Ferrari 296 Speciale review

Wild on track and thrilling on the road, but is the return of the 'Speciale' name justified?

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There are certain things the first-time Ferrari 296 Speciale pilot needs to consider.

One is that this car has the lowest polar moment of inertia of any current Ferrari. Which is to say, it just loves to rotate. Another is that it is the most powerful purely rear-driven model the company makes. It doesn’t take Adrian Newey-level intelligence to realise this combination could result in something profoundly thrilling – or just very frightening.

Chief test driver Raffaele de Simone assures us it’s the former, but suspicion lingers. The night before our drive of the 868bhp Speciale at Fiorano and in the Apennines, I ask if it’s all getting, y’know, out of hand. Remember that the regular 296 GTB makes 49bhp less, weighs 60kg more and is set up more conservatively yet will light up its rears in fourth-gear corners. Fifth, even.

“The point of no return is the point at which you’re not able to manage the power of the car any more. We make a step only if we give you the tools to manage that extra power,” says de Simone, before ominously adding that he thinks “we’re pretty on the limit”.

The next morning, I take to the track in glorious sunshine, and before lap one is complete de Simone is predictably vindicated. Even more resplendent than its Verde Nürburgring paint is the way the Speciale makes 550bhp per tonne unnervingly manageable.

There’s an animal wildness to the heavier yet superior successor of the 488 Pista, and you could of course have a sizeable incident in any car of this ilk. Yet my sense is that you would need to be driving like a pillock for things to go badly awry. The Speciale has all of the GTB’s forgiving exuberance, only with more mechanical transparency and raw theatre. And speed. God, the speed. It’s breathtaking.

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So, while you can debate the wisdom of spending the £100k surcharge the Speciale demands over the GTB, you can’t deny that it is an outstanding supercar and one that is, I’m very pleased to report, emotionally fulfilling, childish stripes and all.

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DESIGN & STYLING

Ferrari 296 Speciale 2025 02 design

So what makes the Speciale special? Part of its added bite is achieved through the usual tricks of perception. Strapped into the harnesses, you can see both the louvres cut into the carbonfibre bonnet and, in the rear-view mirror, the striking winglets that flank the rear deck. It also gets two more resonators in the bulkhead, which channel curated frequencies from the 8500rpm V6 directly into the cabin.

Notably high-pitched and breathily raucous, this remains one of the great turbo engines, and here it benefits from new titanium conrods and stud bolts (a Formula 1-ism that’s a first for a street-legal Ferrari), as well as a lightened crank similar to that of the Le Mans-inspired F80, in which a version of this engine makes 888bhp. A little machining after casting has also trimmed around a kilo of metal from the block compared with the GTB’s unit.

The engineers say the Speciale package could in theory work with another 120bhp but would require an increase in the rear weight bias from 60% to about 65% in the interests of traction. It would be a quicker car on the straights but not in the corners
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

Even without electric assistance, this V6 now makes an Enzo-slaying 690bhp and 556lb ft. With electrical assistance, the outcome is a car that, in de Simone’s skilled hands and wearing serious Michelins, laps Fiorano quicker than the LaFerrari. That electrical element is largely the same as that of the GTB. A 7.5kWh drive battery nestles on the floorpan behind the firewall, feeding an axial-flux electric motor between engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

There is of course also the aero package. It's fairly subtle from the front, with small gills in the splitter and the wider, snarlier intake for the radiators. It's a little more noticeable at the back, where for the first time for one of these amped-up mainline mid-engined Ferrari, there are wings, if only little ones than don't sully the silhouette.

The Speciale makes around a third more downforce than its 488 Pista precedessor. It borrows aerodynamic concepts from the 296 Challenge racer, which also results in a 20% increase in downforce over the 296 GTB. The quoted figure of 435kg at 155mph is still comfortably less than what Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS generates, but Ferrari prefers to not fit huge wings.

The Speciale instead uses an evolution of the GTB’s pop-up rear spoiler, which along with low-drag and high-downforce settings (the car modulates the wing-height automatically) now has a midway point for highspeed downforce. It’s also 50% faster-acting than on the GTB.

The underbody is key, too. Like the 488 Pista, the Speciale features an S-duct at the front, although the tract that links the floor with the upper surface is much more upright and set further back, exiting just beneath the windscreen. Not only does this help maintain luggage space but it also helps keep downforce consistent even as ride-height changes. More broadly, the balance of downforce has been shifted forward for turn-in precision.

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INTERIOR

Ferrari 296 Speciale 2025 06 driving

There isn't an awful lot to say here, because the Speciale's cockpit is of course much the same as that of the GTB, albeit with new physical switchgear on the steering wheel, in place of haptic controls. That's a considerable ergonomic improvement.

Less ergonomic is the wholesales loss of the glovebox and useful cubbies in the doorcards, which are now full-carbon pieces that admittedly look very serious but don't make the Speciale especially easy to get along away from the track. Note also the aluminium treadplates – no carpets here – and vast use of Alcantara. Ultimately it's all par for the course for this type of Ferrari, so somebody can be surprised. 

The driving ergonomics are good, mind, with reasonably generous reach-adjustability in the steering column and well-spaced pedals – you'll certainly never overlap throttle and brake unintentionally. The GTB's excellent rear-visbility is also retained, which isn't a factor that generally concerns, say, Lamborghini when it makes its hardcore derivatives.

