Ferrari 296 Speciale review

It’s the 296, but simplified. This is a good thing. There’s lots of carbon fibre and Alcantara which looks great and saves weight. The door panel is a single piece specific to the Speciale, and the sound from the woofers passes through holes cut in the carbon. Very cool. There are exposed fasteners, which seems fitting in a car that tends to motorsport-inspired minimalism. There’s no carpet on the floor.

As ever, the steering wheel is rather busy, though Ferrari is moving away from this approach on other models. New on the 296 Speciale is a yellow strip at the far end of the rev counter display which tells the driver when its extra boost is available and how many boost bursts are left. The control logic knows where the boost will be most useful.

Ferrari has an unusually close relationship with its clients, and negativity around its HMI has prompted a range-wide rethink. As with all these things, though, the set-up gets better the more you use it, and there’s a specific button to dispense with all the ADAS. It sits in the little grouping to the left, and brings up a menu on the main screen which you scroll down and then confirm with another button on the right. Rarely has there been a car in which lane assist has been less welcome than this.

So it’s better?

It is. But not perfect. Accessing the audio remains more challenging than it should be, with key switchgear hidden on the other side of the steering wheel. But we like the gear selector layout that mimics the classic manual set-up. And the seats and driving position are faultless, even if the optional four-point harness is a little bit fiddly in normal use.

All the same, it’s amazing how quickly you can become entirely comfortable in the 296 Speciale. This also underlines its more civilised overall character.