https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpUOAN3sSk

We review the new Ferrari 12 Cilindri Manuale, the brand's attempt to revive the manual transmission. We talk with the engineers about the shift-by-wire technology and drive it to see if it feels authentic. If it works, this could be the future of all sports cars. Other contenders include the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, the Lamborghini Revuelto, McLaren W1, and the 2045 Tesla Roadster.

I know a lot of people are going to lament that this isn't a "real" manual, but I think that might be missing the point of why this kind of "manual" was created. This might get a bit philosophical (bear with me for a bit), but I think we are currently in a vibes era renaissance.

Objectively, there are many reasons why current technology has superseded older technologies, and this goes beyond just cars. Look at music playback. Streaming is easy, convenient, and lets be honest, most people but the truly dedicated audiophiles out there can tell a difference in sound quality. But, local music playback, in the forms of vinyl, CDs, and even dedicated digital audio players have made a come back in a niche, but sizable community. Objectively, are they better? For most people I don't think so, but subjectively? The vibes are all there.

I think this mindset applies to the manual by wire system that Ferrari has created for this car. They are chasing the people who want this vibe. There is a sizable niche community that wants a new analog manual driving experience, but due to so many factors, it will be hard for manufacturers to cater R&D development time and money for new manuals, alongside ever increasing emissions and other governmental regulations.

So how do you chase the vibes of a manual car, without the manual? I think Ferrari figured it out. As Mark has said in the video, if you didn't know it wasn't a "real" manual driving it, you have never would realized it. Thoughts?

If you’ve ever considered a career as an F&I manager, fucking don’t. If that doesn’t dissuade you, then come eat some crayons with me and play in my sandbox. I’m an F&I manager at a large Audi dealer, and I’ve aged at least 30 years in my last decade in the box.

This job forces you to become a banker, a shark, a lawyer, a jester and a coke addict within the first year. It’s a miracle I’m still alive, and it’s deals like this one that put me one step closer to my grave.

We had a sales call come in for an SQ6 from a buyer in a shoulder city in our province right in the middle of a blizzard. He may or may not have been calling from our nation’s capital, and he was calling from the side that doesn’t say ‘wah’ instead of ‘yes’. Our top-closer/junkyard dog/latchkey sales rep was lucky enough to answer the call.

The buyer didn’t ask for anything unreasonable - he wanted to do all of the numbers over the phone before making the long ass trek to our store. He’d need 3 business days to get home since he was picking up an EV, so all seemed normal.

They agreed on a price, he sent over his driver’s license, we took a deposit on his credit card over the phone and all mostly seemed ok.

Mostly.

My sales rep brought me the file and it was set up in a slightly unusual way for an EV. We write up leases on EVs like candy since the values fall off a cliff before your pen has even touched the paper. This one was set up as a low equity finance.

For the savvy buyers out there, one of the worst ways for your wallet to buy an EV is brand new and in cash. One of the even worse ways is to take out a loan for a millennia with minimal cash down.

Which is exactly what our buyer Sean was doing. Red flag 1.

The sales rep shrugged it off and said he seemed like an upstanding citizen on the phone in the 10 minutes it took to go from ‘hello’ to taking a deposit. Red flag 2. He’d also point blank refused to do our remote ID verification, citing that he works in cybersecurity and that’s how the fraudsters get you. It appears the irony of that statement was lost on Sean.

Fuck it dude, it was cold as shit outside and I had nothing better to do so I may as well do my job. Let’s see if I can help this guy make a huge financial mistake.

We go through the credit app and all seems normal - good job, mortgage, kids, dog, no coke addiction (he wasn’t in the car business) so all seemed ok. I asked him about picking up the car and the drive back and he told me he could do tomorrow.

Tomorrow?

It was late evening when we were chatting and he was apparently living over 5 hours away in the middle of a blizzard. How the hell would he make it down here by tomorrow?

Alarm bells started going off like crazy, so I went on to ask him what he was going to do about winter tires. The 21 inch hockey pucks on the car were great for warmer weather, but would be absolutely useless in the shizzard taking place outside.

Sean must have rehearsed everything up to this point because he had no idea what to say. He asked if he really needed them and if they could just be in the payment.

Well hold up there Seanzy, why don’t we do some creative accounting for you? If I stick them in your millennium loan you’ll have to pay luxury tax and interest on them and they’ll cost you an extra $2k (thanks Trudeau).

We can settle them up over the counter and you can handle the rest with the CRA yourself, how’s that for a plan?

He wouldn’t bite. Red flag 3.

