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A decade since Ferrari produced its final 458 Speciale, the iconic nameplate has made a return with Maranello's flagship 296. Dickie Meaden headed to Italy to find out if this plug-in hybrid can ever match the heights of its naturally aspirated V8 relative.
Read our full review here - http://evo.co.uk/ferrari/208244/ferrari-296-speciale-review-does-it-live-up-to-its-legendary-name
00:00 Welcome to (a wet) Italy
01:07 Aerodynamics
01:46 History of Speciale
02:20 Powertrain
03:25 On the road
06:42 To Fiorano...
11:24 Is it deserving of the name?
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0:00
welcome to the latest update of evo diaries and welcome to a pretty soggy italy we're here to drive
0:24
the ferrari 296 speciale which is a car we've been desperate to drive since they announced it earlier
0:30
this year you've read the specs you've read the stats but suffice to say it has more power
0:38
it has less weight it has more performance it has more downforce and it's two seconds a lot quicker
0:45
around Fiorano than the 296 GTB but what Ferrari say is that it's also about the
0:55
things you can't measure but the things that you feel that this car really
1:00
delivers on we've got a morning on the roads and an afternoon in Fiorano to
1:04
find out whether that's the case. Looks wise the Speciale is defined by its new
1:09
aerodynamic package at the front there's a more pronounced splitter and a so-called
1:13
aero damper similar to that seen on the 296 Challenge and GT3 race cars. The tail features
1:19
what Ferrari call gamma wings which are those boomerang shaped sections rising up from the
1:23
flanks and curving over the rear deck. There's also an active gurney style flap which rises in
1:29
two stages for increased rear stability. Together with numerous underbody elements the aero package
1:35
delivers a peak of 435 kilos of downforce at 155 miles an hour
1:41
That's 75 kilos up on the 296 GTV. As you can imagine, when I pulled the curtains open this morning
1:48
and saw raindrops on the window, I was pretty disappointed. But everything I've experienced so far in the Speciale
1:55
suggests it lives up to its name. And what a name that is
2:01
you look back to ferraris kind of track biased cars from challenge stradale and scuderia and
2:09
the 458 speciale they're all very evocative names so it's a big reputation to live up to
2:20
like all modern ferraris this is a hugely complex car it's well over 860 horsepower now
2:27
They're around about 60 up on the regular 296 GTB. Weight-wise, it's about 60 kilos lighter
2:36
We reckon that'll equate to about 1550 kilos. Significantly lighter and, compared to most cars these days, genuinely light
2:46
There's more than a hint of the F80 in the 296 Specialis powertrain
2:50
For starters, it sounds louder and richer thanks to a new acoustic ducting system
2:55
It also uses the same pistons and con rods and features a new crankshaft Titanium fixings and extensively machined crankcase castings contribute to a 9kg weight saving from the engine alone
3:07
Power is up by 36bhp, with a further 13hp gain from the hybrid system
3:13
which now features a new qualifying mode. I mean, there's obvious comparisons, aren't there
3:19
Is this car a baby F80? That's probably a bit of an ask
3:25
but certainly as a road car it has the same hallmarks it seems to work really
3:31
well on the road it's running on updated Michelin Pilot Cup 2s so using new
3:38
materials and new construction the engine is that bit more exuberant they've
3:42
worked hard to bring more sound character out of the engine it's got
3:47
that kind of raw raucous noise that you only get from this V6 other things you
3:53
feeling this car straight away you feel the difference in the suspension they've stiffened
3:59
it up by a handful of percent on the on the springs and they've reduced the roll by about 13
4:07
percent but it's something you tend to feel at all times the car just feels that bit more tall
4:13
and that bit more flat and that bit more direct and connected and that's saying something when
4:20
you're comparing that with a regular GTB. There's a choice of semi-active dampers, which is what
4:26
we're driving on this car, and there's a fully passive system as an option, which we'll be
4:32
driving at Fiorano. Interior really is fab. It's not radically different, but there's just an uplift
4:40
in the atmosphere and just a sense of occasion. So these one-piece carbon door cards look and feel
4:47
really really nice but there's soft touch elements to it as well so the grab handles are alcantara
4:54
dash is alcantara these seats in this color particularly are fantastic they're really
5:00
supportive but again there's a little bit of squid in them and they just seem to sit
