Report 1
Electric Awards 2022
Top Gear
TG's best 'electric' noise: the Ferrari 296 GTB
Yes, it's not a full EV, but a hybrid. Who cares when it sounds like this
What is it?
The first car in Ferrari’s 40-year mid-engined V8 mainstream supercar line-up not to be powered by a V8 engine. And no, it’s not gone all-electric. It’s a V6. Which makes it a bit of an oddity to include in our electric awards at all, you might think. That all depends on how you view the sounds that electric cars produce. Because they’re not great, are they? Either like a synth backing track or a knock-off Star Wars toy light saber. But if you want good noise and zero-emission motion, you can have it within one car. Just not at the same time.
Give me some details about the Ferrari 296 GTB.
Although Ferrari says it’s not a replacement for the F8 Tributo because it’s a) a V6 and b) £40,000 more, that market is exactly where the 296 is pitched. The downsized 3.0-litre engine has allowed space for Ferrari to fit an electric motor between engine and gearbox, adding 165bhp to the twin turbo V6's 663bhp output for an 818bhp total. It’s not slow. Unlike the more complex SF90 it’s not 4WD either, but while that felt like a science project, this time around Ferrari has made the tech feel natural, balletic. It’s enormously rewarding to drive. Yes, you can tootle around in electric for about 15 miles thanks to a 7.4kWh battery, but after that you get to play tunes on the V6. It’s not quite as remarkable as the 458's naturally aspirated 4.5-litre, or the 812's incandescent V12, but in the electric era ICE tunes still rule.
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Why should I care about the Ferrari 296 GTB?
Tough one, if you’re a hardcore EV-ist. Not exactly the last word in range or performance (max of 84mph in e-mode). But for Ferrari this is a step in the right direction, proof the SF90 wasn’t a one-off and that they’re taking the right steps into an electric future. But above and beyond that you should care because this is undoubtedly the best supercar on sale today. It’s not just the way it moves or the excitement in the chassis, it’s the V6 engine. The star of the whole show. We hadn’t expected that. You’d imagine it would be muffled by turbos and corrupted by electric boost, but both actually complement the V6's natural power curve, so it feels almost naturally aspirated.
Why did you give the Ferrari 296 GTB an award?
We could say that we wanted to make a point. Electric doesn’t make a good sound yet and noise, along with vibration and connection, is a key part of what makes sports cars fun. We want to be hooked into the experience in every way, not just have acceleration handed to us on a plate. The 296 GTB represents a half way house then. Its V6 doesn’t make the best noise ever, but it’s still properly tuneful and far better than any speaker-broadcast electric noise anyone’s come up with, plus it has the ability to get itself about on electric. It covers both bases then. And just happens to be a sublime supercar.
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