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Nearly a decade after discontinuing its last car with a manual transmission, Ferrari has brought the stick shift back in the new 12Cilindri Manuale —sort of. Clever engineering makes it feel like a manual transmission when you’re actually just controlling the standard dual-clutch automatic in a new way. Ferrari is the first to do it, but Chevrolet has had the technology for years and could still implement it on the Corvette today, just like we suggested it do seven years ago.
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[ Editor’s note: This story was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated to reflect the launch of similar technology in the Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale. ]
No C8 Manual Transmission
The most controversial aspect of the mid-engine C8 Corvette is without question its lack of a manual transmission. Its sole transmission option : an eight-speed dual clutch automatic co-developed with transmission specialist Tremec. You may have already seen reports over the years that Chevrolet has no plans for a torque-converter automatic or a manual transmission . The company claimed at the time of the car’s launch that manual sales had fallen to 15 percent in the final year of C7 production, although later accounting shows the take-rate for the entire C7 run was nearly 30 percent. Developing a new manual transmission for the C8, Chevy said, would be too expensive for so few sales.
However, Chevrolet could amortize the cost across all of its models. Once the shifter, clutch pedal, and code are developed, they could be applied to everything from the base Stingray to the Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1 as they all use the same transmission. Every model could have a “manual” transmission option, or at least a limited-edition manual transmission model. The technology could also be carried forward to the upcoming C9 Corvette.
Make It A “Manual”
Thanks to modern technology, it's possible for all of those things to be true and for the C8 to get a stick shift, and Ferrari just proved it. Chevy could do it, too, courtesy of a 2018 GM patent for an electronic clutch pedal, combined with manual shifter technology from the C7 Corvette, which could be combined to create a futuristic electronically controlled manual shifter for the C8 and cost far less to develop than a new manual gearbox and linkage. The savings in R&D, not to mention the price premium Chevrolet could charge customers for the “manual” option, could completely change the business case.
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This is exactly what Ferrari has done. There’s a clutch pedal and a gated manual shifter, but they’re actually connected to servos and computers, not clutches and gears. The transmission is still an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic, just reprogrammed to listen to the new parts instead of paddle shifters. Pressing the clutch pedal tells the computer to open the clutch packs in the transmission, and releasing it tells them to close them. Moving the stick shift tells the computer which gear to select.