5:04
at a nice angle steering wheel is not quite as lovely as the f80 but that's picking holes really
5:12
it's a really brilliant environment to drive. Invisibility is great, you get terrific hints of
5:19
the aero changes and the styling changes, you get those little winglets of the rear and the vents at
5:25
the top through the windscreen, so the whole thing just reminds you that you are in something a bit
5:32
better. Ride wise it's pretty firm, these are great roads, they get lumpier and lumpier every
5:38
year but there is the bumpy road button which is another little bit of genius with the manettino so
5:44
you can just just take the edge out of the ride and it actually in these conditions it helps
5:50
settle the car a little bit more from wet onwards so you get to sport sport again is very very
5:56
trustworthy in these conditions never really lets the car get out of shape but you get more throttle If it wet I would say race is the limit but yeah to all intents and purposes this car is
6:11
defined by its systems and the systems help you get the best from the car without taking any risks
6:17
So despite the weather it's been a really interesting morning, exciting morning
6:24
fun morning but it's time to head back and have our session at Fiorano which is where I think if
6:30
the weather's on outside we'll really unlock the full performance and the full experience of the Speciale
6:54
So we have two lots of four laps to try and get to grips with the Speciale
7:18
This car differs from the road car we drove this morning in so much as it's running on
7:24
multi-matic dampers, passive dampers, not like the semi-active. You can feel the stiffness in the car
7:32
We're running on cut two tyres, not cut two isles which I thought we may do but the twos
7:38
are as we ran this morning. On the road, it's a surprisingly civilised car
7:46
I think the combination of hybrid and turbo means you don't quite get that rawness that
7:53
you would do with this car's namesake, the 458. Bloody hell, it's quick
8:01
It's just relentlessly fast. You get so much push out of the corners
8:09
get this kind of battery over boost effectively for little chunks of time to two seconds a
8:17
hit when on the rare occasion you can manage to get full throttle. The thing that blew my
8:25
mind about F80 and some of that tech has been carried over to this is the ABS EVO system
8:35
which allows you to brake so deep and pull so much lateral load while you're doing it
8:41
it really does unlock another dimension of performance into a corner
8:54
Another thing I love about this and is also reminiscent of F80 is the gear shift They worked really hard to squeeze a bit more from the battery It
9:14
gives you a little extra punch on the upshift and you get that brilliant just sense of even
9:25
more urgency, it really is extraordinary how well this copes with all this torque going
9:34
to the rear axle. It's a pretty wild ride, but it's a lot of fun. You use the systems
9:50
they don't take the life out of the car it feels alive under you and in your hands hey
10:01
wow so cool down that this car has such surprising civility on the road even when deploying as much
10:12
performance as you can but wow when you fully uncork it it feels small and agile in a way that
10:21
the the bigger cars so sf90xx and f80 don't it feels a little bit more conventional i think in
10:29
that sense the weight is probably around 15 50 kilos i think once you subtract the weight savings
10:38
and you allow for the spec of the car with all the lightweight components that can be fitted so 1550 is
10:48
it's pretty good and when you think it's got the best part of 900 horsepower
10:54
it gets on down the road you just push you push and push and you lean on it and it tells you
11:02
where perhaps you're working towards its limits or over the limits. We've yet to really fully experience what it can do on the road because of the conditions
11:12
but we've now bookended this morning with this afternoon's track work and crikey
11:18
it's a very exciting and very fast car. The completeness of the Specialis Performance Games means it's not the
11:26
extreme machine some of you might have been hoping for. However, headbangers
11:30
amongst you will be pleased to know there are whispers Ferraris working on something
11:33
more hardcore. An XX perhaps. But exciting though that is, our time in the Speciale suggests
11:40
it will be the sweet spot between the GTB and whatever the rumoured more extreme 296
11:45
turns out to be. What connects this Speciale to its famous forebear is that its improvements
11:51
are equally impressive on road and track and as focused on feel as they are on measurable
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