- The Ferrari 296GTB is now the quickest rear-wheel-drive automobile we’ve ever examined, dispatching 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and ending the quarter-mile in 9.7 seconds at 150 mph.
- Its ultra-short 70 mph cease of 130 ft is barely three ft shy of the most effective we have measured, from a 2019 C7 Corvette ZR1.
- The plug-in-hybrid powertrain fuses a 654-hp twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 to a 165-hp electrical motor for 819 horses of mixed output.
UPDATE 10/10/23 2:30 p.m.: We have corrected the declare that the 296GTB is the shortest-stopping automobile we have ever examined, which is wrong, because the C7 Corvette ZR1 beat it by three ft, going from 70–0 mph in 127 ft.
Welcome to Automotive and Driver’s Testing Hub, the place we zoom in on the check numbers. We have been pushing automobiles to their limits since 1956 to supply goal information to bolster our subjective impressions (you possibly can see how we check right here).
Whereas prepping the Ferrari 296GTB for testing, an bystander requested the apparent query: “What does it have for an engine?” Once we mentioned it had a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 mated to an electrical motor, the eye-rolling was practically audible. “A V-6 hybrid Ferrari? Not .” Oh how their tune would have modified if that they had seen it break our rear-wheel-drive acceleration file by reaching 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and storming the quarter-mile in 9.7 seconds.
Large Energy
The center of the beast is a 2992 cc V-6 engine, and this mix provides the 296 its title. Why not 306, as a result of 2992 cc rounds to three.0 liters? In a phrase: China. Tax-wise, 3.0-liter engines are taboo over there, and Ferrari wished to underscore the truth that this engine lives on the glad aspect of that threshold.
The half our bystander ought to have been eager about is the 120-degree financial institution angle, which supplies this V-6 the firing cadence of a V-12. The result’s unimaginable, particularly because the eight-speed dual-clutch automated transmission cracks off shifts on the 8500 rpm redline. That broad vee can also be a helpful place for 2 turbochargers to dwell, and all of it provides as much as 654 hp of inner combustion oomph amounting to some 219 horsepower per liter.
However that in fact wasn’t sufficient, so there’s a 165-hp axial move synchronous AC electrical motor sandwiched between the engine and gearbox. It’s related to a 6.0-kWh battery pack that’s greater than a typical hybrid battery in order that it may be plugged in and supply some electric-only miles. The EPA says it’s good for 8 miles of vary, however after testing this automobile we predict its true goal is to make sure the added 165 electrical horses at all times stand able to insinuate themselves and lift complete mixed output to 819 horsepower.
Launch Management
We made two modifications to our check sequence due to the 296’s powertrain. The primary was typical of any plug-in automobile: we check acceleration first to take full benefit of the electrical energy. The second was in deference to the 296’s traction-control system, which learns the slip traits of the check floor. We scrapped the same old east-west-east-west alternating cadence that saves time and as an alternative made all our eastbound runs earlier than going through the opposite means for the westbound ones.
Launching the automobile is straightforward, however the process has one counterintuitive quirk. After choosing Qualifying mode, you slide the cute shift toggle to handbook, press the brake, then ground the throttle. Revs will rise to 3000, then the prepared mild comes on and also you launch the brake. The bizarre half is that this: despite the fact that you chose handbook mode to arm the system, you don’t manually upshift. Launch management does that bit for you.
Right down to Enterprise
Our consecutive same-direction runs acquired steadily higher because the system adjusted to the start-point friction, however progress leveled off on the third go, so our best-run information comes from that time on. The identical was not true of runs in the other way, which had been fast straight away. I assume our check asphalt is extra constant than we imagined. In the long run, the 296GTB’s two-way common outcomes had been unimaginable for any automobile, not to mention an 819-hp rear-drive one which should put all its energy down by means of a pair of 305/35ZR-20 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires.
The GTB’s 60 mph run of two.4 seconds places it forward of the Lamborghini Huracan STO and the McLaren Artura, a pair of rear-drive exotics that ran 2.6 seconds. Subsequent up is the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS, which managed 2.8 seconds. However the gaps develop large after that, with the Ferrari’s 4.7 second run to 100 mph practically a second away from the McLaren and Lambo, and a full 2.0 seconds up on the Porsche. On the quarter mile, the 296GTB’s 9.7 seconds at 150 mph is nicely away from the next-fastest Artura, which crosses in 10.3 seconds at 140 mph.
Them’s the Brakes
On the difficulty of electrical energy preservation and needing to run acceleration first, we needn’t have nervous. The 296GTB has large regenerative braking capability, however it’s not apparent as a result of all brake triggering—regenerative and friction—comes through the splendidly communicative brake pedal. Finally, a piece of {the electrical} vitality expended throughout an acceleration run returned to the battery below braking, such that the battery cost proportion dropped fairly slowly. It’s virtually as if Ferrari has expertise with racing automobiles constructed to reap and deploy vitality throughout the context of a single lap.
The regenerative system right here solely works off the rear drive tires to which the motor is related, in fact, so final braking energy nonetheless depends closely on the large 15.7-inch ventilated and drilled carbon-ceramic rotors, 10-piston entrance calipers, and the grip of the 245/35ZR-20 Cup 2R entrance tires. The 296GTB additionally has an lively aerodynamic machine that rises up from between the taillights to generate drag and downforce, however its deployment timing didn’t appear to be optimized to behave strictly as an air brake, so I’m not going to name it one.
Nonetheless, the friction brakes aren’t going it solely alone on this automobile, which weighs 3532 kilos on our scales. Maybe that’s why the Ferrari was in a position to cease from 70 mph in a scant 130 ft, barely higher than the stopping distance of the Porsche Cayman GT4 RS regardless of weighing 290 kilos extra, and among the many shortest-stopping automobiles we have ever examined. Then once more, the additional weight and momentum could also be why the Porsche retains the 100 mph stopping distance benefit, with a rating of 242 ft to the Ferrari’s 245 ft.
Enjoyable reality: The Ferrari SF90 Stradale holds the general crown of two.0 seconds to 60 mph on account of all-wheel drive and 986 mixed horsepower. That preliminary 0.4-second 60 mph benefit over the 296GTB shrinks to two-tenths of a second on the quarter mile, at which level the SF90’s entice pace has sagged to 148 mph, which is 2 mph slower. In the long run we noticed 190 mph in 17.8 seconds within the 296 earlier than we ran out of room and referred to as it a day.
Technical Editor
Dan Edmunds was born into the world of cars, however not the way you may suppose. His father was a retired racing driver who opened Autoresearch, a race-car-building store, the place Dan minimize his enamel as a steel fabricator. Engineering faculty adopted, then SCCA Showroom Inventory racing, and that mixture landed him suspension growth jobs at two completely different automakers. His writing profession started when he was picked up by Edmunds.com (no relation) to construct a testing division.
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