I've got a 2000 F1 360 Modena, and, I'm heavily considering doing a 6MT Swap. However, I'd just like to find out from some people who actually have a 6MT 360, how the clutch feels and everything. Is it more on the lighter side, towards like a VW/Honda/BMW, or is it more on the heavier side like a Porsche? Never driven one, and likely never will, as there are very few in Hong Kong. How's the engagement points and everything? I'm not a super experienced manual driver, but, I'm competent enough to drive it though, will take some practice, just curious before I look further into the 6MT Swap.
It’s great! I owned one for seven years. The clutch feel is kind of in between your two examples. I always felt it was kind of light. It does not feel like a heavy sport clutch to me at all. Not only do you get to enjoy the engagement of a manual clutch, you don’t have to deal with all of the usual F1 Issues. It’s much more reliable and may well last for as long as you own the car. Personally, I would sell your car and buy a manual car. The few conversations out there have not been in service very long so nobody really knows the long term reliability yet. Good luck
Thanks! Unfortunately, 6MT 360s are about triple the price of a normal 360 F1 in HK. Not to mention, near impossible to find! I've got a lead on a kit, but, if that's what it feels like, might be exactly what I'm looking for. I drove a 964 for a while, and I felt that it was quite stiff, definitely not something that I Would like to drive all the time. Although I find Honda's a bit light, really can't complain about how my S2000 gearbox felt, just serene.
I have one in HK. It is definitely heavier than any Honda, lighter than 456, a bit heavier than alfa romeo 156 and renault clio v6...
for clutch feel I drive a 99 E36 M3 MT, and an 01 Modena gated...... 99E36 MT - clutch - honda soft, but pleasurable, easy for daily driving, intuitive on track. stick - vague, easy to miss shifts.... hence the famous E36 "money shift"..... shifting from 5th to 1st instead of 3rd or some other variant. 01 Modena Gated - clutch - very different from bimmer. almost industrial engagement in it's precision.... but not too firm if that makes sense. takes some getting used too, but I love it. I would not daily this car. stick - rewarding click in each gear...... again not intuitive if you've driven regular non-gated man trans cars..... but rewarding. GL.
It doesn’t feel too much heavier than my Audi A5. I wouldn’t want to drive in in heavy traffic daily...or any manual really, but for normal driving it isn’t too much of a workout
Looks like it's definitely not considered a difficult car to drive at all. Is the clutch point quite high?
Mine is a little high. At first I thought it was abnormal. The clutch strikes me as sticking all at once. And I’ve had my share of those and including a 997 Gt3. I’m still not perfectly smooth with it after 600 miles but getting better(just got last summer). Nothing to detract you but not a generic easy feel imo
I love the 360 6MT, it match this car perfectly. I only have time to drive it maybe once a month but enjoy it every time. It is not the fastest car but somehow the sound and the gated shifter makes it really exciting. The height of the gas pedal can be adjust to match your driving style for heel and toe. I can never get bored of rev matching in this car!
I've done the conversion around 5 years ago. Zero issues! It drives and shifts the same as a born gated, clutch is on the light side. No difference at all in driving experience between the born gated over the swapped 6mt (genuine parts). Why no difference? The transmission is not changed at all. As I previously mentioned in old threads, every 360 has pre-drilled (from factory) mounting points for the gated shifter. I utilized all original Ferrari 6mt parts. No modification needed at all. It's just remove F1 parts and swap with gated parts. Then reflash ECU to 6mt programming. Took around 2 -3 days only. That's it! Sourcing all the genuine gated parts is the hardest part. If you have them already, it's a no brainer.
The 360 stick takes a little more thoughtfulness to operate than say a 6MT Porsche that you can just jam into gear and forget, you want to give it time to warm up before doing fast shifts to keep the synchros happy, and the light flywheel means it takes a bit longer to learn to match the revs just right, but it's a wonderful transmission.
I agree with the comment above. I can just mash or jam the trannny on my 911. On the 360 it's a bit on the delicate side.
Aside from the need to warm the fluid first, it shifts great. Clutch is on the lighter side (lighter than a Porsche or Corvette) and the shifter has a satisfying mechanical feel (as long as you have the Hill Eng. bushing). Really fun. Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
Thanks for all the advice! Just waiting to hear back on the ECU/Cluster Recodings, and then will go from there!
I am wondering where to find a reliable supply for all the parts to convert my right hand drive 360 f1 to 6 speed manual. Please shed some light if you have good experience. Thanks so much!
you are invited to come to Beijing to test my stock 360 stick. and I can be invited to Hong Kong to do your swap ;-)
Thanks for the invite, when people are free to travel I would love to go to Beijing to see your stock stick shift. But swapping is quite easy as I overhauled the f1 and clutch myself, there is no immediate need to do the swapping. I just want to start getting the parts and wait for the next clutch replacement
There is no ready supply of (original) manual conversion parts. You’ll just need to be patient, and hopefully you will find a crashed manual car getting stripped for parts. There’s also a lot of demand for them, so be prepared to be competing with others for the parts. The alternative is to buy an aftermarket conversion kit from Art at EAG. Current price is $12900 for a full conversion kit. https://www.gatedsix.com/forsale Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Thanks for the advice and the information. I remember seeing an offer some time ago asking for $5,500 us. Maybe that was from a crashed 360.
Interesting. What exactly makes these conversion kits so expensive? Are all of the parts NLA new or only certain ones? I'd assume all consumables are readily available, but I'm curious what makes these kits so expensive over converting other cars. Is it purely because of the brand name or something else? For what it's worth, I recently converted an E46 M3 from SMG to manual for around $1500 in parts so $13k seems a bit loony when it's the same basic concept.
Well I can't speak to EAG's profit margin, but these are designed in-house and machined to order in limited quantities. Production will be expensive, and there is development costs to pay back. I'm getting some V12 gear gates machined now, and they're close to £500 each for machining and finishing, and thats before I've paid myself for 3d scanning, CAD design, 3d printing/testing, further CAD tweaking etc... There's a lot more manual e46 M3's knocking about too to get parts from, so I don't think you can compare with that. You're just paying for fairly readily available used parts. This is paying for low volume manufacture of new parts. You're also paying for the convenience of having all the parts delivered in a bundle. You can probably save money buy doing it piecemeal; cost for my 612 conversion was about £5000 in parts last year, but looking at prices now, I think I did extremely well. Try finding the parts now... various ones I got were the last in the world at the factory.
