Then there are the qualities you can’t define by numbers, such as the extra layer of control that a manual transmission can give you on a challenging country road. And the shift itself, which, if memory serves, was always better once the car was warmed up, is slick and precise.
I always preferred the Blue Edition GT86 with the Performance Pack, which added sharper Brembo brakes and a little more brake pedal feel, which I felt made heel-and-toe downshifts even easier.
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Ford Fiesta Mk6
By Steve Walker
- Engine: 1.4-litre 4cyl petrol
- Gearbox: Five-speed manual
- Power/torque: 78bhp/124Nm
- 0-62mph: 12.8 seconds
- Top speed: 104mph
Some cars sell in huge numbers without being very good and some great cars hardly sell at all; the Ford Fiesta is a great car that sold in vast quantities. We had eight generations of Ford’s supermini before it was axed in 2023, some of them absolute corkers. If you want the perfect small-car driving experience, the facelifted model that launched in 2012 is probably the best of the lot and the
sweet-shifting five-speed manual was at the heart of its appeal.
Great manuals come into their own in cars where you really need to use them and the same Ford IB5 unit had already memorably appeared in the Ford Puma, Mk1 Focus and Mk5 Fiesta before the Mk6 Fiesta came along. It helped you make the most of the Fiesta’s mainstream Duratec petrol engines. The long shift lever sat nice and close to your left thigh with a short-throw action.
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Ferrari 599 GTB
By Jordan Katsianis
- Engine: 6.0-litre V12
- Gearbox: Six-speed manual
- Power/torque: 612bhp/608Nm
- 0-62mph: 3.7 seconds
- Top speed: over 205mph
There’s a very good chance that many of you didn’t know a Ferrari 599 GTB could even be ordered with a six-speed manual transmission. At the time, the F1 transmission was the norm in Ferraris of the period. As a result, the manual gearbox was rare, and only between 20-30 examples fitted with one are believed to have left the factory.
Many would argue the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano was born out of the greatest era of supercar engineering we’ve ever seen. This period of the late-2000s drew massive uplift in technical sophistication, the engines were more powerful, more flexible and more charismatic than ever.
Elements such as electronically controlled limited-slip differentials and fast-ratio steering made cars more agile, and magnetic dampers represented huge steps forwards in adaptive suspension technology. However, gearboxes were also part of this revolution, and that’s ultimately what killed the manual gearbox.
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