The overwhelming majority of Ferraris ordered these days are not equipped with manual transmissions. Oh, you shift the gears yourself: the last time Ferrari had a fully automatic, torque-converter transmission like those found in most family sedans and SUVs was the 456 GTA that ceased production seven years ago. But the clutch pedal in Maranello’s finest is going the way of the Dodo, replaced by high-tech sequential and dual-clutch transmissions.
The last stand for those still intent on stirring the gears on their Ferraris themselves comes in the form of the California, a model which enthusiasts deride as too heavy and awkward. Still, Ferrari has just made a six-speed manual an option on the California, but it comes at the cost of both performance and fuel efficiency: compared to the less than four seconds the dual-clutch California takes to get to sixty, the manual version takes 4.2, while fuel economy drops from 17.8 to 15.8 miles per gallon.
