Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ferrari has officially added its name to the list of automakers that will no longer offer a manual transmission.
The company’s chief technology officer, Michael Hugo Leiters, explained the decision at the Paris Auto Show last week, citing performance and technology as the motivating factors.
Goodbye, gate.
“Ferrari is design, performance, and state of the art technologies,” Leiters said. “There’s no manual transmission that can beat this performance and therefore we have decided to stay on the double-clutch gearbox.”
Ferrari isn’t the first company to move onto dual-clutch only setups and it won’t be the last. Many performance-minded brands have turned their back on offering anything with a clutch pedal in favor of quicker-shifting semi-automatic gearboxes. The only notable exception is Porsche, which claims it will continue producing some 911s with a manual transmission so long as there is a market for it. Whether there will continue to be a large enough draw to make it a profitable endeavor is another story.
Despite being famous for their gorgeous gated gear selectors, Ferrari has steadily decreased production of traditional manuals since they introduced paddle shifters on the 1997 F355. The company’s California was the final vehicle to offer a manual transmission — available only by special order — resulting in extremely limited numbers. And all-new California Ts persist with the 7-speed dual-clutch as the only option.
[Source: Motor Authority] [Image: Christian Junker/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)]
Are you the new Steph, by the way? I’m suspicious now.
No one could be the new Steph.
As the former owner of a classic 1970 365 GT 2+2, this is sad news.
The difference between 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds instead of 4.1 seconds or a 2 second advantage in a 3 minute lap time on a track does NOT justify the loss of satisfaction in driving a high performance car well and smoothly.
Passing on the two seat version for $12k in 1981 is one of the mistakes of my life. He did, however, swap cars for the week, why I will never know. He got a 1981 Coupe deVille.
Why can’t the shaft sticking up in the picture just do what the steering wheel paddles do? They make electrical contact and cause the transmission to shift.
A clutch pedal uses electric motors or hydraulics to simulate the action of a clutch pedal by controlling the clutches in the transmission.
That would be perceived as silly. Part of the emotional appeal of a stick is when there’s a performance advantage. Just doing it for no good reason at all would be like putting a manual spark advance on the steering wheel to make driving more of challenge.
My BIL is in the market for a super sportscar, and I don’t know how he will feel about being limited to automatic. He’s had several smaller sportscars, always with stick, and definitely enjoys the interaction. If just dumping it into Drive is the smart play, maybe he’d get more of a cruiser convertible than a true sportscar.
I don’t like agreeing with you, but it is true. It’s becoming redundant. The computer can do it better.
With the advent of IWD (independent wheel drive – a motor at each wheel) and the torque vectoring that comes with it, there’s no way a human could manually control it while it’s being driven. I think we’ll see it showing up in every supercar soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD2Do1gAuog
The computer can steer and brake for you too and probably better than a lot of people.
For what it’s worth I for one agree with you. I know it’s silly, but I would be much more willing to accept a shiftable automatic if it had an H-gate pattern instead of just up-and-down sequential. Whenever I had them in rentals, I never could get used to the things.
volkswagen had what they called the “automatic stick shift” available on the beetle during the 70’s. you shifted exactly as you would with a manual transmission through an “H gate”, except there was no clutch pedal. i LOVED it!
I’m going to go out on a limb here, but wouldn’t such a move boost the resale value of a gated manual Ferrari? They are creating more scarcity and many enthusiasts prefer manuals for the connected driving experience compared to the technologically (yet questionably reliable) advanced auto-shifters. This might have created a price-floor for used manual Ferraris. Maybe I should buy one, but I need a Ferrari mechanic friend first.
It is true, and it has boosted values. Similar phenomena are happening with Lamborghini and probably Aston Martin as well (whose vehicles are more grand-tourer than supercar).
A manual California sold for $435,000 in Paris this year. Four times what you’d expect from an automatic. There is definitely an interest.
It doesn’t hurt that Ferrari’s various automatics are frangible garbage.
To my knowledge, the brand has not offered a manual transmission in some time…to the point that Buick, wth the Verano Turbo and Regal GS, had more manual transmissions than did Ferrari.
