The Ferrari 458 Italia launched as one of the finest performance cars ever a decade ago but you could argue it was missing one thing; a manual transmission.
You see, Ferrari decided to drop the manual transmission from its mid-engined V8 sports car family after the F430 due to poor sales. However, a company out of Texas has announced that it is developing a manual Ferrari 458 Italia and intends on selling it in limited numbers.
The company in question is European Auto Group recently responsible for fitting a gated six-speed transmission into a Ferrari 430 Scuderia. That vehicle set the internet abuzz and now EAG has dropped a teaser video previewing its six-speed 458.
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Building a manual 458 is a little more difficult than a manual 430 Scuderia. Unlike the standard F430 which was offered with a stick-shift, the 458 was sold exclusively with a dual-clutch F1 transmission. EAG has had to source a transmission from an outside source (it’s unclear who) and says that there’s a very limited supply of these gearboxes, revealing that it will only be able to build 10 or 11 of these very special 458s. This teaser shows that like the very best manual Ferraris, the car will use a gated shifter.
EAG is still putting the final touches to its development car and intends on commencing production of customer cars in January 2020.
Things won’t stop with the 458 for EAG. According to company owner Art Bartosik, a manual Lamborghini Huracan could be next.