MANUAL GEARBOX? NO. (That’s why we don’t let you drive them).

Many people are asking us: driving a Ferrari with a sequential transmission, or a fully automatic transmission, does not amuse our customers.

Granted that a Ferrari is still a Ferrari, so it is not difficult for it to excite even the most experienced driver, there are many reasons why we have chosen to make available only the latest generation of cars.

Let’s try to analyze them together. And also, later, to discuss them.
Meanwhile, enjoy this Ferrari 550 Maranello, with manual transmission, parked by Motorsport Maranello.

1. There is a lot of talk about globalization, but it is undeniable that on the luxury car or supercar front, Italy is a step below the rest of the World.
   Let me explain. Some of the best models in the entire automotive market are produced in our country, and all of them are electronic. But the Italians who buy them are few. In fact, most of the market for this segment of cars, ends up abroad where, manual transmissions are just a memory for collectors and vintage enthusiasts. Difficult to put a Brazilian or an American at the wheel, trying to explain to him when it is time to shift, “listening” to the engine.
2. Putting a 599 GTB or an F12 Berlinetta or an F430, which are worth more than a penthouse in Portofino, in a column on our roads filled with tow trucks the size of one of the best cruise ships and ready and willing to put the nose in a traffic circle that is the diameter of Giotto’s O, is a risk we have calculated.
   The same calculation, however, was made by our insurer when underwriting the policy that should have covered the costs of a Kasko capable of reimbursing the hood of one of those cars that remained under the wheel of a German twelve-wheeler loaded with tiles, forced to “trample” us because our driver had turned off the engine, betrayed by the clutch of which he does not even know the translation in his own language.
3. Manual shifting, on sportscars, is practically no longer contemplated.
   Levers and third pedal (ah, why didn’t you know you needed an extra one to make the clutch disengage?) in favor of more or less colored and illuminated levers and toggles have disappeared.
4. We also thought that leaving a hundred euros on the road every time we set off could be a pleasure.
   That rumble that leads to “skidding” thanks to an exaggerated out-of-revving, we like it, too.
   Our tire dealer, certainly would have gone for it, so much so that he had already abandoned the project of restoring his house he was building in Casal Borsetti in exchange for one in Miami with a balcony pool and barbecue nook, right on the Ocean.
5. Nuvolari and his generation don’t exist anymore.
   Those who used to use production cars in a sporty manner are only a distant memory and, in the case of the Flying Mantuan, still alive thanks to the legend they built for themselves.
   A manual transmission today, would almost be a reason for reverse “racism”: look at those there who still have manual transmission Ferraris.
6. The “one-two punch.” Those of you who still know how to do it?
   Those of you like me who are not first-timers remember it on the Fiat New 500: clutch, air, clutch, and off you went to engage the gear.
   But the double debraiata (as the vocabularies say the famous double double is called), really now would jeopardize injectors and other mechanical systems born for quite other extremely synchronized mechanisms.

Of course, we joked. Or did we?

Perhaps a combination of all this prevents us from making manual transmission Ferraris available.

But we are sure that the “Reds” we offer you every day can hide far more satisfaction, which is probably worth giving up leverage that is also cumbersome at times.

Alexander Zelioli