Are you saying that they *have* been offering a manual all this time and just quit…or are you saying that they had stopped producing manual transmissions and are now *officially* saying they’ll never start again?
Either way, it’s sad because one thing manual transmissions do is alleviate the risk associated with owning an exotic car that’s ten years old or older. It’s not as if these new semi-auto transmissions keep you from having to change clutches and stuff; they still have clutches. It’s actually to the point that manual-transmission Gallardos and other similar manual-transmission exotics from that era are starting to see an increase in value on the used market versus their semi-auto counterparts. Partially because they’re gone forever, and partially because they’re less of a crap-shoot.
Indeed, the last Ferrari with a real manual was the 599. And that was in 2012. So this really isn’t news.
For that much money, the stitching should be straight and the leather shouldn’t be bunched up.
Italian soul and passion to not extend to build quality!
Have you seen overviews of the 360 on YouTube? “Yeah, the leather pulls off the dashboard after a year, but you can fix that. And the window buttons are made of something that gets sticky and comes off. You’ll also want to wash it by hand because water pours in through the windows even when they’re shut. Aside from that there’s just some little stuff.”
But, but, but “heritage” and “passion” and “legacy”!
Were I not making used-Civic coupe money, I’d sacrifice a little “passion” and get an NSX.
At the preview to the Sotheby’s auction at the St. John’s concours, I had a chance to talk to James Glickenhaus while he was looking at a Testarossa in the auction. I told him about my experience with the 675LT McLaren and that I thought it could be daily driven.
“Oh, I’ve daily driven one of these.”
“How much of it broke?”
“Every fu<king part. Even the frame broke."
Like anyone’s going to be scrutinizing the console stitching given who they’ve been able to lure into the passenger seat o_O
Are you saying that people with status and wealth have an easier time finding willing social companions? Who do you think you are, Donald Trump?
Oh, stop, you silly goosie!
…from my experiences driving exotic cars, they tend to attract fellow gearheads into the passenger seat rather than amorous companions: we’d both be busy oggling the console stitching, not each other…
No better definition of a “car guy”. I would *never* invite a d1ck into my dream car/truck.
This is why I find the more extreme of you hugely suspect in the orientation department.
No he’s right, I own a Challenger and a Yamaha sportbike, not exactly exotics but they stand out, girls give 0 shits about either of them, but I get lots of waves from other bikers (including Santa Claus looking guys on Harley’s), Chally drivers, and children.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I have had far more girls ask for a ride in the Cobra replica than guys. By a wide margin no less. I have to keep a hair tie on the shifter so they don’t have to spend 20 minutes getting the tangles back out.
There was some “car guy youtube channel” discussing “which engine was better” and had a criteria called “chicks dig it”.
Since they were discussing American V-8s, the guys were middle aged and “chicks dig it” really meant “wife acceptance factor”. Still didn’t make a difference between the two.
Meanwhile, the 911 R and Cayman GT4–both manual transmission only–are the ones catching all the interest in the Porsche lineup.
Not mentioned in the article, the ever-increasing government pollution and efficiency demands are also hurting manual transmissions. It’s easier to optimize for the government requirements when the computer is in charge of shifting.
It’s not just pollution and efficiency demands, but interaction with safety tech like automatic braking, which I believe is easier to manage with an automatic. Automatic braking can work with a manual, but I doubt many manufacturers will make the investment (though I believe BMW has). For example, Subaru’s EyeSight package is available on the WRX only with the CVT — and that car probably has one of the highest manual take rates in the biz.
I’m a hard-core stick enthusiast, but I don’t expect them to be around much longer.
You can get a Bristol Bullet with a manual, a rarity for Bristol in its 70 years, and next to a Bullet, any current Ferrari would look like a Celica. Problem solved.
On a practical level, rarely do luxury car buyers and true enthusiasts intersect in the showroom. It’s bad business to stock product your enormously wealthy, mega-egotistical* customer base can’t operate.
Besides, most of those cars are going to either display garage or the nearest high end restaurant. You don’t need a manual trans to set lap records at the local Chez Lounge.
*naturally , I’m not referring to every specific Ferrari owner.
