Really? I would think that there would be a great deal of structural and electric work. Have you ever had an estimate?
The unusual thing about the auto transmission of the 456 is that it is in the rear of the car and it shares the housing with the differential. It is true that it is derived from a GM model, however it is specfically developed for the 456 application, so you cannot take it to AAMCO and expect them to fix it, as they do with other GM products. On the other hand, saying that if it needs service you need to dump it and buy an entirely new assembly is also incorrect. There will be dealers that may suggest that, but there will be others, dealers and independents, that will be willing to service it and yes, there are proprietary parts that are available only from Ferrari, so the job will not be cheap. However, although this topic has been discussed in this forum extensively, I have not heard of anyone here having an automatic and complaining that it is malfunctioning or that he cannot find service for it.
no. but i was offered a car once that had started out as an auto, but had a manual transmission. the present owner had not idea what might have happened, so must have been done before he bought it. he was not ferrari-smart and had the car just to have a ferrari, so no further info there.
probably cheaper to install a complete corvette drivetrain. i wonder if the tranny bolt patterns are the same. or you could have a bracket fabricated.
Something tells me this was more than a small conversion. Any paperwork on this, would be interesting to see what the costs were converting an auto to manual on the 456!!! Would be a new lease on life for the damaged auto-trans models.
This is getting to sound like one of those "alligators in the sewers of NY" urban legends. The auto trans is integrated with the differential housing so IMHO, and readily admitting that I'm no expert, swapping out with a manual would probably be a pretty tall (and expensive) order.
Well, for that matter, also the manual sits in the back with the differential, so the job of swapping a 456 manual for a 456 auto is not out of the realm of the possibilities. Using instead the drivetrain of a Corvette would be an entirely different matter though.
well the guy didnt know enough about his car and it was in poor shape so i did not pursue it. it could have course had just been mistakenly been tagged with 'mgta' badges. but my assumption was as i put it above.
I've seen pictures of manual transmission cars with mgta badges, so I know this has happened in the past (wrong badge, I mean). I'd think that's a more likely explanation.
Actually, a gentleman at FofSF was showing me his 456 M GT and it had the GTA badge inside. his statement " .. giusseppe, was asleep as usual.."
