Ferrari 12Cilindri gets manual ‘flavored’ gearbox

After the cold water bath with the launch of the Luce, Ferrari decided to show that there is still pure blood in its veins. The brand has just unveiled 12Cilindri Manuale.

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It is a version of the GT V12 from Maranello with a manually operated transmission, but without mechanical connections. That’s right: the system uses the well-known eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, with its absurdly fast shifts, but requires the driver to make the changes, as in a humble popular car.

The system, which has been named Manuale By-Wire, mixes English and Italian and can be translated as “manual by cable”. It has a clutch pedal and trambulator. However, there are no mechanical connections such as forks, gloves, and sticks.

On the other hand, the activation is like in any manual car: you have to step on the clutch (pretend), while the lever activates the gear positions that were previously staggered by the butterflies.

Ferrari points out that the mechanical set is the same, with a naturally aspirated V12 6.5 unit, which delivers 830 hp and 69 kgfm of torque, coupled to the eight-speed F1 gearbox and rear-wheel drive.

The brand declares acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds, but then it will depend on the driver’s arm to make the changes as precisely and immediately as the extraordinary F1 gearbox, which knows the change times like no one else. However, if the “driver” realizes that changing Ferrari gears is not for him, he can just drive the car in automatic mode, without risk of doing badly.

Simulated march is nothing new

Although the system is not a genuine manual transmission, electronic transmission activation is nothing new. Automatic gearboxes have long since abandoned mechanical connections.

Continuously variable transmissions (CVT) have manual position programming that emulates a gear ratio. This is how it is with the box that Fiat uses in the Strada, Pulse, Fastback and other models.

Conventional automatic gearboxes, with torque converters, are also giving up mechanical drive. A recent example is in the Jeep range, with the Commander, which uses transmission by electronic drive. Brands such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Ram have also adopted this type of solution for a long time.