Have you ever driven a Ferrari Challenge car before?” enquires a thickly Italian-accented voice from behind a full-face helmet. The man speaking is none other than Giampiero Simoni, a legend of Alfa Romeo’s 1994 BTCC assault. That alone is enough to make the trip to Circuito Monteblanco in Spain more than worth it, let alone to have the chance to drive Ferrari’s latest Challenge car. “Yes, but no… sort of,” is my stuttering, unhelpful reply, because I did once drive an F355 Challenge, albeit one that had been converted into a road car long after its competitive career ended. Wonderful though it was, I couldn’t tell you – or Giampiero – what it was like on a track.

Then again, trying to draw any parallels between that disarmingly pretty, quaintly analogue car and the tech-heavy beast of a machine I’m clumsily contorting my 6ft-plus frame past the rollcage into is an entirely fruitless exercise. The 296 is the ninth Challenge model, and the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo has just completed its 32nd season; much has changed in over three decades, and, as I’m about to discover, this is a car that leans heavily on Ferrari’s highly successful recent involvement in sports car racing.

The F355 wasn’t the first Challenge car – that distinction goes to the 348 – but it was the first to appear officially in the UK. Back then, a kit of parts arrived to convert a road-going F355 GTB, whereas this 296 Challenge is a pure race car, albeit one that started life in the same factory as the 296 GTB in Maranello. Challenge shells are tagged at the body-in-white stage, with the necessary modifications made, such as bespoke fixing points for the bolt-in rollcage, before manufacture is completed on a dedicated separate line.

“This is a pure race car, albeit one that started life in the same factory as the 296 GTB in Maranello”

The 296 Challenge first appeared in 2023 at Ferrari’s now customary end-of-year bash, the Finali Mondiali, which hosts – among much fanfare and other attractions – the resolution of the two International Challenge series: the European and the North American one. Those championships ran with the 296 in 2024, whereas the UK and Japanese series continued for one more year with the outgoing 488 Evo model. In 2025 the 296 will be used across the board, including in the new Australasian Challenge. The main Challenge series are heavily oversubscribed; churning out these ‘racing versions’ is good business for Maranello, just as the Supercup/Carrera Cup is for Porsche.

This is a strikingly aggressive machine, from the delicate aerodynamic ‘flics’ either side of its elongated and strut-supported snout to the huge ‘swan neck’ rear wing. As with the 296 GT3, the water radiator for the high-temp circuit is mounted at the front of the car (the intercoolers and air intakes are down the sides), and the hot air from this rad is ejected through the S-duct vent on the bonnet, effectively sealing the underbody of the car to assist with downforce generation.

Naturally, while the devil is in the detail, there’s far too much of it to expand on here, save to say that this careful manipulation of the air passing over and under the 296 hasn’t just increased the car’s ultimate downforce (to 870kg at 155mph, an 18% increase over the 488 Evo), but has assisted in improving the balance and consistency of the car over an entire race distance, one of the key targets for the new car along with improved braking performance.

The 296 catches into life with a thunderously loud percussive boom that ricochets off Monteblanco’s pitwall, before the little V6 settles to a menacing throb of an idle, the volume achieved via a new exhaust system that also dumps the road car’s gas particle filter – or GPF – although retains the use of cats. Within that shapely body lies Ferrari’s latest and ultra compact 3-litre twin-turbo V6, here shorn of the hybrid accompaniment utilised by the road car, and reworked with alterations to the turbos to produce an additional 37bhp and a wider torque band. That means there’s 690bhp on offer, making it the highest specific output of any road car-derived Ferrari engine at 234bhp/tonne. Losing the battery and e-motor contributes to a weight saving of 140kg (the Challenge weighing 1330kg dry), even though an air-con compressor and conventional starter motor had to be added, driven from the crankshaft.

