Message from CEO of Ferrari on Manual Transmission

I am

 

bingo

Of all the stupid options car companies offer !




Why not offer a real option ? Let the buyer pay for the manual transmission.

 

True, but like a naked bike its just cams away from being torquey to work with a mt.

 

You guys are crazy! It was always the cheaper option to go manual...something like a cable or hose with fluid in it for energy distribution and some springs to move the clutch disc back and forth.

 

Uber rich new Ferrari buyers don't want manual. The end. Makes our older manual cars special though. All good.

 

Guys, I am a civilian in the Army. We get Soldiers training here from all over the USA.

Guess one of the very first classes we have to teach? YEP!!!!!

Driving a stick.

Nearly 100% of the Soldiers picked as drivers have to attend this training as none, usually not one, has ever driven a stick before and getting an automatic in the vehicle config they need over here is near impossible.

People have two feet but have no idea how to use them.

It is nuts, but its true.

 

Well Mark,

Living in Europe, you know that it is not the case in every country. Here in France, the large majority of cars are still only stick, and you learn to drive on a car with stick.
At nearly 56, I must confess that I have never driven a car without a stick, and would probably be rather embarrassed if I had to...
As for myself, I admit that any paddle-shift is probably vastly superior to the traditionnal stick and clutch, as far as performance go, but I simply don't want one, I would feel robbed of something.

Rgds

 

Nerofer,

I live in Germany. Not a lot of automatics ....... yet. Renting a van with an auto, impossible.


The point I am making is the USA, the largest Exotic Car market, cannot drive a stick. So why would any car maker in the right mind offer one? They wouldn't.

I had one automatic in my life (Z28) and vowed I would NEVER own another. That damn beyotch would try to kill me in the ice and snow at least 2 or 3 times every winter. No Thanx.

I bet the paddle shifters are probably no less dangerous than a full-fledged automatic, unless you ALSO have the traction contol on, but I don't know for certain.


The world is lazy and getting more so daily.

The "Art of Driving" is lost. It ain't coming back.


It is now the "Art of Steering." BFD.

 

I actually think its much much worse than that. With all the electronic nannies braking, applying suspension, releasing suspension firmness in the corner, automatically braking when you're focusing on your chai latte, etc. etc. (Just look at the GTR ) The problem is that the car is doing so much of the work for the driver that the driver THINKS that they're a much much better driver than they actually are. So what you see are accidents not from misjudging conditions, but rather pushing the car beyond what the electronic nannies can control. So when they get into a car and turn off the nannies, they have a spectacular crash very very soon thereafter. Not having the nannies on the car means you have to take it slow and scale into the performance to appreciate the feedback of the car at faster speeds and more extreme conditions. I've also been told that a stick makes you pay more attention to your driving by those that have come back from automatics. I never left the 3 pedal.

 

Exactly! I think that American enthusiasts fancy manuals because they regard them manly and special. Which is hilarious to us Europeans, as our octogenarian grannies have been driving manuals all their lives and so do their grandchildren. Technically speaking, semi-auto transmissions are vastly superior and a perfect match for the technological tour-de-force that supercars are today. A manual F12 would be like a Eurofighter with controls from a Spitfire...

 

Bless you, seriously, for every word of this. Well said.

 

And Ferrari changed along with its demographic. Starting with the F40 (carbon fibre everything), the company infused its cars with the latest tech. By the 355 that trend was in full force.

I think Porsche buyers may be more nostalgic. I.e., you can offer houndstooth seats, retro paint, "911R" and "Speedster" editions, three-pedal manual gearboxes, ducktail spoilers, etc.

Agree. The CEO is correct, and actually a huge chunk of the modern Ferrari market is about speculation. The cars are too expensive and their values too mileage dependent for them to be used as cars.

This. You might as well lament the end of wire wheels and trafficators (which is what real men use to indicate they are making a turn.)

 

A manual F12 would perform on all the highways of any country of the world like the F12 of today.

Only in Germany on the autobahn (fleetingly) or on the track (exceedingly) would the OEM super-transmission matter a whit.

Remember, I am an old "Stick guy," learned to drive a 3-on-the-tree at 11 yrs olds and I like my cars, loud, stinky, oily, hot, power NOTHING, with a manual and just plain raw and uncomfortable. My '81 308 GTSi is on the edge of being "too refined" to me. I just get excited by cars like that. That is what I grew-up with. My old dinosaur coming thru I guess.

My curent DD, a 2015 Golf which can smoke my 308 in just about any category, is nothing more than a rolling bordello that gets me from A-B. Exciting? Not in the least.


