The Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale uses a 'Manuale By-Wire' system, a shift lever and clutch pedal that translate driver inputs into electronic signals, commanding the same 8-speed DCT as the standard model
The shifter uses a billet steel mechanism, eccentric rollers, and a profiled drum to recreate the tactile click of a real gear engagement using no mechanical linkage whatsoever
The clutch uses a passive spring, cam, and roller system to recreate the resistance curve of a conventional clutch pedal, and if you get it wrong on launch, you can still stall the engine

Let's be direct about something upfront. The Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale does not have a manual gearbox. There is a gear lever, and there is a clutch pedal, and you use them exactly as you would in any car with a traditional manual transmission. But neither is mechanically connected to anything. Every input you make with your hand or your foot is converted into an electronic signal, which then tells the same eight-speed dual-clutch transmission found in the standard 12Cilindri what to do. The powertrain itself is completely unchanged.

Once you accept that, the engineering story underneath it becomes genuinely fascinating.

The Shifter: Recreating a Click That Doesn't Exist

The shift assembly weighs less than 7.7 pounds, but what's inside it took Ferrari's engineers considerable effort to develop. The core of the mechanism is a block of high-strength steel machined from a solid billet, held to tolerances tight enough that the lever develops virtually no play even after extended use. Two separate rotational movements govern the lever: one selects the gear plane, the other engages it. A system of eccentric rollers returns the lever to its central position automatically between shifts.

None of that is what makes it special. The interesting part happens at the moment of engagement. A specially profiled rotating drum works against a preloaded mechanism to build resistance as you push through the shift, before suddenly releasing. That release is the click, the satisfying, physical confirmation that a gear has been selected. In a conventional manual, that feedback comes from mechanical components physically moving into place. In the 12Cilindri Manuale, it comes from this drum, engineered to recreate the same sensation using no mechanical linkage to the gearbox whatsoever. Ferrari even treated the drum's surface to ensure the feel stays consistent over the life of the car and acoustically tuned the mechanism so the sound reinforces the sensation.

Two Hall-effect sensors continuously monitor the lever's position on both axes, using magnetic fields rather than physical contact. An electromagnetic solenoid acts as a lockout, physically preventing the lever from completing a shift if the transmission's logic determines the moment is wrong. Reverse is selected by pushing the lever down and choosing the upper-left position of the gate, exactly as it worked in classic Ferraris.

The Clutch: Making Electronic Feel Mechanical

The pedal box is entirely new. A third pedal now occupies the space that Ferrari has not needed for many years, and like the shifter, it is fully by-wire. An angular position sensor measures pedal travel continuously and converts the driver's input into hydraulic commands that operate the DCT's clutch packs.

The challenge was making a pedal with no mechanical connection feel like one that has. Ferrari's solution is deliberately old-fashioned: a passive system of a preloaded spring, a cam, and a roller, working together to generate a resistance curve that builds as you release the pedal and then drops away at the engagement point. Because this resistance is created mechanically rather than electronically, the pedal responds instantly to driver inputs without any latency. The sensors then synchronise everything with the engine and transmission speed in real time.

From the driver's seat, it behaves as you would hope. Get your timing right, and shifts are smooth. Get it wrong, and you feel a jolt. Launch badly enough, and you stall the engine. Ferrari went to the considerable trouble of making that last outcome possible, the first time in many years that a driver error has been able to stop a Ferrari's engine in its tracks.

Manual mode covers the first six forward gears plus reverse and can only be entered using the clutch pedal. There are no paddle shifters, the first Ferrari in a long time to omit them entirely. Switch to automatic and the DCT takes over, though you can still preselect gears with the lever, with the instrument cluster showing how the shift will affect engine speed before it executes.

You can also perform a proper heel-and-toe downshift, blending the throttle while braking to match revs on the way into a corner. These are experiences that Ferrari's customer base has not had access to for a very long time. Whether the Manuale By-Wire system genuinely captures the deeper satisfaction of a traditional mechanical gearbox is a question that will only be answered from behind the wheel. But the engineering behind the attempt is, without question, remarkable.