Jonathan Gitlin
IMOLA, ITALY—Time is running out for the internal combustion engine. Looming bans on new vehicles powered by internal combustion engines are set to go into effect in the mid-2030s around the world, from California to China, but even now, there are dozens of European cities that have implemented low-emissions zones that restrict passenger cars to hybrids and EVs. And unlike the average CO2 regulations that govern carmakers, there are no exemptions for building in low volumes.
That means if you build supercars—like, say, Ferrari—and you want to sell your supercars to people who live in the center of cities (which supercar owners often do), it’s time to get electrified. That’s something Ferrari has been working on for some time, first in Formula 1 and then in its ultra-expensive, ultra-low-volume models like the LaFerrari and SF90. But now, that tech has trickled down to the manufacturer’s bread-and-butter model, a mid-engined machine called the 296. During the spring, Ferrari debuted the hardtop 296 GTB. More recently, it took the wraps off the folding-top 296 GTS, tested here.
Visually, it’s easy to place this as a mid-engined Ferrari, and were you to line up a 296 alongside an F8, 488, and 458, the evolution of the shape would be obvious. Then again, there are only so many places you can put a mid-engined car’s engine and radiators, and where those go dictates where you need ducts, vents, and so on. However, break out a tape measure and you’ll discover the wheelbase has shrunk by a couple of inches (50 mm).
The visual similarities are skin-deep, as the heart of the 296 really is entirely new. And for the first time, Ferrari has fitted a V6 to one of its road cars, giving the car its name—2.9 L and six cylinders. (Pedants will note that the 206 GT, 246 GT, and 246 GTS built in the 1960s and 1970s only ever wore Dino badges, never the prancing horse.)
Ferrari
The 2.9 L V6 engine uses a 120° V-angle, with the turbochargers located above and between the two banks of cylinders—a so-called “hot vee” arrangement. Putting the turbos on top of the engine as opposed to hanging them off either side helps with packaging the powerplant within the chassis, and Ferrari says that also reduces the center of gravity and the engine’s mass.
The engine’s combustion chambers are a development of the ones found in the SF90’s engine, with direct fuel injection at 350 bar. The symmetrical pair of counter-rotating turbochargers spin at up to 180,000 rpm; they’re larger than the ones you’d find attached to the 3.9 L turbocharged V8 that Ferrari used to use but have less inertia and much greater boost efficiency. Power output is a heady 218 hp/L (163 kW/L), or 654 hp (488 kW).
On its own, that’s almost as powerful as the Ferrari 488 we tested in 2017, but the 296 is a plug-in hybrid, so between the V6 engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, you’ll find a donut-shaped, dual-rotor, single-stator axial flux electric motor-generator unit (MGU) that generates 165 hp (123 kW) and 232 lb-ft (315 Nm), powered by a 7.45 kWh lithium-ion traction battery that lives behind the seats. The MGU was built by Yasa.
With the engine and MGU working together, the 296 GTS has a maximum peak power output of 818 hp (610 kW). But the MGU can operate on its own without firing up the V6 at speeds of up to 84 mph (135 km/h) in eDrive mode. The battery stores enough energy for an EPA-rated electric-only range of eight miles, but Europe’s less-realistic WLTP test rates this range at 25 km.
