), but I feel like there are a few more big winners to come even this year in Ferrari's future. Hopefully that will include an F1 championship.
I want to thank you so much for your honest and heartfelt response. I consider myself a Ferraristi; what the house of Maranello is doing is near and dear to my heart. When I see folks here decry Ferrari, it truly surprises me. I know some are peanut gallery pontificators that spout drivel (with such authority too!), but there is a group of actual owners that truly believe Ferrari is dead. I don't see that, and the fact that all you can think about is driving it again brings joy to my heart! Forza Ferrari! P.S. Look forward to experiencing it myself very soon!
There is a group of people who speak from entrenched positions, and another who speak from a results-focused perspective. The "entrenched position" crowd will never be happy with this car. Electric Motors have no soul! It has to have physical buttons! Batteries are too heavy! Turbos are horrible! Electronic driver aids are cheating! I think that results-focused folk, however, will largely love this machine. It has soul in spades, feels light and agile, sounds great, allows the average driver to feel like a superhero while still scaring the **** outta themselves, etc. Like others have said here, it put a giant smile on my face and I can't stop thinking about driving it again. However long the wait will be for my GTB is too long. And, after just having *sat* in the GTS and fired it up with the top down, I can say it's shaping up to be next-level for the results that I personally want out of a supercar.
I am not a multiple Ferraris owner like many people here. I only had a 430 spider ordered new years ago. It also got me thinking, what does a real Ferrari mean? Even though I really like the 296 after test driving it, it does lack of many of my personal super car must have elements, like loud exhaust, tight (firm) steering, big engine, super hard suspension. The Strangest thing is that I didn't buy a Performante because I didn't like its super light steering wheel. Maybe the major thing that can be improved on the 296 is a firmer steering setting. (but not like fake heavy type by shutting off the servo or whatever it is) As I sad, I like the 296 because it does give me a very special rotating feel , and super sharp initial direction response to the steering input, which remains me of the old 430 that I haven't experience in other supercar. So at the end maybe I am just a fan of the e-diff lol. However, I drove my friend's 458 last year and it was very disappointing, maybe the car was old and wasn't treated properly, it just wasn't thrilling and "racy" at all.
I do wonder if the Assetto Fiorano cars will have firmer steering and firmer suspension feel. In the 296 GTB, the suspension felt firmer than I expected it to be as a series production supercar. Personally, a supercar to me never meant that it needs a big engine, as big can be a relative term. As an example, I’d be pretty thrilled if Ferrari packed in a F1-derived hybrid turbo v6 powerplant in a small supercar. Oh wait…
Thank you so much for a great review! I echo your point and totally agree about the entrenched positions, which in itself doesn’t bother me. I’m a live and let live type person. Who am I to judge if you like this car? (Or hate it) If some prefer Ferrari of yesteryear, more power to them, doesn’t mean they have to demean this car or proclaim it’s not a Ferrari (whatever that means.) There is honest preference and there faux over- compensation= If you truly believe your wife is the most perfect women in the world, I find it in bad taste to attack other women to express that.
Awesome! I’m a nutshell it sounds like you consider this worthy of the Prancing Horse badge. I have a feeling I will as well after I drive it. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I find I always have far more intelligent and constructive conversations with people that well…own and drive the topic of debate vs armchair “experts.” thanks again, and congratulations on your order!!!
spot on. I think 296 is one of the best Ferraris ever build. The "no soul" remark is just laughable. Technologies and society have evolved over time, it takes more time for some people to catch up.
Don't bother with the doomsayers, sir. A friend of mine is a well known professional car journalist-reviewer, revered for his driving skills at Maranello. He test drove the 296 the other day. He told me that these new Ferraris are becoming otherworldly. He was shaking his head as to how they do it... PS: Regarding the "heavy steering feel", why do people think that a driver's car should be like that? For me a driver's car should be driven with the fingertips. It should be precise and easy, not heavy and cumbersome!
right, I don't understand why people want fake heavy steering wheel either (but I was one of them) , especially Porsche making the steering heavier as the speed pick up. It should be the other way around lol
It's the fact that some incompetent people need resistance on the steering wheel, to keep them from making stupid movements.
Drove 296 on road (standard version) and track (Asseto Fiorano) at Donington Park yesterday. Was also tracking my 812 so a very different machine to use as a comparison. Of course the 296 is brilliant.Too important a car for Ferrari to get wrong and they certainly haven't. It is quite a "dainty" car.Very precise and easy to jump in and drive at surprisingly high speeds.I glanced at speedo once on a particularly flowing piece of road and was a bit shocked at the number ! Overall impression is of a "light" car.Think a Lotus on steroids but without the steering feel. Your head knows it is quite a heavy car but everything feels light and delicate.Even the new steering wheel feels thin and light to the touch. Extremely impressive as "lightness" has been engineered in rather than "added" in the Colin Chapman way. I can understand some people's reservations.The 296 is unlike any other Ferrari I have ever driven (I have not tried an SF90). I had to sleep on the experience but have concluded that this really is a generational shift akin to the introduction of the 458 which set the new standard for what a Ferrari feels like to drive until now.
