Ferrari's 'Manual' Supercar: What WA Buyers Need to Know

Ferrari has just answered one of the most persistent demands from supercar enthusiasts: a manual gearbox. Sort of. The new 12Cilindri Manuale is the Italian brand's first factory-built three-pedal car since the California — and the last of those rolled out in 2012. After 14 years of paddle-shift-only Ferraris, the gear lever is back. But here's the catch: it's not really a manual in the traditional sense.

What Ferrari Actually Built

Rather than engineer a conventional H-pattern gearbox from scratch, Ferrari created what it calls a 'Manuale By-Wire' system. The gear lever and clutch pedal look and feel like the real thing — the lever is machined from solid aluminium and steel, moves through a traditional gated six-speed pattern, and uses cams, springs, rollers and rotating drums to replicate the weight and tactile clicks of a proper manual. Ferrari even engineered the sounds the mechanism makes.

But underneath all that, the hardware is unchanged. The 619kW/678Nm naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 still drives through the same eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. The gear lever and clutch pedal are electronic interfaces — both feed signals to software, which then controls the transmission's clutch packs and gear selection.

In plain terms: your left foot never directly operates the clutch. It tells the car how much clutch engagement you want, and the software does the rest.

Can You Stall It? Can You Money Shift It?

This is where it gets interesting. A push-pull solenoid physically locks the gear lever if you attempt a shift the transmission won't allow — so a catastrophic money shift that grenades the engine is off the table. That's a meaningful safety net on a car priced from €590,000 (~A$973,000) in Europe. For context, the standard 12Cilindri starts from $803,500 before on-road costs in Australia, so the Manuale variant is going to land well north of that figure.

Stalling, however, is very much possible. Release the clutch too quickly and the system will deliberately produce a jerky take-off or cut the engine entirely — just like a real manual would. Heel-and-toe downshifts are also supported. Ferrari clearly wants you to feel the consequences of poor technique, even if it's protecting the drivetrain from the worst of it.

If you tire of rowing through the gears on the Tonkin Highway or crawling through Perth CBD traffic, you can also switch the whole thing into Auto mode and let the dual-clutch do its thing like normal.

Is It Worth the Premium — and the Argument?

Production is capped at 1,499 units worldwide, so most buyers will never get the chance to decide for themselves. Purists will argue it's not a real manual because nothing is mechanically connected. That's technically correct. But Ferrari isn't pretending otherwise — the pitch is that it recreates the experience enthusiasts miss while eliminating the mechanical fragility that saw the traditional manual disappear from the range in the first place.

Whether that trade-off is satisfying will come down entirely to how it feels from the driver's seat. On a long run through the Wheatbelt or up to the Pilbara, with a 6.5-litre V12 screaming behind you and a gated lever in your hand, the philosophical debate might become a lot less important.