“The V6 barks into life, although you feel it as much as hear it from within a crash helmet”

Once inside, the view is everything you’d expect from a car that plays heavily on its relationship to Ferrari’s current GT3 challenger. The steering wheel is more yoke than wheel, and is festooned by switchgear including a pair of manettino rotary switches towards the bottom. These are the adjustment for the four-stage traction-control system that uses an extremely advanced 6D chassis sensor (shared with the road car) to monitor longitudinal, lateral and vertical loads, modulating the engine’s output and the E-diff accordingly to maximise grip and power delivery. The TCS1 setting is for braking and turning, effectively keeping the car stable under extreme trail braking, while TCS2 is more of a traditional throttle-centric form of traction control to help limit wheelspin on exit for those with a heavy right foot. As TCS1 suggests, it’s closely linked with the new ABS Evo Track, the Challenge’s brake-by-wire system, of which the crown jewels are the new carbon-carbon CCM-R+ discs, measuring 402mm on the front axle and 390mm at the rear. Of particular note is their construction, which uses longer strands of carbon in a 3D matrix pattern to improve their resistance to heat. Another manettino-style switch on the dashboard controls the ABS, offering four options: two for wet, two for dry.

Flick the battery and ignition switches and then give the start button a firm shove. The V6 barks into life, although you feel it as much as hear it from within a crash helmet. There’s nothing intimidating about getting the Challenge moving: it’s a squeeze of the right-hand paddle into first, and then onto the throttle.

The first impression is the need to slow things down. Not the car, that is, but my own inputs. High on adrenaline and the anticipation of taming a 690bhp monster, I’m too rough with it; the 296 Challenge is a sensitive soul, light to steer and highly reactive, only requiring the smallest of inputs on the steering ‘wheel’ to effect a considerable change of direction.

The brake pedal is not overly firm in initial operation, although therein soon lies the next big revelation – namely that the braking power of this new carbon-carbon set up is positively Herculean. It is the one aspect of the car in the brief time we have with it that I know I’m leaving plenty left on the table. The start/finish straight is a good example: a decent exit from the final right-hander, a satisfying third or perhaps fourth-gear curve with plenty of room on the exit makes for a top speed brushing 160mph by the time the Challenge enters the braking zone. The telemetry reveals a good 100 bar or more of pedal pressure is ideal here, but even falling just shy of that on my initial laps the Challenge slows as if I’ve opened a giant, invisible parachute out the back.

Putting so much force through the left pedal elicits just the slightest shimmy from the 296’s hips, but it feels so well balanced all the way to the apex (each TCS dial set to the middle number), and with heat in the slick tyres, readily capable of accepting everything the V6 has on the exit. Push harder and you’re more likely to expose just a hint of understeer, even taking into consideration the new, wider bespoke Pirellis, and combined with that suite of sophisticated electronics the net effect is a car that feels disarmingly friendly – the ideal learning tool for gentlemen drivers as well as one for budding endurance stars to prove their mettle. That’s surely no accident.

“Putting so much force through the left pedal elicits the slightest shimmy from the 296’s hips”

Strangely, with such spectacular braking performance it’s the engine that becomes the least memorable aspect of the car. The 296 accrues speed at a suitably spectacular rate, but I find the outright acceleration is relegated in my mind, perhaps because of the aerodynamic drag at higher speeds, or maybe because of the satisfaction derived from the wonderfully plump mid-range torque or the comically savage ‘chooo’ of vented boost if you lift off the throttle sharply. From trackside, the gruff, dirty rasp of the V6 will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s heard a 499P at a World Endurance Championship race. It’s worth contemplating that while it’s nowhere near as sophisticated as a 296 GT3, the Challenge has nearly 200bhp more after the dreaded Balance of Performance has emasculated the straight-line speed of the former.

Ferrari is keen that we have a thorough grasp of the range of services it offers, from track days and lessons at Fiorano to one-to-one coaching and the Club Challenge, a sort of timed track day for Challenge owners who don’t feel quite ready yet for full-on racing – all at a price, naturally.

Talking of such things, a new 296 Challenge will set you back just over £263,000 plus local taxes, with the cost of a year’s Challenge racing on top of that. Yes, that’s no small sum of money, but in a world where hypercars and their track-only relations can cost many times that figure, the idea of an authentic, slicks-and-wings factory Ferrari racing car that’s exhilarating yet forgiving to drive makes the 296 Challenge extremely desirable however you decide to use it.

Ferrari 296 challenge

Engine 3 litres, V6 turbo
Chassis Aluminium monocoque
Power 690bhp
Transmission Seven-speed F1 DCT
Suspension (front & rear) Double wishbones, coil springs over damper
Weight (dry) 1330kg
Price £263,000 + taxes