First Look: The 869-HP 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale Promises Bonkers Performance

You expected more, perhaps? At first glance, the 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale doesn’t look that, well, special. This is the new high-performance version of Ferrari’s beguiling entry-level, mid-engine supercar, but it has none of the race-face, bare-knuckle-brawler visuals of, say, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. No giant rear wing hung high over the bodywork, no louvers shredding the front fenders, no giant barge boards hung out from the body sides. But don’t let that fool you. Although its V-6 engine displaces just 3.0 liters, the new 296 Speciale is the most powerful rear-wheel-drive production car Ferrari has ever built. More powerful, even, than the screaming, V-12-powered SP3 Daytona or the slightly less manic 12 Cilindri.

What’s the Point?

Despite all that, Ferrari product development chief Gianmaria Fulgenzi makes it clear the 2026 296 Speciale is first and foremost meant to be a road car, not a track rat wearing license plates.

“It is designed to have incredible performance on track, of course, but also to be used on normal roads,” Fulgenzi said. “It has a balance of performance. It’s not extreme. It’s a car that’s meant to be used, a car that won’t destroy your neck or your back.” Message received loud and clear, Gianmaria: The Ferrari 296 Speciale is a road car. But it’s a road car that’s been engineered by folks who build race cars, folks who are used to chasing the tiniest performance increments in the pursuit of the quickest lap time.

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Tech Matters

It begins with the powertrain. The plug-in hybrid architecture is unchanged from that of the regular 296, but the 3.0-liter V-6 and e-motor mounted between the engine and eight-speed dual-clutch transmission now produce a combined peak total of 869 horsepower, an increase of 6.2 percent, with the steering wheel’s Manettino switched to Qualify mode. That’s down to a 13-hp increase in the output of the e-motor, which now produces 177 hp (torque remains the same at 232 lb-ft) and bumps of 37 hp and 15 lb-ft in the output of the internal combustion engine, which now produces 691 hp at 8,000 rpm and 557 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm.

The increased electric power is the result of improving the dual-rotor, central-stator, axial-flux e-motor’s operating and cooling strategies. The extra grunt from the twin-turbo internal combustion engine is the result of a 7 percent increase in boost pressure, made possible, says powertrain development engineer Raoul Dautry, by a Formula 1–inspired combustion strategy that allows the engine to run right at the knock limit—and occasionally just beyond it—when under maximum load. The engine uses strengthened pistons and the same titanium connecting rods as the V-6 in the new F80 hypercar to withstand the increased combustion-chamber pressures and temperatures, while new oil jets improve piston cooling.

But the most challenging part of developing the 296 Speciale powertrain, Dautry says, was reducing its weight. Using the titanium connecting rods, which Ferrari says are 35 percent lighter than the steel items used in the regular 296, was the easy part. The nitride-steel crankshaft is also lighter, cutting the overall weight of the engine’s rotating masses by 4.8 pounds, which also improves throttle response. Excess metal is removed from the aluminum block and crankcase—following the same process used on the 296-based V-6 in the Le Mans–winning 499P race car—saving a further 2.6 pounds. Replacing the engine’s steel screws and stud bolts with titanium items saved 4.2 pounds, and each turbo was lightened by 2.6 pounds. In all, Ferrari trimmed nearly 20 pounds from the powertrain, accounting for 15 percent of the Speciale’s 132-pound weight reduction compared to the regular 296.

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A Load of Go

The 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale’s powertrain funnels all its power and torque through the rear wheels and can slingshot the 3,108-pound car from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds on the way to a top speed of more than 205 mph. That’s a Ferrari-claimed dry-weight number, by the way; our previous testing of the 296 GTB Assetto Fiorano suggests a road-ready weight of just shy of 3,400 pounds. Even so, Ferrari might be underselling that 0–60 acceleration time: The heavier and less powerful 296 GTB Assetto Fiorano nailed it in just 2.3 seconds in our testing, with the standing quarter mile taking just 9.6 seconds at 149.6mph.

“We are near the limit for a rear-wheel-drive car,” Fulgenzi said of the 296 Speciale’s prodigious power and torque outputs. But the limit is not the in the PHEV powertrain. Dautry, who in the past worked on F1 engines at Renault, says the 3.0-liter V-6 could be pushed beyond 700 hp if needed. Rather, the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, which now boasts quicker upshifts from first through seventh—the e-motor providing torque fill to maintain an unbroken rate of acceleration—can’t handle more torque. Beyond that, the 303/35 20-inch rear tires, specially developed Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s that are close to Cup 2 Rs in terms of their dry weather grip, couldn’t handle more than 880 to 900 hp, according to Fulgenzi.

