Ferrari 296 GTB Track Review: The Hybrid Ferrari That Still Feels Like a Ferrari

Some cars are ruined by their own numbers. Too much power, too much computer, too much drama before anything actually happens, and then you finally get to drive it and realize the computer was doing most of the work the whole time.

The Ferrari 296 GTB is not one of those cars.

Yes, the spec sheet has already lost its mind: 819 horsepower, 546 lb-ft of torque, 0–60 in 2.4 seconds, a top speed of 205 mph, curb weight of 3,135 pounds. Under the cover sits a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 mated to a plug-in hybrid electric motor, driving the rear axle through an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. On paper it sounds like Ferrari handed the project to a very confident engineer with no one in the room telling them to settle down.

On track, it sounds like a great idea. The real surprise isn't that it's fast though. It's how quickly it makes you trust it.

The Ferrari 296 GTB is a new kind of Ferrari

For years, Ferrari's mid-engine formula was almost reassuringly consistent. V8 behind your head. Rear wheels doing the work. Mechanical noise, mechanical response, mechanical theater. Then came the 296 GTB.

A V6. Hybrid assist. A 120-degree cylinder layout engineered specifically to tuck the electric motor between the engine and the gearbox, a packaging decision that only makes sense once you understand what that motor is actually there to do.

On track, the argument ends in about four seconds.

This isn't a softer Ferrari. It's a sharper one, built with newer tools. The 296 GTB is Ferrari's first rear-wheel-drive hybrid supercar, and going smaller on displacement was architecture. The electric motor fills the gap that every turbocharged car has always had: that brief, transactional pause between intent and response, between your right foot pressing and the engine deciding you mean it.

What it feels like to drive a Ferrari 296 GTB

The first thing you notice is the absence of waiting.

No lazy build. No pause while the turbos pressurize. You squeeze the throttle coming out of a corner and the car is already moving. The electric motor fires immediately, and then the V6 rushes in behind it, climbing toward 8,000 RPM with that clean, metallic urgency that is unmistakably, stubbornly Ferrari. Road & Track's reviewers clocked the same sensation: the surge doesn't taper when your brain expects it to. It keeps pulling. Past the point where a normal turbo car would start running out of ideas.

Coming out of a corner, the sequence goes something like this: clip the apex, unwind the wheel, squeeze, and the car gathers itself and fires down the straight with a composure that feels almost rude. The 8-speed dual-clutch cuts through shifts with almost no interruption. The V6 sounds nothing like a V8. What it sounds like is purposeful. High and tight and working.

The Ferrari 296 GTB on track makes the hybrid system make sense

Hybrid supercars arrive with a certain amount of skepticism attached. Modes. Battery management. Software doing things in the background you didn't ask it to do. It can all feel like something inserted between you and what you actually came for.

The electric system doesn't have its own personality. It fills the bottom of the rev range so thoroughly that the whole powertrain feels like it's already at full pressure the moment you touch the throttle. A standard turbocharged car builds. The 296 GTB simply is.

That matters most in the early laps, when you're still mapping the track in real time. You brake for a corner. Listen to the instructor. Turn in. Clip the apex. Start unwinding the wheel. In a less communicative car, this is exactly where doubt starts creeping in — how much throttle is too much? How fast will the rear rotate? How much of this 819 horsepower is going to arrive before you're actually ready for it?

The 296 GTB eases this. The steering is precise and alert without feeling nervous. The chassis reacts quickly without the twitchy impatience that makes a powerful car feel like it's looking for an excuse. Road & Track's Performance Car of the Year coverage called it precise, grippy, and poised, capable of actually using its power on track. That lines up exactly with what Xtreme Xperience drivers find out there.

It's fast, but the confidence is the hook

A lot of people think they want horsepower.

They do. But what they really want is the feeling of using it. The sensation of being inside something that is operating at a level you can feel but barely contain.

That's the 296 GTB's actual pitch, and it's why it fits Xtreme Xperience well. You get in. You put your hands on the wheel. You drive it. 3 to 4 laps on a real racetrack, following a 25-minute safety and driving briefing, with a racing helmet and a professional instructor in the passenger seat through every corner.

By the second lap, something shifts. You stop thinking about the hybrid system. You stop processing the price tag. You stop wondering whether a V6 Ferrari can really feel like a Ferrari.

How to drive a Ferrari 296 GTB with Xtreme Xperience

Xtreme Xperience runs supercar track experiences at more than 40 locations nationwide — Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and more on real racetracks, with professional instruction, no speed limits, and actual room to use the car. The Ferrari 296 GTB is in the current fleet starting from $499, with Driver Protection Plans listed separately. 

So yes. You can drive a Ferrari 296 GTB.

Not in traffic. Not on a parking lot loop. On a racetrack, with an instructor beside you, with enough straight ahead of you to feel what 819 horsepower and hybrid torque actually do when the corner opens and you roll back into the throttle.

The Ferrari 296 GTB is proof the future of Ferrari doesn't have to feel distant, digital, or diluted. It can feel immediate. It can feel alive. It can make 819 horsepower feel less like a threat and more like an invitation.

That's the driver's review.

The 296 GTB is brutally fast. But the reason you'll remember it is that it lets you be part of the speed.