Lamborghini Revuelto, Ferrari 458 Spider, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ... For years, British YouTuber Mat Armstrong has made a specialty of buying back wrecked supercars that everyone else considers lost, then bringing them back to life in front of his community of several million subscribers.
This time, the challenge is on a whole new level. Mat tackles one of Ferrari the most technological in today's range: a 296 GTB 830 bhp, almost new, but so destroyed that even Ferrari preferred to give up.
An almost new Ferrari 296 GTB destroyed in seconds
The Ferrari 296 GTB is one of Maranello's latest hybrid supercars: 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, electric motor, 830 hp combined, 0 to 100 km/h in 2.9 sec. With traction control deactivated, even the slightest overconfidence can go horribly wrong. That's exactly what happened to the car Mat bought. British car, shipped to Cyprus, confident owner... until he decided to turn off the aids on the open road. Loss of control at high speed, a slide, a wall, a violent impact to the rear: the 296 ends up completely gutted on the right-hand side, suspension ripped off, chassis hit, floor perforated.
The car was then taken to Ferrari Cyprus. The manufacturer examines the damage, draws up an "astronomical" estimate and, above all, explains that a 296 "so damaged" has never been repaired in the network. Clearly: it's better to consider the car irreparable and move on to something else.
Ferrari throws in the towel, Mat arrives with 11,000 $ parts
Where most owners would have accepted the verdict, Mat Armstrong saw it as... the perfect project for his YouTube channel. He bought the stricken car and drove to Cyprus with around $11,000 (£9,000) worth of original Ferrari parts under his arm: internal and external steering tie rods, front shock absorber, hub, suspension components, small hardware.
Ferrari agrees to a surprising compromise: the 296 stays in the dealership yard, Mat and his team can use the brand's tools to change parts to get it back on four wheels and try to start the car.
The scene is surreal: amidst the new Ferraris, we see this half-dismembered 296 GTB, front right exposed, Mat's mechanics replacing ball joints, adjusting wishbone spacers, reconstituting a shock absorber from new and still good parts, and reassembling a complete hub/disc/ceramic/shock absorber assembly. This is a far cry from the traditional independent workshop lost in an industrial zone: here, the "rebuilder" plays at home, at Ferrari.
An electronic and hybrid puzzle that even Ferrari doesn't understand
Once the car is back on its four wheels, all that's left to do is start it up, load it onto a tray and send it off to the UK. This is where the real difficulties begin. 12 V battery reconnected, ignition switched on... the dashboard lights up, but the 296 immediately displays a message: "Hybrid system failure, go to dealer". Impossible to start the V6, impossible even to communicate properly with the ECUs via OBD. The Ferrari technician who plugs in the official tool can't read any codes, as if the car refused to "wake up".
Mat, having already worked on a damaged Lamborghini Revuelto PHEVWe suspect a "pyrofuse", the pyrotechnic fuse that cuts off the high-voltage supply and sometimes prevents starting after a big shock. But this fuse on the 296 seems to handle much more than that. No communication on the CAN network, no diagnostics possible until certain ECUs, sensors, airbags and wiring harnesses are reconnected.
Ferrari then set a condition: in order to really scan the 296, everything connected to the network had to be present: airbags, sensors, optics, radiators, hybrid modules. In short, you'd almost have to rebuild the car before you could... start diagnosing it. Even the brake bleeding procedure, normally assisted by the Ferrari computer to activate the ABS valves, is impossible. Mat and his father ended up bleeding the brakes the old-fashioned way, without being able to guarantee optimal braking.
Back to United Kingdom
As if that weren't enough, another reality emerges as soon as the car is put on deck: the chassis and floorboard are far more damaged than expected. Under the passenger seat, a clear hole in the floor's "skin", with the wiring harnesses ripped out. For such a recent model, the construction is surprising: a thin sheet or composite panel riveted to structural reinforcements, designed primarily for lightness. Under impact, this panel simply... gave way.
Mat orders a new floor from Ferrari. The part arrives, ultra-light, almost "flaccid" in its thinness. The team cuts out the old floor, grinds off the rivet heads, drills, then comes to present the new part from underneath.
Finally, the underside is repainted to reproduce as closely as possible the grey shade used by Ferrari. It's not a "concession" job, but for a car that everyone condemned, the approach is very clean.
131,000 pledged to save an "irrecoverable" Ferrari
Between the purchase price of the wrecked 296 GTB (around 130,000 $), the 11,000 $ of parts ordered immediately, the new bodywork components, the airbag modules, the Cyprus transport to the UK and everything that will follow, the project already exceeds 140,000 $.
And again, at the end of the first video, the Ferrari is far from repaired: the engine and hybrid battery still need to be removed to deal with some structural damage, the right rear end is a jigsaw puzzle of sheet metal, orange high-voltage cables and hoses, the roof probably needs to be peeled off to properly replace the rear wing, and the car still refuses to start.
For Mat, the risk is enormous. Sure, his 296 GTB videos are already a hit on YouTube, but there's no guarantee he'll be able to put the car back on the road, or even master all the secrets of this ultra-sophisticated hybrid platform.
Beyond the spectacle, this 296 GTB taken apart piece by piece raises a real question: what will become of these hybrid supercars in 10 or 15 years' time, when they've suffered a few knocks, battery problems or complex electronic breakdowns?
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