The Ferrari 458 Speciale is rightfully regarded as one of the Italian carmaker’s finest-ever supercars.
As the last hurrah to Ferrari’s naturally-aspirated V8s, the 458 Speciale is just about as desirable as a car can get. It’s fast, raw, and has a soundtrack to die for. However, no car is perfect and neither is the Speciale. Perhaps the only criticism that can be made is that it was never offered with a manual transmission.
Now, a company by the name of Modificata has rectified that.
The U.S. firm says it is “dedicated to a visceral driving experience that no longer exists in modern cars” and has just finished work on its late project: equipping a Ferrari 458 Speciale with a six-speed H-pattern manual transmission. Not just that but it has given it a gated shifter, the holy grail of stick shifts.
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While the company hasn’t detailed the process of creating a 458 Speciale with a stick shift, photos and videos of its creation show that it looks like something that Ferrari itself built.
The shifter is housed in a newly-formed transmission tunnel and sits in place of the stalk found in the standard car that has three different driving modes. It is trimmed in black Alcantara and consists of a spherical metal shift knob and then the gated mechanism itself. It is a work of art to look at and we can only begin to imagine how nice it feels to use.
A video of the shifter in use shows that it has been paired with a set of custom pedals and looks to work brilliantly at both slow and high speeds. The combination of the car’s high-revving 4.5-liter V8 and the manual gearbox is simply irresistible.
It is unclear if Modificata plans on selling its six-speed conversion kit for the 458 Speciale or if this project will remain a one-off.