Note also the new carbonfibre, tubular seats. These are very good, and come in 25% lighter than the normal bucket seats, as well as being available in quite a few colours. We also suspect they are the most comfortable seat Ferrari makes, though whether you can put up with the harnesses away from the track is another matter. 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Ferrari 296 Speciale 2025 09 engine bay

Disarmingly the electric portion of the powertain is the first taste of the Speciale you get. Started up in Hybrid mode, it pulls off the mark under electric power alone. This car’s namesake – the legendarily brash 458 Speciale – was somewhat otherwise inclined, but in truth it’s nice to have a fire-breathing Ferrari that can slink away without fanfare, if you would prefer. Anybody who wants start-up drama need only select Performance mode on the e-manettino then hit the haptic engine-start button. In the pit at Fiorano, with a hot titanium exhaust, the resulting crackle-bang can be deafening.

The tech-fetishist side of Ferrari (presumably the same faction responsible for calling stability electronics ‘Side Slip Control 9.0’ and giving the Speciale’s deploying rear spoiler an ‘Armed’ setting) clearly wanted to do something jazzy with the electric element.

The approach is twofold. First, shifts are more violent. Ask for an upshift in one of the car’s racier modes and the burst of torque the motor injects into the vacuum created as the transmission engages the next cog gives a vicious, visceral kick. It’s a bit contrived, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t bloody exciting, and boy do you know you’re in a Speciale. The shifts don’t quite have the diamond-cut quality you get from the PDK in Porsche’s 911 GT3, but their explosivity reminds me of the pneumatic sequential action of an actual GT3 car, which is arguably cooler.

Then there’s ‘Extra Boost’. At Fiorano or on any other track, the car will learn the circuit and in its ‘Qualify’ drive mode will then push the drive battery beyond its normal limits for short bursts. It lets the motor deliver up to 178bhp on the exits of corners. Is it noticeable? Not in four or five short laps.

You spend the first couple in Race mode, discovering just how hard (and not always that deftly) the traction control needs to work unless the car is perfectly straight. It gets jarring, so you quickly opt for the famous CT Off mode.

From then on, hilariously, there always seems to be some degree of yaw. The Speciale pivots very quickly indeed, but so sublimely sped is the steering and so balanced is the car that the relationship between throttle, backside and rear tyres often feels symbiotic.

In faster corners the new aero package (see right) gets to work, but this isn’t a downforce car like some in the class, in which you easily notice the effects. It’s more about straightforward mechanical grip in the face of an outrageous powertrain. Quite old-school, then.

RIDE & HANDLING

Ferrari 296 Speciale FD 2025 ME 20

Ferrari swapped us into a different car for on-road driving. Rather than fixed-rate Multimatic dampers with titanium springs and £21k carbonfibre wheels, this had the standard Magneride dampers. Crucially, this set-up retains the ‘Bumpy Road’ mode for which modern Ferraris are well known.

Does the Speciale look a bit silly out in public, with its concoction of gills and wings? Yes and no. The tail lacks the sweeping gravitas of the 488 Pista’s, but in these hazy hills, resting on some unexpected Group A Skyline-style five-spokers, with sunlight cascading over its considerable hips and the bone line in the flanks, it looks the bomb.

On the Magneride dampers it drives beautifully too. Like a road car. Nobody else in mainstream supercars does ‘taut flow’ like they currently do in Maranello. On a road that would make a 911 GT3 very jittery indeed, the Speciale moves in the same oleaginous manner as the GTB, only with a fraction more meat in the steering and touch more intent in the body control.

Its intuitive adjustability also remains undimmed by the choppiness of these Italian roads. The engine makes three-quarters of its torque max at only 3200rpm or so, so you don’t even need to wring it out to work the chassis. It’s a chassis that almost has a sentience about it in the way it knows whether you want grip or slip. Can it feel artificial? At times just a little, but it’s so much fun that you really won’t care. Any car with this degree of inbuilt humour will make believers of the cynics.

VERDICT

Ferrari 296 Speciale 2025 14 rear static

Admittedly it’s tempting to be cynical. Track-inspired Ferraris have always existed a little uncomfortably on a conceptual basis. Like Rolex Submariners that never see the sea, few Speciales will ever sniff circuit asphalt – not at £13k for a new carbonfibre bumper, or £21k for the carbon wheels.

It’s just as well, then, that the Speciale is even more appealing as a road car, deftly enhancing the brilliance of the GTB. It’s a classic case of diminishing returns, and things like the lack of bins in the carbonfibre door cards (no speaker grilles, just drill holes) do irk. But you indulge a machine this good in a little whimsy, don’t you?

Richard Lane

Richard Lane
Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard is Autocar's deputy road test editor. He previously worked at Evo magazine. His role involves travelling far and wide to be among the first to drive new cars. That or heading up to Nuneaton, to fix telemetry gear to test cars at MIRA proving ground and see how faithfully they meet their makers' claims. 

He's also a feature-writer for the magazine, a columnist, and can be often found on Autocar's YouTube channel. 

Highlights at Autocar include a class win while driving a Bowler Defender in the British Cross Country Championship, riding shotgun with a flat-out Walter Röhrl, and setting the magazine's fastest road-test lap-time to date at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GTB. Nursing a stricken Jeep up 2950ft to the top of a deserted Grossglockner Pass is also in the mix.