As I approach four decades on this earth, I’ve learned that if you wait long enough, you see all the good and bad things again. I remember back in 1997, when Ferrari transplanted the semi-automatic, paddle-shifter transmission from its Formula 1 cars to its road-going models. That car was the F355 F1, easily one of the most beautiful Cavallinos of the modern era, but also the car that represented a huge leap forward in performance.
Ferrari is now bringing the manual back to Maranello, exclusively for its flagship V12 models, with the new 12cylinder manual. As you may have read, this is not a traditional manual, but a manual-by-wireAs Ferrari calls it. In short, it has a six-speed gate with a physical, and traditionally spaced, clutch pedal and a quintessentially Ferrari shift lever. However, these two components are not mechanically linked to the transmission, only electronically. It’s pretty much the same thing we’ve had for years, but instead of paddle shifters, there’s a shift lever and a clutch.
Interestingly, when the 355 was introduced with a semi-automatic transmission, there was not much protest from enthusiasts, perhaps because Ferrari still offered it with a conventional manual transmission. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any haters when paddle shifters were introduced to F1, as racing legend Alan McNish told me earlier this year: “Now cars have paddle shifters, but when I did my first F1 test, it was an H-pattern, eight-speed gearbox with a foot clutch. When paddle shifters came in, people complained about it not being racing and not being in control of the driver with the new gearbox.”
Like the Luce EV, the Internet has reacted negatively to Ferrari’s “fake manual”, and to be honest, I don’t really understand it. I understand that people are not liking the EV and believe that it does not fit the ethos of Ferrari. But offering what is essentially a manual Experience In a front-engine Ferrari with a naturally aspirated V12 that revs to nearly 10,000 RPM – what’s not to like? I’ve logged many miles in the 12cylinder Spyder, and if you gave me the option of driving it with a stick shift (by-wire or not), you can bet your mom’s chicken pot pie recipe that I’d say, “Yes.”
Could Ferrari have created an entirely new transmission with a traditional manual linkage for the 12cylinder manual? Yes, I think so. It certainly has the know-how and manufacturing capability. Would it make any sense? Absolutely not. Only 1,499 units will be built through Maranello’s Tailor Made program, and that’s too few cars to justify the development of an entirely new transmission. And while many will feel that this is what should have been done, the financial case for it simply does not exist. So, it comes down to this manual-by-wire or nothing? And if most people are already accustomed to and enjoy using paddle shifters in modern supercars, why is it so hard to accept stick shifters instead?
Thirty years ago, Ferrari was the first company to automate manual transmissions, giving its cars performance gains. It did this to be on the cutting edge of technology and to compare its street cars to its racing cars, knowing that many of its customers would prefer to “play” F1 driver in their Rosso Corsa machines. it worked. Nowadays, it is the only transmission in high-end performance cars and basically all race cars.
Today, when “playing F1 driver” is the default in any new supercar because they all come with paddle shifters, Ferrari is figuratively throwing performance out the window for the sake of driving pleasure. It knows that a lap around the racetrack in manual might be a little slow, but it doesn’t care. It knows that some customers are still looking for that old connection, even if they lose a tenth or two in some performance metrics. When I asked if Ferrari would keep this in mind for future models, it said it would be the only car with such a system for the time being.
Call it a fake manual if you want, it’s partly true. However, if the option is all or nothing, I think we should applaud the effort, even if most of us won’t be one of the 1,499 recipients of a 12cylinder manual.
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