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European Auto Group in Texas building a six-speed manual Ferrari 458

In February, European Auto Group in San Antonio, Texas, went public with our kind of wonder car: A Ferrari F430 Scuderia with a gated six-speed manual transmission. The standard F430 did offer a six-speed manual from the factory; the hardcore Scuderia version did not. It took a lot of work, and EAG apparently did the work right; Matt Farah called the coupe "The world's greatest Ferrari." CarBuzz spoke to EAG owner Art Bartosik about what's next, and Bartosik spilled just a bit of goss about the car he'll soon reveal: a Ferrari 458 with a gated six-speed manual. Whereas the 430 Scuderia didn't offer a stickshift, the 458 Italia wasn't even designed with one in mind. The 4.5-liter V8 with 562 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque only ever swapped gears with the Italian carmaker's dual-clutch F1 transmission. The 458 has a manageable 52 hp and 51 lb-ft more than the F430 Scuderia, but EAG needed to work up a gearbox to fit the available space. Bartosik didn't divulge how he made that happen for the 458. The reworked F430 Scuderia used all OEM Ferrari parts since they were available; not so for the later car. The DuPont Registry said EAG built "a transmission with upgraded synchros" to handle the additional power, had to find a suitable clutch and suggests the firm went through a lot of prototypes, but doesn't ID the gearbox source. All Bartosik would tell CB is that there's a limited supply and he'll "only be able to build around 10 or 11 of them." Seems there are already more customers than that ready to wire funds for purchase, unsurprisingly. Bartosik said, "People are screaming for a manual 458 and 488. If the demand wasn't there, we wouldn't do it." A final development car is a few months away, with customer builds scheduled to begin in January 2020. And what might EAG do after the run is complete? Maybe a six-speed manual Lamborghini Huracan, which owners have already asked about. "The Huracan should be easier than Ferrari," Bartosik said, "because there's hidden stuff in there that gives us more flexibility." Seems manual gearboxes, like life in "Jurassic Park," will always find a way.

Watch team build life-size Ferrari F1 car from Lego bricks

Following up on the company's recent replica of a McLaren 720S, Lego has moved on to that company's Formula One rival, Ferrari, to build another full-scale model. And the car is in fact Ferrari's 2017 F1 race car, and it has even more Lego content. For this model, even the wheels and tires are made of the studded plastic bricks. You can watch Lego employees bring the car together from its development and planning stages all the way through construction. The video also reveals many interesting tidbits about the car. For instance, the model weighs less than the real thing. It's 1,250 pounds. The actual Ferrari SF70H weighs 1,605 pounds, though that includes coolant, oil, and the driver. The model also features nearly 350,000 pieces, which is about 70,000 more than the McLaren had. It took about 750 hours to assemble the car, not including over 840 hours to design and develop it. You'll also see that even this massive Lego model still has stickers to apply, and considering how tricky the little stickers can be on perfectly smooth surfaces, placing theses huge ones over bumpy ridges must've been quite difficult. Related Video: Image Credit: Lego Toys/Games Ferrari Racing Vehicles Videos F1 Lego ferrari f1

Ferrari steering wheel may hold key to rocket F1 starts

Ferrari's brilliant getaways at the Australian Grand Prix were key to its early victory challenge – and could well be the result of a unique approach to new start restrictions that Giorgio Piola has uncovered. Although Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in Melbourne, it was a sensational getaway from Sebastian Vettel that helped the German swoop into the lead by the first corner. As team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said: "The start was super. I have to say both of the drivers, they start like two rockets. After that they were able to take an advantage, and that was good for us." Such great starts from Ferrari are nothing new – just look at Hungary last year – but as Piola's exclusive drawing reveals, the team may well have taken things to an all-new level in ensuring it does not miss any detail in this area. In-built advantage As early as pre-season testing, rivals had been alerted about what Ferrari was capable of by monitoring data from Barcelona. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "We saw that in pre-season testing their starts have been really strong." Even ahead of the race, there were rumours that Ferrari knew it would excel in this area. Its decision to not do a second run in Melbourne's Q3 was mainly fuelled by its desire to save a set of super soft tyres for the race. But another suggestion also emerged – that the team knew just how good its starts were so securing the second row of the grid was good enough for it to believe it had a shout of the lead on the first lap. A single paddle As Piola's comparison of Ferrari's 2015 and 2016 steering wheel arrangement shows, the team has been the most aggressive in changing its clutch configuration for this year. New rules mean that drivers can only use a single hand on a single clutch paddle for the race start – even if teams choose to keep a double-paddle arrangement for emergencies. Ferrari has opted for something totally different to its main rivals by abandoning a double paddle arrangement (see red arrows on above left image). Instead, it has a single 'rocker' paddle that stretches all the way across the back of the wheel. Investing in such a dramatic design change clearly points to it having unlocked a decent performance advantage. The exact reasons for this configuration are unclear, but it may be that it allows the driver a greater feel for the clutch bite point – and means he is better able to judge how to deliver the perfect getaway.