355 F1 Reverse selector is "UGLY"

I've been asked the following question at least a couple times by non Ferrari people or maybe not even car people for that matter. They look inside my 355F1 and ask “is that little lever how you shift?” I explain it’s how I put the car in reverse gear.
I admit I think it looks completely out of place what the hell was Ferrari thinking using a T-handle. Maybe they wanted it to look like a miniature throttle handle of a Jet, who knows but I don’t like it.
Couldn’t they have used a button along with foot on the brake so it wouldn’t accidentally get selected at an inappropriate time.

Anyone else feel the same way?

 

I always thought it was odd but not to the point of being ugly.

 

Your right maybe ugly is a bit harsh on the poor girl afterall she does have a good personality.

 

I always thought it looked awesome.

 

I actually like the way it looks in the 355.

It seems a bit off in the 360 - trying to mesh Those wavy curves with the shifter plate geometry...

My only issue is that you can break it if you lean too hard to pick up something in the passenger footwell (like a dropped phone)...

So be careful of that costly mistake.

I have seen the yellow taped arrow on the levers - looks like it belongs on a top gun air intake which I would remove.

Best.

Robb

 

In the end it was the deal breaker for me. In considering an f1 admittedly begrudgingly as I was looking at a great example because it was close by, I just couldn't stand the thought of that "little" lever on my console.

Sorry f1 folks, just my opinion.

 

I describe it as "dainty"

Tis what it tis

I get the questions as well. I describe the high pressure hydraulic pump coupled to the high speed paddle shifters that slam the car through the gears faster than a human can manually switch. I go over how it was developed and used by Ferrari in their F1 cars and version exist today. But no one ever thought about reverse until they stuffed in the road car....so we got the handle.

 

Me too - it's perfect and I like it much better than the button for reverse in modern cars.