Seriously, a naturally-aspirated 600 hp V8 Ferrari with a six-speed gated manual gearbox — what more could you ask for?
The Ferrari 458 Speciale is one of the best mid-engine supercars to ever roll out from Maranello, thanks to the Stallion’s last-ever naturally aspirated V8 that screams to 9000 rpm and produces 597 hp. Many are fans of how it looks and handles, and it’s pretty exclusive too — just 3,000 examples were made. That said, it was never sold with a manual transmission, nor was the standard Ferrari 458 Italia either.
Still, a Ferrari enthusiast from Connecticut was dead set on making it a reality — you know, the kind of “what if” you talk about with the boys but then can’t get out of your head the next day. Luckily, he also happens to be the owner of Modificata, a tuning house famous for manual conversion and exotic restorations. Safe to say, the man knows what he’s doing. Nonetheless, it still took him three years to develop a stick-shift 458 Speciale, but mostly because he really wanted to keep that “factory feel.”
As you may expect, converting a 458 Speciale to a manual transmission is no easy task since the vehicle was never meant to be offered with one. As a result, he had to borrow several components from the 360 Modena and F430. In fact, the gear lever is straight out from a manual 360!
But the main challenge came from the pedal box. As Ferrari never made a manual 458, there’s no such thing as a clutch pedal for this model. To solve this problem, Modificata opted for a clever solution: they incorporated the pedal box from a 458 race car. While the race car utilizes a sequential transmission, it does feature a clutch pedal, essential for initial acceleration but dispensable during gear shifts.
That said, it’s worth noting a racing car pedal box has a different feel from typical manuals. Youtuber Seen Through Glass explains the clutch pedal travel tends to be too short, with a biting point low to the floor, so it takes time to get used to. The brake doesn’t have a squishy brake booster feel like a normal car either, he added. And the engine throttle response feels rather unnatural, given it was never designed to be paired with a manual tranny.
In addition, the Speciale’s ECU was also not meant to control a manual gearbox. But once again, Modificata was able to integrate the new transmission with the vehicle’s ECU — you can even see which gear you’re in on the driver’s display! The tuner also managed to fully retain the traction control function, which we would have thought would be nearly impossible.
Thanks to its rarity and status as the final iteration of Ferrari’s naturally aspirated V8, the 458 Speciale is frequently hailed as a collector’s gem. It represents one of the finest modern Ferraris to possess. However, with the introduction of this unique gated-manual variant, there’s no denying that it has been elevated to a new level of perfection for enthusiasts.
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