2023 Ferrari 296 GTB PVOTY Review: We Dare You Not to Fall Under Its Spell

There’s a good reason Ferrari sits as ruler supreme atop all track and road machines. There aren’t many “bad” Ferraris, even when it tries something completely new, like a rear-drive twin-turbo V-6 plug-in hybrid with more than 800 horsepower. To the haters dismissing the V-6 on principle: Bye! The Ferrari 296 GTB is as righteous as they come. 

Like with all Maranello stock, the powertrain is the main event. “It’s amazing how Ferrari tunes this electrified V-6 to match the building excitement of its V-12 engines racing toward redline,” deputy editor Alexander Stoklosa said. “The mule-kick boost that lands just before a full-throttle upshift adds physical drama to that soaring aural performance.” Somehow, someone made the six sound like a 12. Marvelous stuff. And while something with 818 hp can sound intimidating on paper, it’s fabulously approachable in practice.  

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Masterful handling helps with that. Objectively, you know the PHEV 296 carries a fair bit of extra hardware on board, so wouldn’t that mean a weight penalty? Nope, because it feels “as feathery as the [Mazda] Miata in transition,” Stoklosa said.  

The steering is very quick—“downright telepathic,” director of editorial operations Mike Floyd said—so slow hands at first help. Once you get your bearings, it’s shocking how quickly you adjust to everything. Approachable and almost friendly, the car encourages you to explore your boundaries. “I could easily rotate it into corners with a combination of braking and steering,” executive editor Mac Morrison said. “The system still lets you get a fair amount of slip before intervening, certainly about as much as I wanted at these speeds on the track.” After just a few laps, editors reported feeling comfortable enough to drive by feel rather than relying on braking and turning points or sightlines.  

Some editors complained about a persistent “wooden” feel that required you to press the brake pedal hard; others had no issue at all. Regardless, the brakes match the engine’s abilities and bring you back down, even if you do happen to brake a bit too late into a corner. 

Track driving in Performance mode is great; doing it in Qualify mode is transcendent. The car becomes noticeably faster and more responsive. The only danger is lulling yourself into thinking you’re “impervious to badness” (Morrison’s words) because you’ll be going really, really fast if you do wind up four wheels off. Thankfully, not one of us did, and we attribute that to the 296’s lack of poor habits. 

The Ferrari was elected a finalist with no contest. It looks fantastic, made us all feel like superheroes on the track, performed as was intended, and is an excellent bit of engineering. Of course, at nearly a half a million dollars, it has zero value proposition for everyday drivers. But you get what you pay for.  

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Two days of finalist looping put us all in the perspective of having it as a daily. On curvy roads, the 296 lights up once more, eagerly nosing its way around mountain corners. It’s even comfortable puttering on the highway, its surprisingly supportive seats and good forward visibility fostering a relaxed atmosphere. 

A few pain points: Editors noticed intermittent cabin squeaks and rattles, likely coming from all the carbon fiber, but it still didn’t reflect well on such an expensive car. Driven in the default Hybrid mode, that stiff brake feel wasn’t altogether pleasant through town, but you do get used to it. 

There was universal frustration regarding the infotainment controls. Everyone took umbrage with Ferrari’s ludicrous decision to relegate most things to haptic touch controls, including the mirror adjustments. Not only that, but the overly complicated steering wheel’s touch inputs vanish from sight after a period of inactivity, so you have to look down at them to find them again.  

That said, we figured out how the entire (admittedly clunky) infotainment system works in less than 15 minutes—a rite of passage that awaits all owners. But we still hate the touch controls. At worst, they feel designed with malice; at best, they’re distracting. They probably won’t age very well, either—hence Bugatti’s choice to keep analog gauges and minimal screens in its new Tourbillon.

These annoyances shouldn’t discourage anyone from enjoying the 296. Aside from its prodigious power and acceleration, it makes any drive feel like an event. The Ferrari is simply magical. We dare you not to fall under its spell.