Mat Armstrong rebuilding 296 GTB asks for Ferrari's help but gets an unfortunate response that blocks everything
Published on Feb 24, 2026 at 3:29 AM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Feb 23, 2026 at 5:30 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
Mat Armstrong was in the process of rebuilding a Ferrari 296 GTB, but he didn’t get the response he’d hoped for when he reached out to Ferrari for help.
In life, some things are guaranteed, like death and taxes – but we’re going to include Mat Armstrong working on a car project in that lineup.
He is always working hard on a car, and there’s a good chance that the vehicle is giving him a lot of trouble.
And this one was no different.
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Fixing up this 296 GTB got complicated when Ferrari got involved
Mat Armstrong has taken on a lot of different cars in his time on YouTube.
There was the totaled Porsche GT3 RS that he rebuilt to race against other supercars.
He really challenged himself with an Aston Martin DBX that he bought dirt cheap because it had been submerged underwater.
But this 296 GTB may just be his toughest undertaking yet.
The car in question had been badly damaged in an accident and was taken to a Ferrari dealer in Cyprus.
However, the quoted price was huge as Ferrari had reportedly never fixed a 296 ‘so badly damaged’.
He’d already saved thousands by acquiring rare parts from eBay, but things weren’t over yet.
If Armstrong and his team wanted help from Ferrari, the car would have to be virtually complete.
But when he called up the customer service line for help with flashing hazard lights and ignition, he ran into a complication.
Because the car had been crash-damaged, factory rules prohibit the car from being on-site for diagnostics until the repair is inspected and signed off by a Ferrari-approved body shop.
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What was Mat Armstrong going to do now?
“The car isn’t going to pass the inspection because we’ve now fitted it with a race kit,” Armstrong said.
“On top of that, we haven’t used Ferrari’s correct repair procedures to do our repairs because they’re not available to us.
“So it’s looking unlikely Ferrari would even touch this car.”
It was a tough situation be in, but the positive takeaway was that the car was close to being done.
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Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
