This Gated Manual-Converted 458 Speciale Is The Perfect Modern-Era Ferrari

Forget the one-offs commissioned by the uber-rich and the hypercars bought by the, erm, slightly less uber-rich - the best, purest modern-era Ferrari models are the middleweight, mid-engined supercars. And these peaked with the 458 Speciale, with its uncompromising focus and 9,000rpm-capable naturally aspirated V8.

Ferrari’s ruthless chasing of lap times at Fiorano mean there’s no such thing as a manual 458 Spesh, though, nor any kind of stick-shifting 458, for that matter. Such a thing would have nudged the Speciale even closer to Ferrari perfection, but happily, one such example now exists thanks to Modificata.

The Miami, Florida-based company - founded by GT racer Jeff Segal - has converted a white 458 Speciale to use a more engaging gated manual gearbox. It’s showcased in this video, which mixes that screaming nat-asp V8 with the click-clack of the open gate. Glorious.

It all seems to have been integrated very neatly in the cabin. From the video, it looks like it could pass for a factory effort. Modificata describes the project as “a real labor of love for us” and “a long time coming”.

Naturally, we’re curious to know more about the conversion, but there isn’t anything in the way of technical information out there. Our educated guess is that the gearbox was sourced from an F430, but we’ve messaged Modificata to see what we can find out and will update this post if we hear back.