Handling Business

As with the powertrain, the 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale’s chassis and suspension architecture are the same as that of the regular 296, with some detailed upgrades. Among the changes are the adoption of Multimatic adjustable dampers derived from those used on the 296 GT3 race car, and stiffer, lighter titanium springs that help reduce the maximum roll angle by 13 percent. The ride height is 0.2 inch lower, lowering the center of gravity. The overall aim, says vehicle dynamics engineer Andrea Giacomini, was to increase mechanical grip, especially in lower speed corners, and to enhance the fundamental agility of the relatively short-wheelbase chassis while ensuring a high degree of consistency in the car’s dynamic responses.

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Giacomini says the 296 Speciale is capable of 4 percent greater lateral acceleration than the regular 296. One of the key elements in achieving this, he explains, was a focus on the front axle, using Ferrari’s sophisticated six-axis vehicle-dynamics sensor to precisely calculate the grip levels of the 245/35 20-inch Cup 2 front tires and use those values to determine how the SSC 9.0 dynamic control system adjusts the responses of the traction control, stability control, e-differential, and ABS Evo electronic brake control to keep the car’s rear end where the driver wants it.

Air Freshener

The SSC 9.0 system also seamlessly integrates the influence of the 296 Speciale’s various aerodynamic systems into the overall dynamic mix. Though it may not look as aerodynamically radical as Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS, the 296 Speciale nonetheless bristles with active and passive aerodynamic technologies that deliver 959 pounds of peak downforce at 155 mph, a 20 percent increase over the regular 296.

The most noticeable aero changes occur at the rear of the car, in the shape of two winglets that rise from the body side behind the rear wheels and kink over the top of the rear fenders. Their vertical elements improve wake management to reduce drag, while the profile of their horizontal surfaces generates downforce. The wings also interact with the cooling airflow from the rear radiators, improving their efficiency, and assist the active spoiler that rises vertically between them from the trailing edge of the rear bodywork. Derived from that used on the 296 GTB, the spoiler has a completely revised actuator management strategy that gets it to its high-downforce setting 50 percent quicker and enables a medium downforce configuration to improve rear-end stability at high speeds.

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Also at the rear is a new diffuser, which works with the aero underbody to exploit the full potential of the three extractor venturis even when the active spoiler is in its low-drag configuration. Vortex generators on the rear undertray not only increase rear downforce compared to the 296 GTB but also ensure the correct aerodynamic balance of the car in all rear spoiler configurations.

Up front is a beautifully integrated aero damper system that channels air from the redesigned front undertray to the upper body just ahead of the windshield to improve the efficiency of the undertray’s vortex generators. The system also increases the amount of downforce acting on the front wheels and ensures it stays constant even as the front ride height changes during acceleration and braking. On either side of the aero damper vent are louvers that vent high-pressure air from the front wheelwells.

According to aerodynamics engineer Salvatore Sedda, 70 percent of Ferrari’s aero development work on the 296 Speciale focused on increasing front axle downforce. “One of our goals was to maximize the front downforce and move the aerodynamic balance of the car forward to get a sharper, more precise turn-in as you approach a turn, and then use the active rear wing to balance the car through the corner,” he said. This, combined with the changes designed to improve the front end’s mechanical grip, suggests the 296 Speciale will be a hyperalert corner carver. Indeed, Fulgenzi says that on road-legal Cup 2 tires, the 296 Speciale is 2.5 seconds quicker around Ferrari’s Fiorano test track than the regular 296 and will be able to lap any track at more than 80 percent the pace of the 296 Challenge race car.

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Finishing Touches

“We didn’t want the engineers to brutalize the car,” Ferrari design chief Flavio Manzoni said. “The question was how to integrate performance and form in a beautiful way.” That explains the relative subtlety of the 296 Speciale’s visuals. Aside from the carefully integrated aero hardware, the car also features a black roof that’s designed to visually transform the cabin into a cockpit, Manzoni says. Other changes include a revised rear graphic between the taillights, a more scalloped hood, a dark engine cover, and a unique forged-aluminum wheel design. Inside, you find lots of exposed carbon fiber and Alcantara, with exposed fasteners and lightweight seats that each weigh 11 pounds less than the standard items. The 296 Speciale also bows a new color in the Ferrari palette, Verde Nürburgring, a punchy metallic green.

The 2026 Ferrari 296 Speciale will also be available from the outset as a convertible, the 296 Speciale A (for “aperta,” Italian for “open”), which Ferrari says weighs just 110 pounds more than the coupe.

“The car is quite a rocket,” said Fulgenzi, a man who has spent a lot of time behind the wheel of some of the fastest Ferraris ever built. But his grin suggests the limits of the sharper, faster 296 Speciale’s performance envelope will remain as accessible as that of the regular 296, one of the finest mid-engine cars ever to come from Maranello. “It will be the most fun [to drive] car on the market,” he says.

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