340 kilometers per hour means 211 miles per hour in old money, and that speed is typical of the most high-performance automobiles out there. The Ferrari 296 GTB Assetto Fiorano in the featured clip is one such automobile despite having plenty of critics as well.
The naysayers love to belittle it for its engine, namely a six-cylinder lump with a displacement of 2,992 cubic centimeters. That means 3.0 liters, but as you're well aware, 306 GTB doesn't sound as good as 296 GTB.
Ferrari has a long history of road-legal cars with six cylinders arranged in a V, though, beginning with the Dino 206 and Dino 246. The reason why those mid-engined cars were sold under the Dino marque is Enzo Ferrari's reluctance to anything less than a thumpin' great V12 engine. The subsequent Dino V6-derived V8 and the success of V8-engined cars prompted Il Commendatore to drop the Dino brand in the 1970s.
Codenamed F163, the V6 in the 296 series cannot be more different than its predecessor. Forced induction opens the list. From the standpoint of design, one cannot ignore the 120-degree V formed by cylinder banks. Why did Ferrari go for such an extreme angle? For starters, because it enables better packaging. Ferrari reportedly considered 180 degrees, but alas, the Italian automaker didn't want to ape Porsche's trademark flat-six design.
Originally believed to be sold under the Dino moniker, the 296 has the highest specific output in the world. As far as road-legal engines are concerned, that is. 218 ponies for every liter of displacement is a tremendous achievement. By comparison, the plug-in hybrid McLaren Artura offers a little over 192 horsepower per liter from a… wait for it… 120-degree twin-turbo V6.
The Ferrari's amazing engine cannot reach 340 kilometers per hour on its own. This ridiculously high top speed wouldn't have been possible without a hot-V configuration for the IHI-supplied turbochargers, a pretty badass exhaust system constructed from Inconel, and the axial flux motor located between the six-cylinder lump and gearbox. Speaking of which, the dual-clutch transmission comes with eight forward gears.
Faster in a straight line than the legendary F40, which sports a 2.9-liter V8 of the twin-turbo variety and a five-speed manual, the 296 slots right above the F8 series. When Ferrari presented the V6-powered supercar in June 2021, the Prancing Horse of Maranello listed over 330 kilometers per hour (205 miles per hour) as the maximum speed from the factory. The GTB is joined by the GTS, a convertible with a folding hard top. Only 14 seconds are needed for said top to do its thing, and the GTS is only 70 kg (145 lbs) heavier than the GTB.
The yellow-and-silver GTB in the video below is equipped with the Assetto Fiorano package that can be summed up as lower weight and better aero. Specifying this option results in overall weight savings of up to 15 kg (33 lbs). The carbon-fiber appendages up front deliver up to 10 kg (22 lbs) of additional downforce.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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