What would be interesting is to put the leading F1 driver's of today in the old cars with none of the "goodies" and see how they would stack-up with the great drivers from yesteryear.

We might get some real surprises with no nannies to assist.

 

And I think the drivers of yesteryear would be as unlikely to get the maximum out of a current car.

 

Like I said in an earlier post, demographics have changed. We are now the dinosaurs not unlike a previous generation who believed real cars started with a hand crank and anyone who needed an electric starter had no business in a motor car and didn't know how to really drive.


It is a position I am not uncomfortable in. We can accept it or not but we won't be changing it.


Not sure if you saw it but there was just a shooting match between some current hard holder and Taya Kyle. He was using conventional sniper equipment, she was using some electronic wunder rifle. She, a complete novice operated the wunder rifle to a perfect score while he shot a considerably lower score. Mark, does that make you or I any less comfortable with what we can do with a rifle?

Our rifles will work anywhere, anytime without benefit of batteries or a systems analyst to keep it running. I prefer it that way.

 

Oh, I most certainly agree.


I don't think there is any real comparison except they all (almost all) had/have 4 wheels.

 

You are absolutely right.

I have two Model Ts in my future, one a 1915 Coupe and the other a 1917 Truck. Never saw a "T" on the road, but I did see an "A" or two in the early-mid 60's in the boonies.

I understand exactly what you mean, and I do know how to crank the "T's" without getting my arm broken.


I wholly admit, I am an old dino just happily waiting for the next mass extinction.

 

The gearbox in a modern Ferrari (or Porsche) is nothing like the automatic in an old Camaro.

 

On any decent B Road the F1 transmission would be faster; in drag racing too. More importantly though, it is better integrated in the whole experience without hindering the balance and the other controls as a slow manual would.



Alex Rossi drove a 1960s Lotus F1 car and said that it was quite easy as it wasn't that fast by modern standards and the suspension was soft and pliant.

 

Like the F1 or DCT.. once the enemy figures out how the rifle works.. its benefits are negated, be it EMF pulse or variable resonant frequency to "confuse" the stabilization or overcompensate, laser blinding to fool the optics..

I've come to realize when a man is young and stupid (as admittedly still am to some degree) being the fastest and the best on the road is important. Later it might be the thought that you *could* be the fastest on the road.. but you'd spill your latte or interrupt your conversation so you drive 55 all the time in a car with a top speed of 206MPH.

Still later, you realize that driving is an "experience" that is crafted by the automobile manufacturer to the car. The way it turns in, the visceral feedback and the interaction with the car guiding it down the road and into the curves. To some its blasting down the road in their Viper. To others its the balance of a Cayman in the turns. That experience is what drivers crave.

The same analogy can be made for boats! Sailboats still abound in nice weather here in Charleston even though a motorboat gets you to point B faster. There are plenty of owners that still pay HUGE sums to buy a new Beneteau for the experience (or ego?) and its been an obsolete one for over a century. The stick is an experience that won't go away. It's too engaging by a percentage of the population including myself.

 

A few years ago, Martin Brundle drove a 1950 Mercedes Grand Prix car at Spa; was it the W125, I'm not sure anymore, but the test was - I seem to recall - in Motorsport Magazine.

Martin is certainly no "lamb spring" anymore (I seem to recall that we are from the same vintage...) but he still drive some current Grand Prix machinery at Fiorano from time to time.

He said the Mercedes car from the fifties was much easier on some points, but much more difficult in many others. Acceleration was less but not that ridiculous, maximum speed was equivalent this due to low drag of the skinny tires; roadholding in curves was very difficult to cope with, any missed gearchange would buzz the engine for good, the brakes very very hard to modulate, and that of course any mistake will either destroy the car or your life, or both.

His conclusion was that the modern cars with all the "nannies" leaves you peace fo mind to be at 100% every second, whereas to go fast in the older one was much more taxing on the nerves, demanding a lot of concentration, and he was drenched in sweat at the end of the test.
And of course that he has much more peace of mind for his life in the modern F1 than in the old Mercedes, and that it adds to the challenge.

Rgds

 

When sex was safe and racing was dangerous.

 

@nerofer:



Acceleration and speed difference is quite big actually. Surely the oldies are more of a handful for the simple fact that they are primitive and have lower limits. The new ones are very difficult in other regards though. Being so fast takes a huge toll on your mind and body. Also they are very edgy as their reactions over the limit are lighting fast due to the speed they are carrying and their set up that favours maneuverability over stability.