Well said. Ferrari just realized that the kind of person who buys their ‘sports’ cars doesn’t give a rat’s posterior about the sports car driving experience. This is a good business decision for Ferrari.
I’m a bit more surprised that Porsche seemed to admit it earlier (or maybe simply developing manuals for limited runs was too expensive. I wonder when the last manual Porsche will ship).
It won’t affect 99.999% of current Ferrari buyers who are likely not overly worried about the driving “experience.” Still, sad to see that iconic gate go the way of the dodo. One more (small) nail in the coffin of driver-controlled cars as the march to automation moves on.
“the march to automation moves on”
Wish it’d move on faster ’cause I ain’t gettin’ any younger!
I’m fine with doing it myself, but I can’t wait for the rest of you to be replaced by automation. You people suck.
There will of course be macrophages for types like you.
They’ll look like big white Sprinters without a cab.
Om nom nom…
You do too, you just don’t know it.
I know it, but I still like driving.
I don’t know. If he just keeps the phone put away, that alone may put him in the 50th percentile or better.
That thought is a little depressing.
They came for the manual transmissions in the midsize family cars and I said nothing, for I did not own a midsize family car.
They came for the manual transmissions in the 1/2 ton pickup trucks and I said nothing, for I was not in the market for a truck.
They came for the manual transmissions in the sports/exotic cars and I found there was no one left to speak for me.
Godwin lite.
Niemoller, actually.
Who with at least a BA doesn’t know that?
Who has a BA? Not me. Seven credits shy.
I learned about Niemoller long before college though. I’m in one of those groups they came to get before him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah… who with a pulse doesn’t know you’re special?
Everybody’s A Star – Sly Stone
Who came? Seems more like they left.
In defense of the family sedan, it’s actually easier to find a stick shift one of those than a premium sports sedan. There are twice as many new and CPO stick shift Accords and Mazda 6’s than 3 series and ATS’s available within 300 miles of me.
Well, for what I was going to spend on my next new Ferrari, I could buy ten Ford Focus STs. I think I’ll stock up.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t grasp why someone buys a Ferrari.
The marketplace has spoken.
Having driven a 911 GT3 on the race track, I can see why you’d want a dual clutch, things move fast enough to where shifting would be a distraction. Of course if you’re just noodling along some backroad, the three pedal setup would be fine.
I’ve wanted a Cayman since they came out. If I were to get one, I’d go PDK. Manual transmissions shift too slowly.
You driving your auto Porsche around a track, is undoubtedly a much more involving driving experience, than the noodling around that Fangio engaged in, back before transmissions shifted quickly enough to make driving an exciting pastime……
:)
Meh… if lap times are your thing. I quite enjoyed my time shifting through the gears at the event I attended.
Then again I’m one of those weirdos that absolutely enjoys that moment when everything comes together in a shift in the right place at the right time no matter the venue be it drag racing, on the road course or even on the open road.
Just really good fun.
The “automatic is faster around a track so we don’t make a manual” argument doesn’t make sense to me.
In ten years, when an autonomous car can negotiate a track faster than a human, will they remove the steering wheel?
Yeah, they can keep their gleaming alloyed air cars.
In a pure time trial, with a clear and well researched track, are you really so sure that that time is 10 years away….
Oh man I can’t wait to see the day when people start bragging how bad ass their auto pilot cars are at the track and refer to people who still want to get behind the wheel as luddites!
Even better, sending your car to the track on its own while you kick back on the sofa. Then checking the trunk when it gets home to see if it won any trophies.
“Second Place?
DOES NOT COMPUTE!
*Initiate Mustang C&C Mode!*”
Well there goes my Ferrari buying plan! ;)
I get much joy out of driving my 6-speed MY09 Clubman S. And it also makes me pay attention a lot more. When I briefly had an automatic I noticed I wasn’t driving as well since it’s easier for me to mentally goof off.
Great! Now maybe those that bitch about the lack of a manual in sport versions of the Fusion and Camry can get over the family sedan market and refocus their futile comments toward Ferrari.
