whats going no with gate shift car? price going up?

Anyone who knows me, knows I've always been a fan of the true stick shift cars. That being said, I recently bought a Maserati GranTurismo S with the superfast F1 transmission from the Ferrari 599. (They only made about 300 in this configuration.)

I absolutely love it, and see the appeal of a fast shifting F1 transmission in the more modern cars.

I also owned a 430 6speed with a friend for about a week. It was cool, but I always felt the car wasn't engineered to have a stick. It just didn't feel right with the drive by wire configuration. Revs dropped instantly, unlike our 355s, making perfect shifts near impossible.

 

There was time in the late 70's and early 80's where the watch manufacturers decided that the future of watches was the quartz movement; mechanical watches were old fashioned and no one would appreciate the intricacies of the movement, the complications, etc. and that they would go away. Quart watches were simpler, kept perfect time, easy to use, etc. and that's obviously the future of watchmaking.

Then, at some point, someone decided that mechanical watches were supremely beautiful and that quartz watches sort of demeaning the horological experience. Now fast forward to where we are today. Go to a watch store and ask for a quartz Rolex, AP, Hublot, PP, etc. No one saw that coming.

 

Hi John, there's a rumor that the National Association of Grumpy Old Men (NAGOM) are looking for a new president. I could make some calls and find out where to send the applications.

 

NAGOM turned down my application. They said I was over qualified.

 

Wow, that says a lot right there, now I am beginning to understand some of your approaches. Just kidding, I enjoy your retorts very much because we are of the same generation.

 

I might sell you my 355 spider 3 pedal...Im on the fence so you will have to persuade me....great car

 

Great analogy. Hits home as I'm a fan of mechanical watches.

I also like the Apple Watch though.

 

The white F355B sold outside of ebay. Good luck finding the true figure.

 

That was the best I seen. Loved it I am a fan of white

 

It was a dead give away when John said he preferred white wine, now I truly understand.

 

In North America maybe.

Europe everyone learns to drive in manual cars still. Highly odd to see someone learning to drive in an automatic.

 

+1 just wrapping up 2 and a half weeks in Italy and have been driving a Fiat 595 Abarth and I could not imagine this trip with an automatic. Many more manual transmission cars in Europe, automatics are just not as common as in the states.

 

I like the rarity of the white, but I don't think it does the lines of the 355 much justice.

 

Wait a minute. Your profile says you want a 458. Last I heard they only came in the white wine drinking, DCT, 2 pedal, paddle shifting type. Exposed!

 

I like white wine as well, the problem is all that nonsense of having to manually lift the glass to my face. Swirl, smell, sip, what a nuisance!

Would be so much more efficient to just get a feeding tube