PS: Which are the nannies you are referring to?

 

At 19, I was instructed on how to drive a manual over the telephone. True story.

Three pedals or walk. Oo0Ooraaah .

 

Reflections | Motor Sport Magazine Archive

By Nigel Roebuck

In 1998, a couple of years after his retirement from F1, Brundle was given the opportunity to drive a Mercedes W196 at the ‘new’ Spa, and not surprisingly the experience has remained vivid in his mind.
“What’s never changed about Grand Prix racing,” he said, “is that the limit is the limit is the limit. In other respects, though, I’ve come to realise over time that there are huge differences in the job of the driver from one era to another.
“When I got into the Mercedes, it was the first time I’d even sat in something like that, and I really didn’t know what to expect. You knew the driving position was going to be odd, mind you, because there’s a huge gearbox bell-housing between your knees, so the distance between the brake pedal and the clutch must be about two feet!
“It was a bit like Dr Who’s ’phone box – bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. Probably that’s because your legs are splayed out, and the steering-wheel’s big and the bonnet seems very long, almost like looking down the nose of a speedboat that you’re trying to steer.
“The first thing I felt was that I seemed to be sitting on the car, rather than in it, and the mirrors are like those on a motorbike – all you can see is your own shoulders. Clearly in those days they didn’t pay too much attention to them, and I quickly began to understand why – you had to concentrate so bloody hard on what was going on in front of you! Physically I found the W196 relatively easy to drive – although you have to remember they were doing it for three hours at a time – but mentally it was incredibly hard.
“I was extremely aware of the absence of seat belts, roll-over bars and so on – to say nothing of a nice, safe, carbon monocoque. I began to look around and think, ‘If you were going to hit something, what would you do? In a modern car, if you know you’re going to crash, you make sure you do certain things beforehand, but with this one I really had no idea what I’d do.
“As far as the actual driving of the car was concerned, it wasn’t as powerful as I’d expected, but it is a slog up from Eau Rouge to Les Combes, and I had to keep in mind that the car was from 1955. I didn’t wear earplugs the first time I went out, and that was a mistake, because it was unbelievably noisy – I could hear it echoing off the grandstands and it sounded fantastic.
“Changing gear was a little different, too. In a modern F1 car it happens in milliseconds, flicking an index finger, but in the Mercedes it was a very conscious thing: you blip the throttle, you place the lever, you push it, all very deliberately. I really had to concentrate – it would have been quite easy, for example, to go from fifth to second…
“As far as handling was concerned, the car turned in quite nicely, and the basic balance was good – although suddenly there’d be some curious loads coming through the steering-wheel. In medium-speed corners, you could place the car more or less where you wanted it.
“The brakes were a bit of a revelation, I must say. Because I always braked early for Les Combes, anyway, at first I didn’t grasp that it didn’t slow down very well, although, funnily enough, it seemed to depend on which corner you were in, and how fast you were going. Coming into the Bus Stop, for example, it didn’t seem to want to slow at all…”
“I was supposed to be keeping pace with the Safety Car – which was a special 5.5-litre Merc CLK, with Mass driving it. A very quick car, and Jochen was pushing quite hard, but he couldn’t keep up with me. To be honest, I didn’t think I was going that fast, but then I began to realise that the car must be quite slippery through the air. I gather they used to do more than 180, and I was doing 150 or so through the kinks before Blanchimont.
“I didn’t slow down, because I was enjoying it so much – but I did begin to feel nervous in the high-speed corners, because occasionally the car seemed to have a mind of its own. It was rather like flying a helicopter – that sense that if ever you let anything develop, you’d have a hell of a job getting it back again.
“OK, in the back of a current F1 driver’s mind is the acceptance that he might get hurt doing this – but back then it must have been right at the front of your mind, and very much part of your decision-making process. It isn’t – at all – for the current drivers.
“Look at Eau Rouge. These days the drivers go through it flat, lap after lap – and they know they’re not going to die if they get it wrong. But the guys who raced cars like the W196… they didn’t have that security. No soft landings for them.
“I’m sure their focus wasn’t so much on a bit of understeer or oversteer as on keeping the machinery together, not missing a gear, not hitting a wall – today’s drivers haven’t a clue about all that. After driving the Mercedes, I came away with even more respect for the drivers of those days. I’ve been round the old Spa many times, and to me it’s literally incredible that they raced F1 cars there. When you try and put together what you’ve felt in the car and a circuit like that… Jesus!”