You’ve Likely Never Seen or Heard of One of the Most Historic Ferraris Ever

Today’s supercar realm relies heavily on insanely fast-computing electronics. So much so that they’ve made cars quicker simply by removing more human input. One of the main examples of this is paddle-shifting, which purists have complained about since day one. Manual mafia unite!

What some people don’t understand is that the semi-automatic transmissions improve the driving experience and make the car perform better for the driver. Regardless, this technology draws back to an extremely rare and unknown Ferrari that was commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei.

Brunei is a small nation next to Malaysia on the island of Borneo, and the Sultan has one of the most exclusive and greatest car collections in the world. We’re talkin’ Ferrari 288 GTO Evos, F40 LMs, F50s, and McLaren F1s.

Feeling adventurous, the Sultan once asked Carozzeria Pininfarina and Ferrari to build him a six-car fleet of one-of-a-kind street Ferraris with semi-automatic transmissions. And so we have the car you see here, the FX.

Up until that point, semi-autos were only seen in race cars. Paolo Garella, Pininfarina’s prototype manager, knew it would be a challenge; but he took a Testarossa, took out the manual, and made it work.

Check out The Verge for the full story in a beautifully displayed package with more great photos of the car and the collection. Then let us know what you think!

Chime in with your thoughts on the forum. >>

Via [The Verge]

Photos [Paul Barshon]