430 Manual F430 from factory?

As a Ferrari dealer, they should be able to pull the build sheet, or if they have the "Monroney" Window Sticker, it will say F1 if the car isn't an OEM manual transmission.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

You can't go by the description of 6-speed manual gearbox on most VIN decoders; they are wrong, as my F1 shows up on some as a 6-speed manual gearbox even though it's an F1, and most VIN decoders have no details on these cars.

 

I suppose the correct information could be found from Ferrari - in the Ferrari app, when a car is registered as owned, it appears (after checks by Ferrari) with the list of options (even for old cars, my 550 has the gold calipers listed).

 

I was looking in the MyFerrari app at my car, and it doesn't say anywhere about it being an F1. It is listed as a F430 coupe, shows all my Exterior and Interior color and carbon options, and the codes for my Bose HiFi stereo, and Ipod adapter and even what brand tires came on the car, but nothing about transmission choice.

 

There are some easy cheap ways to be about 95% sure. Look at the back of the steering wheel where the paddles would have been. There will either be a hole or a plug there. The manuals had no such hole. Look at the gated shifter, on the factory manuals there is a Cavalino. These cannot be included on the after market ones as they are copyrighted. Not to say that someone can buy one off of ebay, but they are about $4-5k used. It would be odd for someone to spend 25% of the cost of a conversion on the shift plate.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286827506062?_skw=ferrari+f430+shift+gate&epid=6023937657&itmmeta=01K5RGA3S0EPW5TV652YV03969&hash=item42c840698e:gokAAeSwiXpozC8I&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cTsLxZACxwBjvSr8sj0OLNOnYLCgxediqbm7BuGlL0Ghm1MaQ3uJZAqMnS%2FSahtcrGohRUQtZy3x%2FZzenVd2UIygyc0GTC7xDUZ5ONwB7LWQvVUPyxo7gm03Vb4ZlssxBJf5AQtLgJMVOUv886mQ3vGRVLLL8qQA0YOMMllCu%2BsOe%2BDl4n0CrfXOvbi34wo2Ngl5IsRpAF%2FThD1VJbjLvH%2BshWYIMQ7aeWnRJ1f3vJmB1PnhUm92BtJyKkvMValCs%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9a8qJCuZg

 

That's good to know.

 

Many earlier conversions had the OEM plastic steering surround without the holes before that part became hard to get. It's also pretty easy to fill the holes and refinish the cover to make sure it doesn't look externally any different than the OEM steering surround. You would have to remove it and have one to compare to see that the rear inside is different, where the paddle holes were patched. In authenticating vintage artifacts, we see "modifications" all the time that try to make items rarer by closing up holes or adding new ones to match a more valuable version. You'd be amazed at what people can accomplish when motivated by money and have a little art skills.

For the shifter gate, there are many cheaper replicas than $4-$5K used. I'm surprised someone with a precision CNC machine hasn't scanned an OEM one or used a lot of pictures to make a perfect replica of the gate. Even Ferrari's production changed over time in detail and depth on the shifter gate as some have documented on Ferrarichat.

So, in the end, the best way to tell if the car came from the factory as an OEM manual is documentation from Ferrari. If you get paperwork showing the car was a manual and not an F1 from a Ferrari dealership, they will not want to risk their franchise by lying on paperwork. Maybe verbally, they could say they mispoke, but paperwork will put them on the hook for a lot of compensation to you if they misrepresented the car and you find out later.

 

You can also just google the vin sometimes and see old listings and descriptions.

 

Any part can be replaced. There are some completely oem conversions out there. I would rely on the documentation.

 

There is very little tradition in Europe of manual conversion so that alone would suggest its not a conversion - not a categoric answer but.....

Also talk to other dealer service departments and/or the importer (Ferrari Western Europe ?) for the owner to get a copy of the details in what used to be called MODIS (build sheet)

 

If you look under, the oil pumps for the gated cars have a bracket to hold the cables, missing on the F1 versions.

If they ALSO changed the oil pump to make it look like an OEM (on top of everything else looking OEM) .... I would pay the money for it as gated

 

Do you have a picture of this?

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

^^^ OEM 6 speed car.