Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale priced above $1 million in NZ

Ferrari’s return to the clutch pedal will come with a hefty price tag, with the 12Cilindri Manuale priced from $1,054,304 before on-road costs in New Zealand.

Orders are open now, with the first local deliveries expected during the second half of 2027. Production will be limited to 1499 cars worldwide.

That makes the Manuale around $350,000 more expensive than the regular 12Cilindri Coupe, which costs approximately $704,000 in New Zealand.

“We have a loyal community of clients in this country, who are passionate about the heritage of Ferrari and the V12 engine and excited about the opportunity to experience the 12Cilindri with a manual gearbox,” said Michele Comelli, president of Ferrari Australasia.

Ferrari’s first clutch pedal in 14 years

The 12Cilindri Manuale is Ferrari’s first factory-built model offered with three pedals since the California. Just three manual examples of that model were reportedly produced before Ferrari moved entirely to dual-clutch transmissions.

However, the new car isn’t a conventional manual in the traditional sense.

Rather than developing a new gearbox with mechanical selector rods, synchros and a hydraulically operated clutch, Ferrari has created what it calls the Manuale By-Wire system.

The car retains the regular 12Cilindri’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission but replaces its usual controls with an electronic gated gear lever and a clutch pedal. These operate as digital interfaces, sending the driver’s inputs to the transmission control unit.

The result is intended to deliver the involvement and sensation of a manual while retaining the speed and capability of Ferrari’s existing dual-clutch hardware.

Gated shifter engineered for feel

Ferrari has gone to considerable lengths to make the system feel authentic.

The gated gear lever and its housing are machined from aluminium and steel. Inside, a combination of cams, rollers, springs and rotating drums recreates the resistance, movement and clicks associated with a mechanical manual gearbox.

Ferrari has even tuned the sounds produced by the mechanism as the lever moves through its six-speed shift pattern.

Two Hall-effect angle sensors monitor the lever’s position and translate each movement into an electronic command for the gearbox. There is no direct mechanical connection between the lever and the transmission.

It’s a similar story with the clutch pedal. Position sensors measure the driver’s input and send that information to the transmission control unit, which then operates the dual-clutch gearbox’s clutch packs.

Ferrari says the software has been calibrated to mimic the engagement and behaviour of a conventional clutch. That should mean the driver still needs to coordinate the pedal, throttle and gear lever, even though electronics are handling the actual clutch operation.

V12 remains unchanged

The Manuale retains the regular 12Cilindri’s naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12, producing 619kW and 678Nm.

Ferrari quotes a 0-100km/h time of 2.9 seconds and a top speed exceeding 340km/h. Those figures are effectively identical to the standard dual-clutch Coupe, despite the Manuale’s more involved method of changing gear.

Whether Ferrari purists accept an electronically simulated manual as the real thing remains to be seen. But with only 1499 examples available and the company’s last three-pedal cars already highly prized, finding buyers for the million-dollar Manuale is unlikely to be difficult.