The Germans are the only true gearheads worthy of a medal from the order of the Wrench and Piston (that I just made up), mostly because they actually can drive fast cars. Their little dirty secret is the autobahn, the infamously liberal highway that offers drivers all their horsepower freedom. That’s how we can see what a car is really capable of in real-world traffic conditions. It only takes a bunch of Dutch speed addicts to jump over the border and go Wide Open Throttle in whatever land missile they can get their hands on.
This time, the good fellas from AutoTopNL treat us with a Ferrari, the diabolically-fast 296 GTB that has very little consideration for hypercars and their alleged performance figures. The Prancing Horse’s baby car is actually a peregrine falcon dressed as a two-seater mid-engine sportscar. While only powered by a 120-degree wide Vee six-cylinder engine, the 296 GTB isn’t afraid to run with the big boys.
The V6 alone produces 663 turbo-horses, thanks to the twin scrolls squishing compressed air to the cylinder banks, but this Ferrari isn’t all about firepower. It carries an electric motor strapped to the rear axle (unlike its 1,000-hp cousin, the SF90, which has dual electric motors on the front wheels). The 296 is the first road car wearing the Modena seal of approval for everyday use that sports a rear-wheel drive plug-in hybrid architecture.
Thanks to the extra 167 PS from the battery-powered motor, the sports Berlinetta boasts 830 PS (819 hp) and 740 Nm (546 lb-ft). Because it weighs around 1.5 tons (dry weight), the agile two-seater is capable of a 2.9-second acceleration to 62 mph (100 kph). The eight-speed dual-clutch transmission (borrowed straight from Formula One) is geared in such a manner that the 8,500-redline V6 will pull all the way to ‘over 330 kph’ (Ferrari’s own claims).
Photo: YouTube/AutoTopNL
Exactly how much over that number is questionable and depends on an indiscriminate number of variables, from altitude to temperature, pressure, humidity, surface, fuel quality, driver weight, and so on. However, the intricacies of double-decimal nitpicking are reserved for those who use computerized precision tools to analyze a fine wine instead of savoring a glass.
For the rest of us, there’s the road feel – except there aren’t many roads on Planet Piston on which a 205+ mph (330 kph) hypersonic missile with luggage space can stretch its legs. Except for Germany – and this is what the video below is all about: going flat out in a Ferrari 396 GTB just to prove its worth. As it turns out – albeit using only the car’s own telemetry – that V6 will easily go 352 kph (218.72 mph), and it could have gone above that, but the driver had to lift.
Apparently, testing a car’s land speed limits on a public road comes with traffic defects – namely, the test driver has to slam the brakes when he catches up with vehicles in front. Also, we should wait for the GPS-backed data to confirm the speed achieved, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were spot-on accurate. Care to make any bets on the true top speed of a 296 GTB – provided a long enough strip of road with no other cars to worry about?
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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