Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale review: it's extraordinary... but not perfect

This shouldn’t be possible. Revs held on the red line and then sidestep the pedal on the left. Smoke, fury, thrust. Dip the pedal, lift the throttle, rip the lever back across the gate, reverse the process and feel the driveline take up the slack once more. Then, just stand on the middle pedal and wait until the car stops. And stalls.

What I’ve described is how a complete hooligan, or maybe even just a curious journalist, might choose to leave the line in a powerful, manual, rear-wheel-drive car. And then come to an undignified halt. This Ferrari 12Cilindri is certainly powerful – 819bhp powerful – and determinedly rear-wheel drive. But manual? I might leave you to decide that…

Ferrari last offered a manual car for sale in 2012 and such was the demand for the three-pedal California it made a grand total of precisely two. But here, apparently, is another. It has an exposed six-speed gate in traditional Ferrari fashion and three pedals in its footwell so it certainly seems to be manual. But actually, you don’t need all that. Because if you press a little button marked ‘D’, it drives not like a standard 12Cilindri, but identically. Because that is what it is and in every single, solitary regard save the one slightly curious fact that it doesn’t have paddles.

So if you want to change gear yourself, you’ll have to use the… well I think I can call it a gearlever even though what it’s actually doing is merely telling a computer to select the next ratio, because you’re still using it to change gear and that’s what gearlevers do. Likewise the ‘clutch’, which is not physically separating the engine from the gearbox and is, in fact, entirely unnecessary in engineering terms, but exists and mimics the function of a real clutch to help create the artifice that this is a manual.

Of course manual versions of double-clutch gearboxes are not new – all manual versions of the 991 series of Porsche 911 and the first generation of the 992 (GT models aside) were exactly that. Likewise manual versions of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S. The enormous difference here is that the 12Cilindri lets you do both: manual or automatic, pretty much whenever you like, so long as you’re doing less than 44mph when you dip the clutch to activate manual mode. Not yet convinced? Nor, dear reader, was I.

But then – and this was before I drove it – they showed me the mechanisms under the gearlever and clutch pedal, and while space precludes a detailed explanation they are works of engineering art, gorgeously crafted from high grade steel and aluminium, just to create the correct feel for the hand and foot.

How does it feel? Absolutely extraordinary, but not perfect.

The click and scrape of the lever as it moves around its gate is pure Ferrari, the length of the shift and the touch of the illuminated ball that sits atop the steel shaft too. When you’re told the system has been four years in the making you’ll wonder how they spent the time until you see and experience it. I’m glad they’ve blocked out seventh and eighth in manual mode too: an eight-speed gate would be confusing and silly.

It will let you do things no auto ever would: like the smoky getaway. As I also mentioned, you can stall it, slip the clutch (but not burn it), miss out gears, bunny-hop down the road if your pedal-work is rubbish, and even pull away from rest in sixth if your technique is exemplary. If you make a mess of your heel and toeing when braking into a tight corner at racetrack speed, it will even lock its back axle. Would it fool someone who didn’t know? Most people, most of the time.

Was it too much to expect it to be perfect? Probably. The biggest issue is I’d expected and wanted more heft in the shift. Even the best Ferrari gearboxes, and there have been some stinkers, require a bit of shoulder work, and when I mentioned it to the engineers, no one seemed in the least surprised. And the way the ‘clutch’ re-engages after a quick downshift can feel a bit too much like the switch it really is.

I understand why Ferrari omitted the paddles – to make the car more ‘pure’ and why, for the same reason, it didn’t include a rev-matching auto-blip function on downshifts – but I just don’t agree. These are convenience features that can be used or not as the customer sees fit. As I imagine plenty will buy the car more to show the manual to friends and family than actually use it regularly, the absence of paddles seems to be pressing the point rather too hard. The biggest problem is that there are only going to be 1499, so if you’ve not been invited to buy one, I suspect you’re out of luck.

The real question is whether the ‘manuale’ will appear again. Ferrari isn’t saying but almost all its tech innovations appeared on special cars first and I’d be staggered if it were not to make series production. It would be nuts to go to all that effort not to. Would I spec my future Ferrari with three pedals and shifter if I could? Despite my reservations, you absolutely bet I would.

Ferrari 12 Cilindri Manuale

● Price £508,000
● Engine 6.5 litres, 12 cylinders, petrol, naturally aspirated
● Power 819bhp at 9250rpm
● Torque 599lb ft at 7250rpm
● Weight 1685kg (DIN, estimated)
● Power to weight 486bhp per tonne
● Transmission Eight-speed double clutch, rear-wheel drive
● 0-62mph 2.9sec
● Top speed 211mph
● Economy 18.2mpg
● CO2 353g/km
● Verdict Brilliant… but not perfect.

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