It really just comes down to your priorities, not driving ability. We've seen all the amazing videos of 458s' rapid-fire upshifts and downshifts while carving up those narrow mountain roads. It's pretty clear that these cars would leave a 6-speed manual version behind in short order on such roads. If you're a great driver but your priority is for your Ferrari to be just as fast as it can be you'd have to pick the 458's 7-speed. But if you're a talented driver but get more pleasure from performing precision shifts and heel and toe downshifts than from being the fastest, you'd prefer a 6-speed manual (not to mention the beauty of that gated shifter). .
Some haven't gotten over disc brakes replacing drums and these new fangled sycho-mesh gearboxes. What? No more double clutching? Mon Dieu! I'm surprised they don't mail in their posts by snail mail.
And I suspect many who complain that we're about to lose an essential part of the driving art to the relentless march of technology are, nonetheless, quite happy to use sat nav instead of exercising the fine art of map reading...
Evidently all the F1 VS Stick issues were solved by the gods of auto literature, This is a blurb from the recent article on the 458, "The italia won't be offered with a manual gearbox. Instead, it gets a seven-speed dual clutch auto. Purist can howl all they want, but the people who actually buy Ferarris have voted."
Ferrari, even with the 430, didnt spend a time developing any improvements over the 360 to its 6 speed gated tranny..So we had a new car in the 430, that was improved in everyway over the 360 except the manual tranny...the F1 tranny ,of course, was a huge improvement...if fact, after driving an F1 430 back to back with one with gated tranny, for the first time ever I actually could see owning a paddle shifter car-- at this moment i knew that it was only a matter of time before our beloved gated shifter would become history...
SC- The f430 transmission is totally different from the 360 transmission. The f430's F1 and manual shifter transmissions and clutches are the same, as they are for the 360, so what is your point? Manual shifter and F1 shifter transmissions are identical in each model Ferrari for which F1 and a manual shifter were available, if I did not make myself clear. If your point was that you liked the F1 shifter better than the manual shifter in the f430, that is understandable, especially since it sounds like you had little time in the manual shifter car. Taz Terry Phillips
Someone must have lost my vote. Also gotta say, comparing stick vs. paddles to disc brakes vs. drums (or crank starting a car, etc.) doesn't make a lot of sense to me. A 458 with drum brakes and with other ancient tech would be a bomb with a short fuse, and likely not much fun to drive except for stunt men. A 458 with a stick would be just fine. A McLaren F1 has a stick shift, as does a Koenigsegg CCXR, and people seem to be able to drive them. Quite quickly, so I hear. Just like music where Fender Strats, Teles, and tube amps coexist with digital recording studios and digital synths, a stick shift in a car with a nav system, ABS, and digital fuel injection still makes sense to me.
and the Mc F1 is a 15 year old car now. In my state, you can get historic plates for it. The koenigseggegegegegegegegegegegeggggggeeeegegegegegeggegegggegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegegeggggeeeggg (top gear ref.) would probably have a F1 style transmission if they could afford to have a gear box built strong enough to do it and still retain some street manors. Should the 458 forgo carbon brakes? by your logic it should.... BUT i must say this, if I had the choice... i prefer the 3 pedal car. I enjoy the finesse of driving. but i guess there is always "vintage" cars (ala MC F1 LOL)
In any election, where the one side gets 95% of the vote, the 5% that voted the other way is statistically and factually irrelevant. Sorry about that, but 5% in this case is essentially worthless.
Me too. Never use that sat nav and never get lost. Funny though, I know a lot of people who get lost with sat navs... Actually, the writing was on the wall the moment Ferrari stopped making speedos for the manual and started fitting the stick F430s with the speedo from the paddle F430.
I'm not sure how true is it, but wasn't there someone who changed the flappy gearbox to a stick on a 360 CS a while ago?
As the 360 was designed to contain a regular gearbox that probably wasn't too difficult (and the CS is fundamentally just the regular 360 with bells added). Being designed from the ground up around a DSG 'box there simply wouldn't be room for a regular gearbox in the 458 without re-engineering half the car. There'd simply be nowhere for a regular 'box to go.
Brian- There is no difference between the F1 shifter transmission and the manual shifter transmission, and one of our pros, Brian Crall, says a conversion is easily possible. Only the shifter, clutch throwout bearing, and an additional clutch position sensor are different between the F1 shifter and manual shifter cars (plus the cockpit controls, of course). The transmissions and clutches are identical. The thread you are referencing was one where Trevor converted a manual shifter 360 coupe to a 360 CS look-alike with much light-weighting added. Taz Terry Phillips
Paolo- With enough money, anything is possible. Look at the V12 Mark is stuffing into his 308. Taz Terry Phillips
