The Ferrari 296 Speciale Is Maranello’s Most Powerful RWD Car

Challenge Stradale, Scuderia, Speciale, Pista. What name would come next in Ferrari’s lineage of lightened, hardened mid-engined berlinettas? Erm, as it turns out, Speciale again. Meet the Ferrari 296 Speciale.

To be fair, it is a pretty speciale bit of kit. The first in its illustrious lineage of hardcore specials to feature a hybrid powertrain, it’s had the wick turned up significantly from the base 296. For the 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6, the engine and boost management have been taken from the 296 Challenge racer, and it gets new titanium conrods, reinforced pistons and a lightened crankshaft.

All that ups the combustion engine’s power by 36bhp to 690bhp. Combined with the new ‘extra boost’ mode for the electric motor, peak power is now 868bhp, making the Speciale the most powerful rear-wheel drive road car Ferrari’s ever made. That results in unsurprisingly brutal performance: 0-62mph takes 2.8 seconds, 0-124mph is dusted off in 7.0 seconds, and the top speed is north of 205mph. As a PHEV, it’ll still do a quoted 16 miles on electric power only, which we’re sure all the Speciale’s owners will be taking full advantage of.

To keep all this in check, the Speciale makes 435kg of downforce at 155mph, 20 per cent more than the standard car. Contributing to this is a new ‘aero damper’ on the bonnet, vertical fins on the rear bumper that sprout upwards into extra downforce-generating side wings. They work side-by-side with the deployable rear spoiler, which halves the time taken to go from low- to high-drag setups thanks to a new actuator, and also gets a new medium-drag setup for high-speed stability.

60kg has been shed from the standard car for a 1410kg dry weight, thanks to new carbon fibre panels and titanium engine components. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s thrown the latest version of its ABS Evo braking system at the car for greater braking precision and longer life on track. The Speciale also sits 5mm lower than the GTB on revised spring and damper settings, reducing the maximum roll angle by 13 per cent, and it rides on a set of bespoke Michelin PS Cup2 tyres. This is properly nerdy stuff.

As is tradition with the hardcore Ferraris, the interior is more stripped-back, swapping leather for carbon fibre and Alcantara. The door cards are now made from a single block of carbon, and the central tunnel is made entirely from it, too.

Oh, and if you want just a little bit more theatre from your 868bhp lightweight Ferrari, there’s also a 296 Speciale A, for ‘Aperta’ – or ‘open’. Despite weighing slightly more at 1490kg dry, the drop-top will match the coupe to 62mph and only lose three tenths on the sprint to 124mph, before also maxing out at over 205mph.

As with its predecessors, the 296 Speciale isn’t strictly a ‘limited-edition’ model, but it won’t stay in production long, and naturally, you’ll need to be pretty cosy with Ferrari already to secure an allocation. If you do, you’ll need to stump up at least €407,000 (around £346,000) for the coupe, and €462,000 (around £393,000) for the drop-top.