Credit came back good to go, but something wasn’t sitting well. How the hell was he expecting to come down here tomorrow to pick up the car? How the fuck would he drive home in 2 feet of snow on summer tires? Why the fuck is he ok to pay $2k in interest/taxes for seemingly no good reason?

The boffins at AFS and I decided to have a little chat and after lots of digging, we decided Sean was up to no good. His credit app came back without issue, sure, but something stunk worse than the shits in my poop app (link in my bio).

The crew decided it wasn’t worth the risk. They flagged him as a possible ID theft and we never heard from him again.

Until 2 weeks later when he tried the same thing at my sister store.

My former colleague/fellow F&I manager at the store gave me a buzz wondering if I recognized Sean’s name. He submitted a credit app and it was flagged instantly as possible fraud.

You mean the ID thief? Yup, rip your deal in half. Buying an SQ6 on a long term finance? Take that ripped up deal and refill your toilet paper supply with it. That ones gotta go straight down the tubes.

Turns out, my old colleague gets a justice boner serving the long dick of the law. He didn’t take kindly to what Sean was doing, and decided to work with the popo to set a trap.

They scheduled pick up for Sean for the next day as if all was ok, and had a nice little sting operation ready for him once his ID scan failed. He rolled in thinking he’d be driving off in his new EV, but instead got the shock of his life from a group of Toronto’s finest.

Justice has been served.

EDIT: added a space between AFS and ‘and’. Idk how I missed that. Thanks for the love y’all, I’ll try to make these posts a regular thing again.

https://youtu.be/-5vuipaI7l0

This is the first full test of the Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale — the first by-wire manual transmission from a major manufacturer. Automotive Journalist Jason Cammisa tests the car at Ferrari’s Fiorano race track to see if this “simulated manual” is good enough to pass as a real stick-shift.

This full review is embedded in an immersive, entertaining documentary on the history of the automotive transmission, answering the questions even car enthusiasts struggle with: Why do combustion cars even need a transmission? What’s the real difference between manuals and automatics — and automated manuals? Why don’t EVs need transmissions? And why is the Continuously Variable Transmission actually the ideal technological solution, but so hateful that Cammisa throws himself out of a moving Subaru to get away from it.

(He does not. That’s Movie Magic — please do not ever attempt that at home. Or not at home. Anywhere, really.)

Included in this episode is a wonderfully sideways Mazda ND Miata acting as the benchmark for today’s dwindling manual transmissions. There’s the best-sounding Ferrari F355 you’ve ever heard, with the F1 automated manual transmission that brought Formula 1-style shift paddles to the street. There’s a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, with the world’s first simulated DCT (it has no transmission at all!) That Subaru Outback XT to demonstrate the CVT. A regular Ferrari 12Cilindri with its 8-speed DCT (and conventional paddle-shift interface.)

And then two gorgeous, wood-sided classic American cars: First, a 1947 Ford V8 Sportsman Coupe Convertible with a 3-speed column-shifted manual (three on the tree!) that debuted for the 1939 model year with Borg-Warner’s Baulking Ring synchronizers. This is the world’s first fully modern manual transmission — everything since has been detail changes.

Second, a stunning 1948 Oldsmobile Woody Wagon with the 4-speed General Motors Hydra-Matic, the first (truly automatic) automatic transmission. This transmission debuted in 1939 on 1940 model-year Oldsmobiles and used a fluid coupling — the precursor to the torque converter used in almost all conventional automatics today.

There are two visual physics demonstrations in this episode: Jason uses a bicycle to show how gearing changes the relationship between crankshaft speed and road speed; and then he uses two electric fans to show how a fluid coupling works — one fan is electrically powered; the other is spun up and acts as a generator, producing enough power to illuminate LEDs a wooden board that (surprise!) spell out: NERD.

Most importantly, after exploring the history of all types of transmissions, Jason returns to the 12Cilindri Manuale and answers the question: is it any good? If life were a sim, the only way we’d know was by the glitches — and Jason finds a few glitches. And a flaw or two.

But ultimately concludes that Ferrari’s Manuale By-Wire is, in fact, the best of all worlds. But you should watch for yourself, because it’s a fantastic journey to get us to this point.

Pretty surprised by this result as I was under the assumption that this gen S-Class was one of the weaker iterations of the car.

Tbh, I thought Corvette, CLA, or Sentra was going to win. I was really rooting for the Sentra. If Nissan wasn't such a silly company, the Sentra would have launched with a hybrid and could have possibly won the whole thing...

I know not everyone is a car guy but car modification has been a hobby for many people for many years. There’s even been a series of movies about it and dozens more of popular video games. So why does a large spoiler on a Mustang or a ground scraping suspension setup on a Civic immediately means it has to be a special model?