Jeremy Clarkson Isn’t A Fan Of The Ferrari 296 GTS

It’s no secret Jeremy Clarkson isn’t a huge fan of modern cars, the former Top Gear and The Grand Tour host making his displeasure quite clear lately. Add to the list of modern rides he’s none too happy about the Ferrari 296 GTS. He had a lot to say about the Italian stallion recently.

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Penning a new installment for his column in the Sunday Times, Clarkson tells quite the story about how he was testing a 296 GTS when I was crashed into while parked in a pub lot. Why it was parked there of all places has to do with one of the many complaints Clarkson has about the hybrid.

One of Clarkson’s big gripes about the modern Ferrari is all the nanny electronics which constantly pester the driver. Fortunately for him, the Italian automaker provided him with a guy who walked him through the process of turning all that off, something he said without personal assistance he never would’ve successfully performed.

Another has to do with the fact the car is a hybrid. He says when it’s in all-electric mode, a quiet Ferrari just doesn’t sit well in the gut, saying it’s akin to “an electric Volkswagen.” But he said when the twin-turbo V6 bellows it’s just loud, not the aural symphony one usually gets with a Ferrari.

One of the worst things he has to say about the Ferrari 296 GTS is that it doesn’t drive as well as a new Porsche 911 Turbo. In Italy those are fighting words, so we’re sure the boys in Maranello are furious. After all, it wasn’t too long ago Clarkson was mocking all the Porsche 911s for being some glorified VW Beetle.

After visiting a pub and listening to a band play, Clarkson said he started heading home in the hybrid Ferrari when it had all kinds of problems. It sounds like the thing went into a type of limp mode. He turned around and went back to the pub, parking it there. According to him, Ferrari checked it out later and said it was fine but the cold weather might have affected its performance.

And that’s where we’re at with modern vehicles: they can’t drive right in the cold. After decades of perfecting the internal combustion engine so it runs properly in all kinds of environments, everyone’s switching to a technology that’s so finnicky some cold weather makes your expensive new ride act crazy.

What a time to be alive.

Image via jeremyclarkson1/Instagram