A few more words after more time (still limited, but interesting nonetheless) with the 296. As part of an "esperianza Ferrari" event near Parma, I could drive on the road and on the Varano track. The event itself was very well organised, with arrival for lunch the first day, road driving in the afternoon, and track sessions the next morning with departure after lunch. Regarding the driving, first, the road. It consisted of about 20 km forth and back (so about 40 total) on a nice countryside road. It is obvious the capabilities of the car far exceed what is possible on the road, in spite of more relaxed rules for driving in Italy than in France. Accelerations are completely consistent with the huge claimed power, and the car is very confidence inspiring in fast corners. All villages were crossed in full electric mode at 50 kph, whereas between villages there was some (still reasonable) freedom - I think that could be a very good compromise for social acceptance of fast cars, but not one we can dream of in France unfortunately. On the track, we had four sessions of four laps each, the first session as a presentation with a Ferrari driver and the three next sessions at the wheel. We also had a timed driving contest in pure electric mode on a small 8-shaped circuit (we had only three runs, I managed 8th time of 43 attendees...) On the track itself, it was obviously short since we had to learn the track (although we were helped for the lines and braking points - the latter being typically too early however) as we were getting more familiar with the car. It somehow confirmed my previous (very short) experience on track with the car, but also provided me more understanding. I still believe the car shows some instability under heavy braking (something I never noticed with my 488), but after the initial surprise it's not as disturbing as first felt. In short, when you decide you don't care about it, the car still brakes and goes where you want it to go... I'm not sure why nobody has reported that, since the Ferrari drivers coaching us were not surprised when I told them my feeling (maybe I'm the only one not fearing to be considered as an incompetent driver). I wonder what causes it, maybe a combination of the suspension and the shorter wheelbase. Besides, the car confirmed it's very good at cornering, not slipping and allowing to resume acceleration at the exit earlier than expected (doing it progressively avoids to trigger the electronics, we had enough laps to test and check the behavior). The weight is really well hidden, on straight lines it's a given thanks to the power but in the corners it shows a really good engineering. All in all the car is very accomplished and a compelling enough proposition for someone looking for a new car in this price bracket. Will I buy one? it will depend on how I will arrange my priorities, but I believe the car itself does its job. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nice review. I envy that the Ferrari Experience in your area included track time. In my area, our customer base seems to be lower in priority. It's usually a weekday event, very tight timing, and no track time. Not the end of the world for me, as I really do enjoy this new era where you can actually drive a car to get a feel for it before you own it, but man it would be awesome to be on track!
Nice review, mon ami. Could the perceived instability be due to the fact that the 296 attains much higher speeds before braking?
Thank you Andrew for yet another great review. Appreciate your honest thoughts. I love the video; it's refreshing when folks driving the car give reviews. I believe I've conversed with over 10. Revealing, given all the people I've encountered that hate this car...never driven one. I don't know why I'm surprised, it's not the first time I've encountered that phenomenon.
Going back to my impression it might also be because you are driving a much heavier car than your brain is telling you.
Envy you as well. Here in HK we (people who ordered) only get to drive a very short distance to get a taste of it ...
It could well be the case, combined with the fact that the car also brakes harder according to Ferrari. Although speed probably increases the phenomenon, it more depends on how hard you brake (on track I try to always have the maximum strength initial braking unless only a minimal speed reduction is needed) - previously at Le Vigeant the speed was around 270 kph but at Varano due to the shorter straight it barely exceeded 200 kph.
Yesterday I drove Road Atlanta with an instructor, and he took me out as a passenger in his 2022 GT3 for a very high speed session…...it’s astonishing to witness the amount of steering wheel movements of an expert driver at high speeds (we were 170mph down the main straight coming into T10a). The heaviness adds stability. My STO steering tightens up in Trofeo mode specifically for the purpose of ‘calming’ driver inputs. This is more intriguing and potentially disturbing to me. This was noticed at Verano? Doesn’t look like a high enough speed track to test heavy braking Could it be the heavy weight distribution in the rear combined with the shorter wheelbase? Remember you’re loading the front end, so the rear weight shifts upwards and above you from the rear. Could you tell if it is related to the electronic controls, or a genuine mid-engine anomaly? I’d love the chance to ring out a 296 on a nice track (with lots of runoff, lol)!
I own a 458 and ordered a 296GTS. Got to test drive a 296GTB last week, only 2 comments to add to the thread: 1. The shifting paddles feel stiff and "clicky" and overall a bit cheap/fragile. Definitely get carbon ones, plastic would be horrible I think. 2. The engine deceleration, coupled with the drivetrain, isn't a fast/tight as I'd like. In simple terms, revving the engine returns to idle fairly slowly, like it has a heavy flywheel or crankshaft. The impact of that on driving is you need to brake more into turns than usual rather than letting up on the accelerator. On twisty, mountain roads downshifting doesn't really slow the car down much so you have to brake a bit each turn, more than I'd like anyway. In my 458 it has more deceleration resistance so it's easier to keep off the brakes and use the accelerator more strategically when racing. My opinion anyway. I'm still buying one though
great review. I too have a 458 and a 296 on order. Wondering what your thoughts are if you could only have one. Keep the 458 or get the 296?
If I could only keep one? I'd probably go for the 296 because: 1. It's modern so you get all the niceties that entails 2. Petrol based cars days are numbered and the 296 is likely going to become a classic and driver favorite like the 458. The 296 feels like the pinnacle of evolution of the 458, 488 and F8. I don't think you can go wrong with a 296. That said, if you can keep both, I would (and I am )
