By Dan Neil

Last month, while admiring the blurry, roaring scenery of California's high desert in a Ferrari 296 GTS ($500,538, as tested), I happened to glance at the speedometer. Oh sweet Jesus. I hope that's kilometers per hour.

Dude, get a hold of yourself, I thought. You've got a family, responsibilities. You can't spend the next month just lounging around the pool at the Riverside County jail. And yet there I was, asking for it.

In my defense, I was lured into the life. The 296 GTS -- S for Spider, a convertible -- must have slipped something in my hydration, intending to transport me across state lines for illegal purposes. The pandering starts with its stupendous plug-in hybrid powertrain, consisting of a hard-hitting (653 hp), fast-spinning (8,500 rpm) twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6; a ferocious high-torque electric motor; and, between them, what Ferrari calls the Transition Manager Actuator (TMA), a super-clutch blending gas-electric output into an 818-hp smoothie of outrageous fortune, with a fire hose for a straw.

Mounted transversely under the floor at the car's balance point is a high-voltage, 7.45-KWh battery. Like the similarly heeled McLaren Artura, the 296 GTS manages quite nicely on electricity alone, up to speeds of 84 mph and 15.5 miles nominal range.

While Ferraristas cannot fathom the necessity of such emissions-motivated hybridization, it's an obvious matter of public roads and public interest. The 296 GTS and 296 GTB (for "Berlinetta") are Maranello's series-production mid-engine coupe/convertible offerings, sold by the thousands around the world. Their local emissions are most definitely being counted and taxed accordingly. The GTS's few miles of electric range will allow it to operate in the growing number of city centers with low and no-emission zones.

For now I think high-net-worth exhibitionists should be grateful that such cars are still street legal. If this is what compromise feels like, I'm down with it.

The 296 series does have a reputation for fussiness, owing to its Formula One-inspired human interface. If it pleases the court, the defense would like to enter into evidence our car's leather-stitched, carbon-constructed steering wheel, crowded with paddle shifters; rubbery pressure switches (turn indicators); compass/click-to-select capacitive switches; touchable switchpads for the headlamps and wipers; a small mechanical selector for cruise control; little wheelie deals to adjust cruise control and headlamps; the start/stop button; and two, very different Manettino controls for propulsion and dynamics.

In the lower left quadrant is the e-Manettino selector, with powertrain configurations for Qualifying, Performance, Hybrid and eDrive. To the right is the other, older Manettino selector, a spring-loaded dynamics selector with settings for snow/ice, wet, comfort, sport, race and ESC-off, disabling stability control. Bear in mind we haven't left the steering wheel yet.

Getting a handle on the 296 GTS requires mastering both the gamepad-like steering wheel and its matrix of control maps. There are nuances. The GTS starts and stays in Hybrid mode until told otherwise; as a result, the GTS doesn't roar to life like older Ferraris. In Hybrid mode, the stop/start cycling remains active, interrupting the V6's chest-beating at intersections. I especially liked trundling around Palm Springs with the top down, in the whispering eDrive, which allowed me to eavesdrop on the astonished vox pop. Sorry, sir, I'm married.

By the time the car and I reached the hill country, your honor, we'd both had enough fine-grained modulation. Still rolling, I tapped the eDrive into Performance mode and the Manettino into race. Behind me, the resonant tremolo of the turbo-six darkened, deepened and picked up some reverb; the instrument graphics turned red with anger and relevant status indicators updated. The tire-temperature display presented itself for my inspection. Yep, plenty warm.

It was then, your honor, that I went for it.

This was the first moment the GTS sounded happy -- not Prozac happy, but really, truly, volumetrically happy, with me peddling between 4,000 and 8,000 rpm, chirping the rear tires through uphill switchbacks then peeling away with the full orchestra playing. Hi-yo, Silver.

Credit the V6's exotic equal-length exhaust manifolds, tuned to elicit the combustion cycle's most sonorous/erotic orders of resonance. According to Ferrari, the keening of the hybrid V6 at redline earned it the nickname "Piccolo V12" from development engineers. Credit, too, the sky-high redline, with fuel cutoff stammering between shifts at 8,500 rpm.

Thus unfettered and unmuted, the 296 GTS will absolutely yank a knot in your ass. The official 0-62 acceleration of 2.9 seconds is mere throat-clearing. Four-point-seven seconds later, the car can be passing through 124 mph amid a storm of bees. Somewhere around 100 mph, you might be able to feel the onset of some negative lift, as the car's active aero systems extract a touch of stabilizing downforce from the wind.

At the pace I was going, the car's semi-active suspension would have been working hard to keep a grip on the scruffy desert roads; it didn't seem so.

At lower speeds, in the twisties, the car's grip is all mechanical, and it's beautiful. Corner to corner, the e-assisted steering response is feather light, pointable and flickable, with steering ramping quickly and off-center, making it easy to stay ahead of a drifting tail. There is no flex, anywhere. Given its weight distribution (41/59, front/ rear) and power, the 296 GTS might have tended to be tail-happy under braking and pendulous on the throttle. It isn't, thanks to some super-fancy g-meters, semi-active suspension, torque vectoring/limited-slip rear differential and by-wire control, all discreetly suppressing over-rotations.

After a few hours, I knew I had to get off the road or there would be consequences. Alas, there is no in-the-line-of-duty exception in my job.

Is there?

2025 Ferrari 296 GTS

Base price $368,134

Price, as tested $500,538

Powertrain Hybrid gas-electric twin-turbocharged and direct-injected V6 (120-degree vee); high-torque electric motor; eight-speed dual-clutch automatic; torque-vectoring electrically controlled rear limited-slip differential.

Power/torque 818 hp at 8,000 rpm/546 lb-ft at 6,250 rpm

Length/wheelbase/width/height 179.7/102.4/77.1/46.9 inches

Curb weight 3,550 pounds (est.)

0-62 mph 2.9 seconds

0-124 mph 7.6 seconds

EPA fuel economy 18 mpg, combined, 48 mpg-e

Luggage capacity 7.1 cubic feet

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 12, 2025 16:36 ET (20:36 GMT)

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