Unless someone replaces the gearboxes in F40’s , and the F40’s suddenly depreciate so much that I can afford them, I don’t really see how this is a problem…
I specifically sought out a car with a manual transmission and when I wrecked it I traveled to Oklahoma to find another. That being said, I wonder why we still use the century old sliding gear transmission. Yes, the snick, snack is rewarding and is subjectively more engaging but I have no doubt that ZF knows more about shifting transmission gears than I do. The sequential dual clutch transmission in the McLaren can execute shifts many times faster, and smoother, than I can. There is a reason why F1 cars don’t have manual gearboxes.
Actually the gears don’t slide nowadays, the synchronizer sleeves do.
I think the last sliding gears in pass car units went away four decades ago.
Ah, a fellow pedant! Even so, the “modern” syncromesh transmission is more than a half century old. When I’m driving my Fit I compare how modern everything is with the exception of the clutch and gear shift. I love a well executed shift and trying to drive smoothly with a clutch but it still seems anachronistic to me.
There’s a very simple reason to that – it just works. Today, tomorrow and way after that. DC systems might be a tad faster on the track, but they are heavier, more complicated and more prone to fail. And even if they don’t fail, they’ll be in your way if something else fails. No battery? Put your manual in second gear on a slight hill, drop the clutch and drive away. Your car is really broken? Put it in neutral and tow it away. My daily driver has a 6 gear manual, 170k on its first clutch and runs like on the first day. As long as I can find them, my cars will be manuals (and with a timing chain).
Exactly. The gears are in constant mesh. It always makes me chuckle when someone thinks they are “grinding their gears” on a missed shift.
I always find that a poor argument for robo-manuals. In racing every second counts so an automated gearbox makes sense. It does in any racing endeavor where you earn a paycheck based on whether your on the podium or not so a DCT and the like is just a natural evolution in a competitive racing environment (provided the ruling organization allows them).
In non competitive driving it doesn’t really hold water except for the crowd that just goes in for the numbers and by extension those people who like to focus purely on precision driving.
For myself I’d gladly trade some of that precision for the added complexity of having to manually shift a transmission. The few seconds saved just doesn’t offset the enjoyment I get from getting everything right in the right place at the right time.
No matter the venue (especially in drag racing where a poorly executed shift absolutely kills your performance) I just get a better sense of accomplishment with a manual.
In three weeks and 2800 miles, I’ve determined my new Fit manual is not going to be a pussy magnet.
The only way for Ferrari to offer manuals again is if their new car customers demand it.
So this bit of news is somewhat redundant, especially considering that they haven’t produced a manual box since around 2011.
“The only way for Ferrari to offer manuals again…”
Can’t you just download a pdf?
LOL
I liked that one.
Sure, you can download a pdf of the manual, but they charge you a one-time license fee of $500 for the specialized Ferrari font they use.
Disclaimer: I’m only kidding – I think.
<(^_^<)
I remember getting thick paper manuals with appliances and video games.
Those days are long gone (and I'm okay with that).
Agree. Back in the ’80s when Ilford packed awesome multilingual instruction sheets with their photo papers and films I thought it was so cool!
Now, though, that every language under the sun must be accommodated with the resultant diminishing of content for any one of them… nah. I’ll just take a pdf in one of my languages, please.
I always wanted to work one of those gated shifters.
It seems like though every car magazine criticized it for form over function.
The gate was truly Italian style in action. Definitely a distinctive trait.
The gate on these cars is very much for function. The way the shifters are designed, you would be able to select two gears at once if you shifted diagonally, and bad things would happen. This isn’t someone sticking it on their Civic.
I remember a guy letting me operate his RC truck when I was a little kid (1/8th or 1/10th scale, maybe). 6 channel radio with left stick handling throttle and steering while the right stick had a custom-milled shift gate on it. I’m not kidding, dude had installed a manual transmission actuated with 2 servos. The 5th channel was a servo controlling the low/high range.
He’d stick it in low and hand it to us. It was fast, even in low (I was used to a Tamiya Grasshopper with 5s NiCd so almost everything felt fast), and he let us bash the hell out of it, saying, “The frame is welded angle iron and the only really valuable part is the gearbox.”
