Ferrari transmission options 20 years ago did not include F1 automatic paddle shifting. There is no crystal ball that could predict how Ferraris and cars in general would change over the next 20 years, from appearance, to performance and handling, safety features and all the interior technical accessories. We can add to this the decision by Ferrari to cease production of models with gated 6 speed manually shifted transmissions, in favor solely of F1 shift models. Who would have seen that coming?
In 1996 Wil de Groot’s son Eric created the first website for Exoticars USA as a 16 year old high schooler. Today I nostalgically searched the nifty Wayback Machine to view our original 1996 site and discovered the history has been lost. I’m sad! So today, we salute Eric for being ahead of the tech curve 20 years ago and carving us a spot in cyber space.
The web, automotive engineering, the fruits of human ingenuity and adaptation, keep evolving. A good thing for all of us! But we all retain a sense of nostalgia and in some cases you can return to the past, whether for sentimental or other reasons. In the case of manual vs automatic shifted transmission options, we strongly prefer the classic gated 6 configuration. Contact us if you are interested in having us modify the F1 shifting of your classic Ferrari to a gated shifter transmission. It can be done.