‘Describe it in one word? Impossible. In three? I can try: muscular, light and mean’. Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s Chief Design Officer, describes the latest creature to take shape from the pencils of the Maranello Style Centre. It is called the 296 Speciale and is the most exclusive and powerful variant of the 296 GTB presented in 2021. ‘More than a variant I would speak of a completely new model. The aesthetic interventions have been important and decisive, releated with the new stylistic course that we inaugurated first with the 12Cilindri and then with the F80,’ explains Manzoni. ‘The objective is always the same: to give unique shapes to a car that has performance in its blood’.
To go faster, the 3.0 V6 hybrid of the 296 Speciale (also available in the spider variant Speciale A) has been brought up to 880 horsepower (+50 horsepower over the 296 GTB), but, above all, a great deal of lightening work has been done overall using super-performance materials such as aluminium and (lots of) carbon fibre. The front of the car immediately clarifies the model’s strong sporting and expressive charge thanks to the bonnet, which is more hollowed out, while the lower part features a suspended splitter, a winged element in body colour that visually widens the base of the front. ‘The mouth is imposing: it almost looks like that of a catamaran,’ says Manzoni. The influence of the racing world, in particular the 296 Challenge, can also be perceived in the rear, while the side is a clear homage to the legendary 250 LM. ‘At the rear, the most characteristic element is the two unprecedented cantilever wings that frame the transom, remaining anchored at the end of the tail,’ continues Carlo Palazzani, head of exterior design.
The action of the style centre to carry out a major slimming treatment also came in the interior: ‘Here we adopted different materials to achieve the lowest possible weight. Of the 60 kilos saved on the model, one third comes from the interior,’ explains Nicola Bevilacqua, head of interior design. ’An example? 10 kilos less come from the use of the new seats, while the floor mats are made of aluminium and the door panel, in its entirety, is made of carbon. In addition, we have replaced the leather with Alcantara, which is lighter and performs better when it comes to high-performance driving’.
For greater ergonomics, the touch controls on the steering wheel have returned, abandoning the ‘all-touch’ setting: ‘After several tests we believe it is the right way to go,’ Manzoni continues. ‘We also talked to customers to understand what they needed in everyday driving. This is true for any Ferrari model because it is part of our mission. We have to make life easy for our customers and try to provide answers and solutions. I fully espouse what the great sculptor Brancusi said: ‘Simplicity is complexity solved’.