There were a lot of fights over who got to drive it next.
“Because track day, bro!”
-Michael Hugo Leiters
I would rather have a dual clutch for track use, especially on one of those Hermann Tilke – inspired country club circuits. Most of us won’t spend that many days on the track and can’t risk missing a shift and either blowing the engine sky high or locking the drive wheels and backing into the barrier.
Bunch of pansy-ass accountants running that company. I wonder how much horsepower Enzo is putting out spinning in his grave like this?
Al Bundy, ladies and gentlemen.
(Need a ride back home, Al?)
I feel like this is when Apple ditched the floppy drive on the iMac… A lot of people up in arms except the people that actually mattered: buyers.
I worked on lots of computers back then. People used Macs for graphics intensive work, video editing, and music production. All purposes for which the 1.44 MB floppies were too small. (Anyone remember Zip drives? Jazz drives?) The disks themselves broke frequently. I cannot tell you how many of the little sliders from floppies I have removed from drives over the years.
Programs required up to 24 separate disks to install on your machine.
*Everybody* on the Mac side and PC side wanted a better method of transporting data from one machine to another. I never heard anyone complain about the death of the floppy drive on Macs.
The market of people trying to do productive things with a piece of technology is a tad different than the market of people buying a recreational device.
Nintendo is about to release a little computer that looks like an original NES and is filled with a bunch of games with, by today’s standards, terrible graphics and music. They’re going to sell boat loads of them. And on Christmas day this year there will be millions of adults and children playing Punch Out and Double Dragon. Because even now there’s something satisfying about punching King Hippo in the mouth and watching his pants drop.
Double Dragon is coming back eh?
Double Dragon 2 :(
Count me in as a buyer for the NES Classic anyway.
SKATE OR DIE
You all don’t know nothin bout no Marble Madness.
Oh yeah. Duck Hunt would have been fun, but the Zapper doesn’t work on modern TVs. :( A hack to let you shoot the dog would have been the best mod in the history of time. You can play Tecmo Bowl and pretend Bo Jackson is driving a Kia.
Track times are largely irrelevant. Most of the cars will never see a track. Just like most dive-rated watches will never see water deeper than the family pool.
Speaking of watches, mechanical watches are still a thing. People spend ridiculous amounts of money on them despite the fact that you can get relatively inexpensive quartz watches that will keep precise time for decades without needing any of the TLC that the mechanical watches require to stay in working order. People often discuss how little time these watches lose, but ultimately that is not the deciding factor.
A good manual shift is certainly not going to be as fast around the track in most people’s hands…but that’s largely irrelevant as most people won’t use the car that way. A good manual shift is a *lot* more fun on a good drive than any paddle shifter. Indeed, the very presence of a good manual can turn an ordinary drive into an enjoyable one.
I don’t care about lap times. It’s the experience. Working through a nice gated manual shifter is an extremely pleasant and rewarding experience. This is why the classics will hold a decent level of value even when various bubbles burst and the massive amounts of money chasing cars stops.
If we drew a Venn diagram of Ferrari customers and expensive mechanical watch owners, I’d dare say the Ferrari circle would exist almost entirely inside the watch circle. Manuals won’t sell because they’re old and outdated…to a group of people who are wearing watches that function on old and outdated principles. People who paid handsomely for that extra complication and inconvenience because of what it represents or what it says about them.
I’d argue the manual’s fate is more in the hands of the people who don’t want to make them anymore (for whatever reason) moreso than the preferences of the market. The market’s preferences are pretty malleable.
Mechanical watches are beautiful objects and indicators of wealth, but they don’t require any personal skill, nor much effort, to use every day. The maintenance is performed by someone else. A stickshift car requires skillful use, and sucks in stopped traffic. Also, other household members must enjoy the stick to enjoy driving the car.
Collector cars usually put a premium on sticks, but they also usually put a premium on convertible tops, even though most new buyers have preferred closed cars for almost 100 years. Different market than new cars.
Nouveau-riche, ignorant consumers are just lazy .. , that’s why they want their cars to be less engaging ..
.. Pony cars should have gated gear selectors , instead of this “flabby leather on the stick” ..