- Ferrari is considering putting a clutch pedal back in its cars after a decade-long absence.
- Only the limited-run and hugely expensive Icona heritage models would get manual option.
- Product development boss says engine torque would be limited to make the clutch pushable.
Ferrari has shown with the design of the new 12Cilindri and Icona models like the SP3 Daytona that it’s not above reviving classic exterior design details to make us really lust after its new cars. But now it could be about to resurrect something even more evocative: the gated manual transmission.
It’s been 13 years since Ferrari offered a new car with a manual ’box, a decision it made partly because the faster, more efficient paddle-shift alternatives were a better marketing fit with its forward-looking F1 program, and partly because the brutal truth is most buyers didn’t want to row their own gears.
Related: Lewis Hamilton Wants To Design A New Ferrari F40 With A Stick Shift
But now product development boss Gianmaria Fulgenzi has admitted that some of its customers are pushing hard for the return of a manual option, and for once, Ferrari is actually listening.
“In terms of mechanical gearchanges, it’s something that could be in the future, depending on product,” Fulgenzi told Australian website Car Sales. Sadly for Ferrari fans who are merely wealthy, rather than absurdly rich, that ‘product’ won’t be one of the brand’s regular production models like the 299 or 12Cilindri.
Fulgenzi said if the manual did ever return it would “probably [be on] an Icona car, because it’s a car that represent our heritage, a car to be admired and to be driven in a certain way.”
Lewis Hamilton is pushing for a manual Ferrari
Although previous Icona models, the Monza SP1, SP2 and Daytona SP3 – which each cost several million dollars and are made only in tiny quantities – have all featured F1 paddleshift transmissions, we know Ferrari’s new F1 star Lewis Hamilton is keen on the idea of a future Icona car having a manual. Hamilton has suggested Ferrari could built a modern homage to the F40 called the F44, a nod to his racing number. The F40‘s successor, the F50, was the last special Ferrari to get a manual, though the company’s final stick-shift model was a California in 2012.
But Fulgenzi warned that customers dead-set on buying a manual Ferrari would have to be willing to accept that it would cost them performance, as well as cash. He told Car Sales that engine torque would require limiting compared with a DCT’s car output to make the clutch manageable, claiming that drivers would need a ‘very big leg’ otherwise.
To give some context here the 12Cilindri’s 6.5-liter V12 pumps out a thick 500 lb-ft (678 Nm), which is a healthy amount. But the supercharged 6.2 V8 in a CTS-V makes steamrollers it with 659 lb-ft (894 Nm) and Caddy’s engineers still managed to fit a manual you can drive without needing to spend two months on a squat rack in your garage while you wait for your order to be built.
If Ferrari does bring back the manual on its limited edition cars it will be jumping on a trend already followed by BMW, whose €750,000 ($821k) 2023 3.0 CSL came with the stick-shift its M4 Competition donor vehicle is denied. For years automakers asked us to pay more for automatic transmissions and now they’re asking us to pay less.
